Is this gnome running US Mideast diplomacy?
Posted by Helena Cobban
August 4, 2009 9:47 AM EST | Link
Filed in Obama presidency , Palestine 2009
It turns out there's a popular figure in some portions of US popular culture called "the underpants gnome."
The underpants gnome has a "business plan" that consists of three phases. Phase one is "Collect underpants". Phase three is "Profit." But neither the gnome nor anyone else can figure out what the Phase two is that bridges from phase one to phase three.
Joshua Foust at Registan has used the UG as a metaphor for various proposals that have been made to deploy more military-backed "Provincial Reconstruction Teams" into either Afghanistan or Pakistan. He is (imho rightly) very skeptical of the idea that PRTs can be a magic bullet to resolve the deepset problems of governance and security in either country.
But I think we've seen the underpants gnome phenomenon at work in Obama's Arab-Israeli "peace" diplomacy, as well:
- Phase One: Keep on repeating that you want to speedily solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by establishing a Palestinian state; keep on publicly criticizing the Israeli government's settlement construction; send George Mitchell out to the region like a yo-yo, many times.
Phase Two: ? ?
Phase Three: Achieve the Palestinian-Israeli final peace agreement.
I think you have finally found the true explanation of Obama's middle east policy. And I'm sure Dennis Ross is working very hard to keep that gnome employed, since as long as the gnome is on the job, there will be no real progress.