Whereas Wiesel got Obama to leave Jerusalem to the last, Arieh argues, Jerusalem first. Similarly, I have argued that Israel should first demand recognition as a Jewish state before any negotiations take place.
By Arieh Eldad, JPOST
We need to put all our efforts into building in this city.
These lines were written on the day US envoy George Mitchell arrived to open proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. These talks have been much delayed, in part as a result of PA President Mahmoud Abbas having noticed that US President Barack Obama has taken his side, thus enabling him to make whatever demands he wishes as preconditions for the talks, including a building freeze in Jerusalem .
Abbas and Obama intend to force Israel to surrender to Arab demands to establish a Palestinian state that will reduce our state to its 1967 borders. This state is to have its capital in Jerusalem, and it will not to be forced to recognize Israel as a Jewish state or give up demands for the return of refugees.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is trying to avoid this trap, but by having agreed to the talks, he has already corralled himself.
Arguably, Israel need not be overly worried. That which evaded Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat in direct negotiations overseen by Bill Clinton at Camp David will not be accomplished by Mitchell shuttling between Ramallah and Jerusalem . That which evaded Ehud Olmert and Abbas in dozens of hours of intimate private conversations, when Olmert was willing to give it all up, will not be accomplished now when the Arabs are not even willing to sit next to Netanyahu.
Nonetheless Israel has reason to worry, because the talks are not direct and the Americans are mediating. Obama is more antagonistic toward Israel than any president in generations. With him and his envoy mediating, the Arabs know they do not have to make any concessions, and should the talks reach a dead end, Israel will be blamed.
The US faces a weak prime minister, perhaps the weakest in memory. I saw Netanyahu when he spoke to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee a year ago, after his first meeting with Obama. Having served in the IDF’s Medical Corps for decades, I am certainly able to diagnose shell shock when I see it. Netanyahu looked like a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Americans who participated in the talks with him knew they had achieved all they wanted. They also know that further shock exacerbates the disorder, and so Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bared their teeth when a zoning committee in Jerusalem announced plans for 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo during a visit by Vice President Biden to Israel . Clinton yelled at Netanyahu by phone, Obama degraded him when they met and the path was cleared: Netanyahu collapsed, and they could promise Jerusalem to Abbas.
Obama’s error is that of a proud novice in foreign policy: he has stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem .
The Israeli slanderers of the extremist left, who run to report to the US Embassy in Tel Aviv every time a house is built in Judea and Samaria , misled him. J Street misled him. Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod misled him. Obama figured if there are Jews who support giving half of Jerusalem to the Arabs, it shouldn’t be a problem to force Netanyahu to go along.
But Netanyahu can be beaten down only when there is no counter pressure. In this case, Netanyahu is not operating in a vacuum; there is pressure.
SOME MAY have thought this pressure would come from inside his Likud, but the recent party vote in which Netanyahu trounced Moshe Feiglin proved the party’s institutions to be powerless. Previously Feiglin and followers failed to prevent the withdrawal from Gaza , they failed to prevent Netanyahu from committing himself to a Palestinian state in violation of the Likud’s platform and they failed to prevent a building freeze in Judea and Samaria . All they can do is promise once more that next time things will turn out better for them.
But there is pressure, and it will grow stronger.
A few months ago, a caucus for the Land of Israel was established in the Knesset. It is led by Ze’ev Elkin, a Likud MK and the chairman of the coalition, and by me, chairman of the Hatikva Party, which is part of the National Union and sits with the opposition.
Forty-one MKs, ministers and deputy ministers joined this caucus whose goals are to stem the leftward tide, to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria , to prevent the dilution of Jewish settlements and to strengthen them.
Within this lobby are represented the National Union, Habayit Hayehudit, Shas, Israel Beiteinu, Likud and even Kadima members.
As a graduate of MIT, Netanyahu understands the numbers: the suggestion that he dump the “extremists” from his government and replace them with Kadima doesn’t work mathematically. Forty-one is more than 28. If Netanyahu gives in to Obama’s demand, he will no longer have a government.
