Obama Strategy on Israeli-Palestinian Front: How can this work?

In his recent speech in Cairo, Obama expressed his views on the Israeli- Palestinian problems speaking about his hopes for an independent Palestine, the first time an American President used the term Palestine rather than a state for the Palestinian people. He put down people i.e Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran who is a holocaust denier. He also talked about the wrongness of oppressed people to try to solve their problems through violence directed at innocents. He said the only approach was to continue to directly voice ones opinions and continue on squarely confronting those who are seen as the enemy of freedom. These are my words not his but they are paraphrasing his thoughts. If one uses the analogy which Obama did of African Americans under slavery, I would have to disagree with this peaceful premise. The slave revolts were a good thing in my view. Of course, I am not sure we have an equivalent situation in Palestine and I think the fact that Israel has offered land for peace at various time shows that if both sides really compromised, peace could be at hand.

Obama expects both sides to come to the negotiating table but I wonder who is Israel supposed to deal with in these encounters. Hamas, the political party Israel abhors, seems to be in charge of the Palestinian government along with Abbas the President of Palestine who has little power to make a lasting peace. Hamas, the government entity and the party in power in Palestine would have to accept that Israel is a sovereign state and would have to stop the violent wing of its own party from wartime activities it directs against Israel i.e. suicide bombings, killings, and agitation of its young followers against Israel. It seems a bit naive on Obama's part to act as though there are two clearly equal parties that could make any kind of peace deals. Short of the U.S.A. going in with the help of Israel, and some Arab countries, which is far fetched to say the least to build a nation state in their own images and then saying look what we built for you, now move in and shut up and make nice with Israel. See! Israel has helped to make a nice place for you but you can't have any guns or gunpowder so to speak or an army that can defend itself. The other possibiity is getting Hamas and the PLO and other groups in Palestine to really want to make an all out effort to build a Palestine with some land from Israel instead of eyeing what is mostly now Israel as their only Palestine. That (overthrowing Israel) is out of the question so what is left to do except those possibilities. It is hard to see how either side can agree to anything that realistically leads to a real peace. I hope Obama has something better than what I have proposed in mind.

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach

P.S. I don't claim to be an expert on any level concerning Middle East concerns. I am voicing my fears and concerns as an interested party who is a Peace Now kind of person living in USA.