Baker/Hamilton is also significant for what it omits. It never mentions the PA’s Oslo/road map commitments and their on-going violation. It omits mention of the proven unwillingness of the Syrian regime to make peace with Israel in 2000 – when then-Israeli Prime Minister Barak offered Syria the whole Golan Heights in exchange for a peace treaty which Syria did not accept – yet calls for Israel to return the Golan Heights in exchange for peace.
The report urges the U.S. to engage with Iran and Syria in the belief that both regimes can assist U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq. This would mean allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons and Syria taking over Lebanon again. It is therefore not surprising that the report has been received in the Arab world as fore-shadowing “the end of America” (Mustafa Bakri, editor, Egyptian newspaper Al-Osboa) and the “loss of its reputation and credibility in the region” (Abdel Moneim Said, head of Cairo’s Al-Ahram Center for Political & Strategic Studies). Terrorists have welcomed it as proof that “this is the era of Islam and of jihad” (Abu Ayman, Palestinian Islamic Jihad).
The Baker/Hamilton Report is one of the most irrational, nonsensical and dangerously naïve pieces of policy recommendations that has ever seen the light of day. Its implementation would do irreparable harm to the war against Islamist terrorism, which is the most important challenge we face since the war against the Nazis.