Closer to political solutions in Syria and Israel?

The belated decision of the Obama administration to send less than 50 — yes, 50 — American soldiers to Syria to curtail the Daesh jihadists after nearly five years of violence and war hardly triggered any joyful reaction in any of the groups in this divided Arab country.

If anything, it was an obvious response to the loud Russian military onslaught that started several weeks earlier for the same goal.

Actually this deployment followed the US admission of failure in a Pentagon programme meant to train and arm Syrian rebels combating Daesh.

The special operations advisers now sent to Syria will be working with the Syrian resistance forces in the north of the country to combat Daesh, but will not engage in direct combat. 

“While the deployment was small in scale,” reported The New York Times, “it was large in importance for a president who had refused to commit American ground forces inside Syria beyond quick raids.”

It was stressed that these forces do not have “a combat mission”, but are there “to offer advice and assistance to those local forces about the way they can organise their efforts to take the fight to [Daesh] ….”

This step underlines the failure of US diplomacy in the Middle East since the American invasion of Iraq several years ago ordered by then-president George W. Bush, that led to the overthrow of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Nowadays, the ongoing jihadist uprising against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has led to thousands fleeing their homeland, first to neighbouring states — Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey — and later to Europe, where some countries are harshly resisting their arrival.

Besides the Syrian upheaval, the Middle East is still embroiled in the bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict which, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in the past month brought the number of Palestinians killed since early October to 74, including 15 children.

Over 2,250 Palestinians have been injured by live or rubber-coated steel bullets.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Washington on November 9 for talks with President Barack Obama.

All eyes will be focused on the meeting and wonder what the American president, who was severely attacked by the Israeli leader in a surprise appearance in the US Congress where he criticised the US relationship with Iran, will have to say.

Will he twist Netanyahu’s arm over the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, a situation that has been going on for about 50 years, and over the bloody handling of Palestinians by brutal Israeli police and soldiers?

A recent meeting in Vienna, which was convened by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and included the foreign ministers of the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, was convened to work out a settlement of the conflict in Syria, now that all seem willing to tolerate Assad’s presence at the helm of the country during a transition period.

Russia has reportedly come to realise the importance of ending military operations in Syria, which prompted it to start a political process that was reflected in President Vladimir Putin’s actions, especially his meeting in Moscow with the Syrian president.

The Russian approach was stressed by EU Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini who said: “It is necessary to include Assad in the political transition process in Syria. We have learned our lessons in Iraq, we must ensure that the political process and transformation maintain the integrity of the components of society and include them in the process.”

Obama has an opportunity to repeat the same point when he meets Netanyahu who should, for a start, accept the idea of a Palestinian state on all the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967, a situation that has been acknowledged by many states and international institutions, especially the United Nations.

My assumption is that Netanyahu would want to improve his image, which has been damaged by his recent foul pronouncements, by taking a step closer to a political solution.

Time is running out of a peaceful solution for all.

The writer is a Washington-based columnist.