The lobby began with a symbolic step. Netanyahu wanted to announce with great fanfare plans to invest millions in national heritage sites. Because he was afraid of incurring Obama’s wrath, he left out one of the Jewish people’s most important heritage sites – the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron . At the last minute, the caucus forced him to include it.
Then it set a major goal: to ensure that the prime minister and the ministers to his right stand by their commitment to renew building in Judea and Samaria as soon as the freeze ends in September.
We can expect this to be a difficult struggle. It will be a litmus test for anyone proclaiming fidelity to the Land of Israel and to Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria . But the public is divided on this issue, and many are tired; if someone promises them true peace, they may concede.
And then, Jerusalem was put on the table. The vast majority of Israelis are not prepared to give up Jerusalem even for promises of peace. Whoever prodded Obama to put Jerusalem on the table did a great service to Israel .
At this point, unfortunately, many good-hearted Jews, such as Elie Wiesel, tried to convince Obama to defer on this issue and to push Jerusalem off till the end of the negotiations. Effectively this means to poison Israel more slowly. But because Obama and Abbas know that Netanyahu has frozen construction in Jerusalem , even though he cannot say so publicly because his coalition would evaporate, they were mollified and agreed to allow him into the trap without an official statement of surrender before the talks opened. Mitchell will come and go, and in another month or two he will put on the table an American-Arab plan with a loaded gun next to it.
There is only one way out: Jerusalem first. We need to put all our efforts into building in Jerusalem . We need to demand that the issue of Jerusalem be brought up as soon as possible. If anyone thinks the State of Israel needs to save Jerusalem , they will discover that Jerusalem will save the State of Israel.
Arieh Eldad is a member of Knesset from the National Union party. Eldad served as the chief medical officer and was the senior commander of the Israeli Defense Forces medical corps for 25 years, and reached a rank of Brigadier General. He is renowned worldwide for his treatment of burns.
This explains a great deal.
Maimonides noted that the man who never savors “Sugar Magnolia” has consigned himself to an agonizing hell of his own making.
And no “Whiskey In A Jar”?
Or “Truckin'”?
No “Truckin”!
Tar Yag, you have my sincere condolences.
Your long, strange trip has been devoid of light.
You have eyes, yet cannot see.
Tar Yag Said:
Oy
@ yamit82:
Yamit, i think the Rambam would have liked Mozart and disliked Wagner.
what is “grateful dead” ?
Tar Yag Said:
but Yamit, do not be afraid, i am definitely not pro arab. but i am not pro european neither. and still i like mozart’s music, and this although he was not only of germanic (=amalekit) descent but also a decadent perverse regressive person.
@ Tar Yag:
What do you think, would the Rambam have approved of Mozart or Wagner? How about the Grateful Dead? 🙂 or these boys
Ted I am listed as a spammer fix it like last time every 2nd comment gets bumped
Tar Yag Said:
@ Tar Yag:
What do you think, would the Rambam have approved of Mozart or Wagner? How about the Grateful Dead? 🙂 or these boys
@ yamit82:
the Rambam said: learn the truth from whoever says it. it is wrong to reject a whole culture, as Hazal said: En Davar SheEn Lo Maqom, in every thing there is a portion of truth.
but Yamit, do not be afraid, i am definitely not pro arab. but i am not pro european neither. and still i like mozart’s music, and this although he was not only of germanic (=amalekit) descent but also a decadent perverse regressive person.
Tar Yag Said:
@ Tar Yag:
I know you are Moroccan and your culture is Arabic but really what is positive in their culture? Shit one way or another the whole world wants us dead or is apathetic about those who would.
