Former President Bill Clinton said he would “strongly support” an effort by President Barack Obama to issue his own Middle East peace plan based on the model Clinton presented at the Camp David negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority a decade ago.
“If he decides to do it, I will support it. And I think if he decides to do it, he should acknowledge that they [Israel and the Palestinians] may come up with a deal that’s slightly different than the one he proposes; but we need to do something to deprive both sides of any excuse not to engage in serious negotiations,” Clinton said in an interview aired April 18 on ABC’s “This Week.”
However, Clinton said there also was a strong argument against presenting a new peace initiative. “The current Israeli government, with its current coalition, almost certainly would reject it.”
Clinton said a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would hurt the terror group’s fundraising capabilities.
“If there were a Palestini-an state working in partnership … it would be a whole different world. All the Arabs would identify with Israel. They’d have a political and economic partnership. The whole economic basis in the Middle East would shift from oil to ideas.”
According to Clinton, an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement would also end the conflict with Syria. “How could the Syrians stay out there alone — cooperating with the Iranians, and letting Hezbollah people travel through Syria, and doing all the things they do?” —
ynetnews.com