This in today from the UK’s timesonline.co.uk (thanks, patriotbrigaderadio.com):

Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, according to sources close to America’s president-elect. …

The proposal gives Israel an effective veto on the return of Arab refugees expelled in 1948 while requiring it to restore the Golan Heights to Syria and allow the Palestinians to establish a state capital in east Jerusalem. …

On a visit to the Middle East last July, the president-elect said privately it would be “crazy” for Israel to refuse a deal that could “give them peace with the Muslim world”, according to a senior Obama adviser.

OK, a few things on this:

1. Exactly who is the source? Someone anonymous, I presume? Is this therefore a trial balloon to see what the chattering class in DC has to say about it?
2. If Obama is really serious about this and he were to bring this to the same table at which the Israeli PM (I don’t care who they are) sits, they will walk away, guaranteed. There is one thing that most Jews in Israel actually agree upon: Don’t split Jerusalem. Or, you will get politically shellacked.
3. “[G]ive them peace in the Muslim world” — really? There are a number of reasons why this will not work, including the fact that there’s bad blood for centuries over this geography. Secondly, the entire “Arab” world has constantly seeked to wipe Israel off the map; do you honestly think this would stop that ideological progression?

Frankly, if this attitude is for real, it will go over about as good as a wet, juicy fart in the most conservative of church services.

-Phil