Therefore you should be against both.
she is not stupid, she is a racist, that’s all.
the extreme left in Israel is for a 2-state solution in order to get rid of the dirty oriental arabs and in order to live in a pure blond ashkenazic northern tel aviv state. the more a leftist is racist, the more he/she sells us a human rights rhetoric, but the bottim line is that they want a white arab-free state.
well, i do not like arabs neither, in reallity, but not because of their oriental culture but excusively because they kill us. that’s the difference.
That should read “John Holmes”, but I cannot edit it.
I may have to use Microsoft Word and then cut/paste.
That is a good one, ron.
I completely agree, and I like the John Homes reference.
All I know is that ever since DJ Allyn appeared, this site has become considerably harder to use.
I have comments and posts disappearing like Moshe Arens’ bouncing baby boy during an armed conflict.
All the good ones, too.
You guys are being subjecting to my worst material.
The posts that have disappeared would have rocked your world and provided you with eternal life.
In other words, you will die exclusively because of DJ Allyn.
ayn reagan Said:
@ yamit82:
@ yamit82
This will put hair on her chest
@ ayn reagan:
ayn reagan Said:
What happened to the editing tool?
@ Shy Guy:
Shy Guy Said:
Army’s vendetta against stones
Unable to prove that the militant Yitzhar pioneers participated in reprisal raids against Arabs, the Israeli Civil Administration has issued a demolition order against their yeshiva.
The religious school has stood there, on Jewish land, for 11 years. Technically, the construction violated zoning restrictions for agricultural land, but such violations are very common in both Jewish and Arab villages.
@ ayn reagan:
Is she for real?
Ayn what she really needs is a good one and I don’t mean a John Holmes.
You agree?
@ ayn reagan:
Is she for real?
Ayn what she really needs is a good one and I don’t mean John Holmes.
You agree?
ayn reagan Said:
what is going on? I commented 3 times and nothing happened?
@ Shy Guy:
Shy Guy Said:
I agree. Lets start with giving them Ramat Aviv and Afeka, Tzahala etc. For starters.
@ ayn reagan:
Ayn, better still what she really needs is a boot.
I hate that you can’t edit these comments anymore.
My posts appear to have been proofread by Ray Charles.
But wouldn’t the Palestinians experience much more confidence building if you gave up all of the land?
Once Israel has ceded every inch of its territory, there would be no reason for continued conflict…
…unless the Palestinians possess an implacable hatred of Jews, in which case there are no concessions that will create peace.
Quite the conundrum for a true blue left wing Jew.
My suggestion, Tzipi.
A little less of this.
A little more of this.
Once the fogs clear, I look forward to your embrace of Kahane Chai.
Stupid Jewess:
Relax! Our dear Knesset members are here to save us.
May much painful suffering come upon each and every one of them who should have been there and should have voted against. Drop dead, Uri Orbach!
http://www.desicomments.com/funnypics/funnycat117.jpg‘
I love the Pix
Here’s more
http://www.desicomments.com/funnypics/funnycat245.jpg
http://www.desicomments.com/funnypics/funnycat294.jpg
http://www.desicomments.com/funnypics/funnycat298.jpg
http://www.desicomments.com/funnypics/funnycat312.jpg
http://www.desicomments.com/dc/11/28611/28611.jpg
Here’s more similar
Here:
here:
Here
Here:
Here
Thwwwt!
They may bitch and moan, but when push comes to shove liberal Jews are still liberal Jews.
clever people who have just been swindled
clever people who have just been swindled
clever people who have just been swindled
Clever, are they?
Clever like lemmings.
Poll: Obama has Lost Almost Half of his US Jewish Support
by Gil Ronen
United States President Barack Obama has lost nearly half of his support among American Jews, a poll by the McLaughlin Group has shown.
The US Jews polled were asked whether they would: (a) vote to re-elect Obama, or (b) consider voting for someone else. 42% said they would vote for Obama and 46%, a plurality, preferred the second answer. 12% said they did not know or refused to answer.
In the Presidential elections of 2008, 78% of Jewish voters, or close to 8 out of 10, chose Obama. The McLaughlin poll held nearly 18 months later, in April 2010, appears to show that support is down to around 4 out of 10.
