Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The World’s Matthew Bell reports on one topic President Obama didn’t mention in last night’s State of the Union — the Middle East.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: Last night President Obama used a good portion of his State of the Union Address to talk about jobs and economy.  Foreign policy got short shrift in the speech.  The President never even mentioned the words “Middle East”.  The World’s Matthew Bell has more on that.

MATTHEW BELL: Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington State was disappointed that President Obama never mentioned reviving stalled Middle East peace talks.  McDermott is one of 54 members of Congress who just signed a letter to the President asking him to pressure the Israeli’s to ease their blockade of the Gaza strip.  The letter says the situation for the Palestinian citizens in Gaza is dire and that relieving the suffering there fits into the administration’s broader goals of securing peace in the Middle East.  McDermott says the Israeli ban on things like building supplies, certain foods and even medicines goes too far.

CONGRESSMAN JIM MCDERMOTT: These are medical, human issues and I think that there is a responsibility for people to be reasonable about this.  I understand protection, and certainly Israel has the rights to protect themselves, but they do not have the right to prohibit people from getting medicine and health care.

MATTHEW BELL: Israel says the blockade is not aimed at punishing the people of Gaza, but to prevent the Hamas government there from being able to attack Israel.  Israelis say they do allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and that some Palestinians are even granted access to medical care inside Israel.  The situation in Gaza is a tough one to try to solve for the Obama administration and it’s just one component in the President’s effort to achieve a comprehensive Middle East peace deal.  Nathan Brown is a Middle East expert at George Washington University.

NATHAN BROWN: The policy that he’s been following is in a little bit of a hiatus.  He may have hit a dead end with his diplomatic effort and there isn’t any clear direction that he’s been given so far.  In addition he’s also confessed publicly that the going is much tougher than he anticipated.  Therefore it may be time to reconfigure policy and perhaps even re-jigger his priorities.

MATTHEW BELL: U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell is working to restart talks on some level and Brown says he can’t see the President giving up entirely.

NATHAN BROWN: But I think the Obama administration has woken up to the realization that, number one it’s going to be hard to get those negotiations going and number two if they succeed it’s not at all clear the two sides have much to talk about.

MATTHEW BELL: But Middle East expert David Makovsky, author of Myths, Illusions and Peace, says talking doesn’t have to happen at the summit level between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

DAVID MAKOVSKY: I think you could have a situation of President Obama asking Senator Mitchell to make shuttles between the parties.  That is a way of getting them to the table.  It might be useful, frankly, just to have working level talks of which the summit of Netanyahu/Abbas summit is more towards the end rather than the beginning.

MATTHEW BELL: President Obama was asked about the Israeli/Palestinian peace process at a town hall meeting in Tampa, Florida today.  He said the U.S. is working to try to strengthen the ability of both parties to sit down across the table.  For The World, I’m Matthew Bell.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.