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By Joe Klein | @JoeKleinTIME | October 15, 2009 | +

On how Obama might actually earn the peace prize.

A couple of additional points on David Makovsky’s extremely creative proposal:

1. It would be a tangible benefit for Israel, which–too often in these negotiations–is playing for abstractions (like recognition of its statehood). This would redraw the map to include settlements that have become integral suburbs of Jerusalem, for the most part, in the state of Israel.

2. The issue of “natural expansion” of these settlements would immediately be resolved–it would, obviously, be permitted within the new boundaries.

3. It would make the other issues on the table–Jerusalem, the right of return and so forth–less daunting; indeed, it would create a momentum for peace.

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  • slowp

    Joe -

    BHO already earned the NPP by keeping the world’s largest military force and most dangerous nuclear arsenal out of the hands of a guy whose idea of diplomacy begins and ends with bombing sorties and (potentially) his running mate, the most ignorant woman in America.

  • rustyreturns

    How to win favor and influence friends and political opposition…

    ”The Nobel Peace Prize, presented prospectively — a triumph of hope over inexperience — threatens to become a central metaphor of Barack Obama’s turbocharged political career. He seems fated to be feted for who he is not (George W. Bush) and who he might turn out to be, but not for things he has actually done. This is dangerous stuff, politically. It almost guarantees disappointment”.

    I am glad to see that you are acknowledging Obama’s “I haven’t done a thing yet to earn this award”, Joe Klein.
    Perhaps the MSM as you represent it will finally report facts as facts instead of your “beliefs, wants and desires”, and hope that Obama will do the right thing.

  • http://elvisberg.wordpress.com Elvis Elvisberg

    This is dangerous stuff, politically. It almost guarantees disappointment.
    -
    Only because people like you like to say that it does.
    -
    One might think that winning a prestigious prize is good news, but hey, whatever. People actually doing stuff every day to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, like Mohammad ElBaradei, have praised the choice. It’s a big deal when the world’s lone superpower tries to diminish the threat of new invasions and nuclear weapons, rather than enhance it.
    -
    (Matt Taibbi’s point notwithstanding).

  • progressto

    Sorry Joe, Obama has already earned the Peace prize. Not being the Bush administration says a lot. Try this short list:

    1. Changed the tone and climate of international relations.
    2. Addressed the Muslim world as fellow humans.
    3. Offered talks to Iran.
    4. Repeatedly asked Israel to back off additional settlements in Palestine lands.
    5. Decided not to build anti-missile radar sites in Poland.
    6. Killed the F22 fighter.
    7. Banned torture of captured combatants.

    All this in nine months. I don’t remember any modern president that has done as in a single term.

  • Ivy_B

    A young politician, not yet fully tested, makes important and history-altering moves on the international stage – moves whose long-term outcomes remain uncertain – and is surprised to find himself with a Nobel Peace Prize.

    That describes Lester B. Pearson in 1957. It describes Barack Obama in 2009.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/obama-deserves-the-nobel-he-has-changed-the-international-game/article1319532/

    Just get over it please, Joe. And what progressto said.

  • homerhk

    Joe, I like your piece as a treatise on what Obama might do to push forward the peace process; but your last paragraph seems key to me – and it’s noticeable that it’s directed at Netanyahu getting the Nobel Peace Prize. Without Netanyahu’s buy-in to the process, any Obama proposal for peace would surely be “just words” since it wouldn’t ever be realised.

    Now, my personal view is that sometimes “just words” ARE deserving of a peace prize, or at the very least sincere recognition. It is by means of words that one person is inspired, then another, then a group, then a movement and then change. MLK who won the peace prize won because not only because he inspired millions across the US to struggle for civil rights but also because, by virtue of his words, he cast the struggle in a different way than had been done before.

    Obama’s words are almost doubly or triply important simply because he is saying them from the seat of the MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD. He wouldn’t have been my instinctive choice for the prize but thinking it through, he deserved it and I’m willing to accept that the people in Norway know more about peace in the world than I will ever know.

  • arartteacher

    I agree homerhk Obama is an inspirational and eloquent speaker. Those are the kind of men we need talking to the rest of the world about peace.

  • abdullah69

    What a silly phrase “almost guarantees”. What is that supposed to mean? Either something is guaranteed or it isn’t.

    And who could possibly be disappointed that Barack Obama is not George W. Bush? Which rational human being ever had any expectation that he was?

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