The poll showed that key voter segments including Orthodox/Hassidic voters, Conservative voters, voters who have friends and family in Israel and those who have been to Israel, are all more likely to consider voting for someone other than Obama.
Among Orthodox/Hassidic voters, 69% marked ‘someone else’ vs. 17% who marked ‘re-elect.’ Among Conservative-affiliated voters the proportion was 50% to 38%. Among Reform Jews, a slim majority of 52% still supported Obama while 36% indicated they would consider someone else. Among Jews with family in Israel and those who had been to Israel, about 50% said they would consider someone else, while 41%-42% supported Obama.
Fifty percent of the Jewish voters polled said they approved of the job Obama is doing handling US relations with Israel. Thirty-nine percent said they disapproved. “This rating is not good for a group of voters who are 59% Democratic to only 16% Republican,” the poll’s analysis noted.
A majority of 52% said they disapproved of the idea of the Obama Administration supporting a plan to recognize a Palestinian state within two years. 62% said that if given a state, “the Palestinians would continue their campaign of terror to destroy Israel.” Only 19% thought they would live peacefully with Israel.
As Obama loses support among members of the influential Jewish voter bloc, possible Republican candidate Sarah Palin seems to be doing her best to woo them to her camp. At Time Magazine’s May 4 dinner honoring the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World,’ she was sporting a US/Israel flag pin. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Jewish Donors Outraged by ‘Sociopath’ Obama, Says Columnist
by Gil Ronen
If senior journalist David Goldman is right, the correct word for describing the way a growing number of US Jews feel about President Barack Obama is not ‘anger’ but ‘rage’ – white-hot rage, at that, and a conviction that they have been swindled.
Goldman, Senior Editor of First Things magazine and ‘Spengler’ columnist for Asia Times Online, spoke last week at a convention on intellectuals and terror at Ariel University in Samaria. In his lecture, he quoted a top Jewish campaign donor who used the word ‘sociopath’ to describe Obama. In an interview with Israel National News, he predicted a possibly dramatic ‘train wreck’ for the Democrats in the November mid-term elections, with Jewish fundraising for Democrats drying up and a possibly high turnout of anti-Obama evangelical Christians.
INN: The recent McLaughlin group poll shows US Jewish support of Obama at about half its level in the 2008 election. Is this an accurate reflection of the mood among US Jews?
DG: When the American Jewish Committee conducted its annual poll of American Jewish opinion in February, just before Obama provoked the diplomatic crisis [over construction at Ramat Shlomo], 55% of respondents approved of Obama’s handling of relations with Israel, slightly less than the 57% that approved of the Netanyahu government. American Jews were under the mistaken impression that Washington and Jerusalem were on the same track. But 61% opposed any compromise on Jerusalem, while 75% agreed with the statement, “The goal of the Arabs is not the return of occupied territories but rather the destruction of Israel.” Support for Obama, in short, was a mile wide and an inch deep before he provoked the diplomatic crisis with Israel.
The outrage among Obama’s erstwhile Jewish supporters, reflected daily in Marty Peretz’s ‘The Spine’ blog at the New Republic, is heightened by the sense of wounded self-esteem felt by clever people who have just been swindled. I have spoken privately to several large Jewish contributors to Democratic campaigns who express a sense of outrage that I never have heard before. Jewish contributors to Democratic campaigns are selectively funding Republicans, for example Mark Kirk in Illinois, who is running for Obama’s Senate seat, as a warning. Democratic Congressmen trying to defend Obama have been booed off the dais of meetings at traditionally liberal Reform synagogues in several parts of the country. If the train wreck proceeds as programed, the change in attitude within the American Jewish community could be dramatic.
This also is reflected in the harsh tone with which centrist liberal Jews have criticized Obama–for example Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Alan Dershowitz, and former New York Mayor Ed Koch.
