Nobel Means It’s Time for Obama to ‘Bang Heads’ in the Middle East

Fuel for another intifada? Armed forces kept Muslim men under age 50 from visiting their holy sites in Jerusalem; they prayed en masse on the streets and sidewalks.

The gold Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Muslims worship, sit atop the Western Wall, where Jews worship. Just steps away is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus Christ is said to have been crucified and buried. Unfettered access to all these sites under an international governing body is considered essential to the future of Jerusalem and a successful two-state solution.

President Barack Obama, upon learning yesterday of his Nobel Prize win, homed in on why the Nobel committee bestowed the prize on him: high expectations. Among them:

“”We must all do our part to resolve those conflicts that have caused so much pain and hardship over so many years. … And that effort must include an unwavering commitment that finally realizes that the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security in nations of their own.”"

Nick Kristof, in a New York Times blog, put it best: “… I do hope that the Prize gives Obama a bit more political capital in his Middle East peace efforts, and a bit more confidence and willingness to bang heads there when necessary.”

Reaction to Obama’s Nobel selection in Israel and Palestine included praise from the leadership of both sides and from moderate and peacenik politicians – and criticism from the Arab and Israeli extremists who can always be counted on to dominate the political discourse. No matter. The region’s most prominent Nobel Laureate, Israeli President Shimon Peres, described his reaction most lyrically:

“”You provided all of humanity with fresh hope, with intellectual determination, and a feeling that there is a Lord in heaven and believers on earth. Under your leadership, peace became a real and original agenda. And from Jerusalem, I am sure all the bells of engagement and understanding will ring again. You gave us a license to dream and act in a noble direction.”"

Panglossian, eh? Well, for the moment, call me a Peresian. To fully appreciate the former president’s words, I’m prepared to pretend for just a moment that 100-plus Palestinian men didn’t hole up all week in the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Haram al-Sharif/Dome of the Rock, refusing to leave because the army has once again prevented men under 50 from entering the Muslim holy site, citing fears of additional protests. To pretend that 500 men weren’t forced to kneel in the streets of Jerusalem’s Wadi Joz neighborhood yesterday in order to pray – watched over by 100 machine gun-toting policemen – just steps from Jerusalem’s beautiful Episcopal Cathedral of St. George the Martyr. To pretend that the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem didn’t hold a mass prayer vigil last night and expressed concern that the army might next be limiting access to the Christian holy site where Jesus is thought to have been crucified and buried, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. To pretend that protests aren’t spreading, once again, around the Arab world, as Egypt this morning arrested 24 members of the Muslim Brotherhood for planning 120 rallies against the imposition of limits, once again, on worship at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.

As previously reported here, restricting access to Jerusalem to people of all religious faiths is the match that will inflame a third intifada. During his ninth visit this week to Israel-Palestine – in a thus-far-futile effort to get the parties to comply with the Road Map to peace that both sides signed in 2003 – Special Envoy George Mitchell extended an invitation for Israeli and Palestinian representatives to come once again to the U.S.

If they do, someone should make a real effort to introduce them to a plan for a “special administration for Jerusalem” that a distinguished international consortium of academics has determined would be a workable way to govern Jerusalem in a post-peace-process world – if we ever get there. The project is called the Jerusalem Old City Initiative. The progressive think tank, the Center for American Progress [disclosure: I work there on an anti-genocide project focusing on Africa], presented this plan a couple of months ago to the Washington policy community, at a panel moderated by forner U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer.

Rahm, has our newest Nobel Laureate been briefed on this initiative?

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