INN: In the conference at Ariel you quoted contributors who used the word “sociopath.” Is this actually the word they used? What makes Obama’s broken promises different from the campaign double-talk we are used to from politicians?
DG: The actual phrase I heard from one important player in Jewish Democratic circles was, “Sociopath is too nice a word to describe Obama.” That was a Kiddush [festive synagogue event] conversation, so no names, of course. The difference is the magnitude and depth of the deception. In July 2008, the press was full of reports of Obama’s anti-Israel connections, including the fact that his foreign policy advisor in his Senate office was the odious Samantha Power – who proposed international military intervention to end the ‘Israeli occupation’ – as well as Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was an official campaign spokesman, along with many others.
Obama gave assurances to the Jewish community which were so persuasive that Martin Peretz announced in his ‘Spine’ blog that Obama could be trusted. Brzezinski and Power were shown the door (Power after she made inappropriate remarks about Hillary Clinton) and the Jewish community was satisfied that Obama was as reliable as, say, Bill Clinton. Obama has extraordinary gifts of persuasion, and has been profligate about employing them. He persuaded some very wealthy and sophisticated people that he was on their side, and then turned on them.
INN: Ed Koch has predicted the Democrats will suffer a ‘tsunami’ in November. If this scenario materializes, how much pressure would this create on Obama to change his Middle East policies?
DG: The President, not Congress, controls foreign policy. That said, politics is always a factor – but it is not the only factor.
Many observers are predicting a crushing defeat for the Democrats in November. Dick Morris, the former Clinton advisor and Fox News commentator, claims that the Republicans will take both Houses of Congress. The fact that Democratic fundraising among Jews will be a tough sell contributes to the problem, but is not a decisive factor; there are enough other reasons for the Democrats to lose, starting with high unemployment and the fact that Obama has failed to create any middle ground with the Republicans and is perceived as too far too the left to suit the national mood. Obama almost certainly has resigned himself to a bad interim election; his best play is to spend the next two years running against a ‘do-nothing’ Republican Congress in the hope of winning a second term in 2012.
If Obama attempts to impose a settlement on Israel prior to the November elections, it will give the Republicans a stick with which to hit him. American support for Israel is running at all-time highs, with 64% supporting Israel according to Gallup vs. 18% sympathy for the Palestinian Arabs. And if he forces a crisis in diplomatic relations with Israel, it will become a significant factor in 2012. Not only will Jewish fundraising dry up (with some going to Republicans), but evangelical Christian support for Israel may become a factor. The evangelicals are an amorphous movement without centralized leadership, and the big question regarding their weight in elections is turnout. If they are highly motivated by an issue close to their concerns – and Israel is such an issue – they can be an important factor. Evangelicals comprise roughly 28% of the electorate, and a big change in turnout could shift 2% to 3% of the national vote to the Republicans – probably a winning margin.
That is why many Democrats are warning Obama against pursuing a confrontational strategy with Israel. The degree of Obama’s ideological fervor in support of conciliating the Muslim world surprised the political world, as did the ferocity of his diplomatic approach to Israel. It is hard to avoid the conclusion – which I have long believed – that Obama has a profound personal commitment to reconciling America with the Muslim world which will override the usual political calculus. Given that he had a Muslim father and stepfather, was raised for four years in Indonesia, and has written with passion about his sympathy for the traditional identity of Indonesian Muslims, this is not surprising.
i agree with ayn
some years ago, before BB was reelected PM, sara netanyahu said that she and BB will go abroad and the state can burn down. she is garbage, just as her husband. nothing but garbage.
Netanyahu is not shell shocked.
Bibi remembers that the last time he collided with an American administration the result was that he lost his job, and he is determined to prevent a reprise.
Determined to keep his job at all costs, even if those costs include endangering the security of the nation he leads.
Netanyahu is a parasite, which is typical of politicians.
Nevertheless, when your nation is facing extinction and all you care about is your own career, you are despicable even when judged by the established standards used for evaluating parasitic politicians.