Obama is coming to Israel to play hardball

Op-ed: US president will not travel thousands of miles just to eat hummus or place note in Kotel
Eitan Haber, YNET

During his next term as prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu will have to do what he avoided doing in his previous terms: Draw boundaries and begin establishing two states for two peoples. This painful process, certainly from Netanyahu’s perspective, will commence soon.

Officials in Jerusalem and Washington say that Obama will not introduce a new plan during his visit to the region next month; that it is important for him to show the Jewish community in the US that he is not hostile toward Israel. This could be true. Or not.

An impolite American would call these statements bullshit. Despite John Kerry’s claim that Obama will not bring a peace plan to Israel and the Palestinian territories next month, but rather intends to listen, an American president does not travel thousands of miles just to eat hummus in Mahane Yehuda Market, place a note in the Western Wall or lay a wreath at Yad Vashem. In his second and last term, Obama wants to leave his mark on history. And he will leave a mark on history if the path toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will begin during his term. Obama and his associates know they can achieve glory here, between Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas.

The Americans are not sentimental. In Panama, at the time, they killed thousands of innocent people just to capture a ruler they believed was a drug dealer. If they ask something of Netanyahu, nicely, they will actually be ordering him to do it. They will begin with a small step and suggest to Netanyahu that Israel reduce or stop construction in communities outside the “settlement blocs.” By doing so they will be hinting that communities located outside the “blocs,” even the large ones, will not be a part of the State of Israel once the permanent borders are drawn.

Netanyahu will object, cause a media uproar and maybe even shed a tear, but he will explain to us that there is no choice. And he will be right. Netanyahu knows that without America we have no life here. Although he is still torn between Jabotinsky’s doctrine and reality, the prime minister leans to the moderate side of Likud when it comes to finding a solution to the bloody conflict. Today he is closer to Dan Meridor than he is to Moshe Feiglin. There is a reason why the settlers consider him a “suspect.”

Netanyahu signed his first coalition agreement with Tzipi Livni, who calls for the resumption of peace negotiations. Will he tell her, when the time comes, to forget about the agreement? We’ll see. If he submits any part of a peace agreement for the Knesset’s approval, he will not be able to count on the votes of Feiglin, Yariv Levin, Uri Ariel, Naftali Bennett, Orit Struck and Tzipi Hotovely. As was the case with the peace treaty with Egypt, which was brought by Menachem Begin, it will be the Labor and Meretz parties that will save Netanyahu and his term.

February 28, 2013 | 68 Comments »

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18 Comments / 68 Comments

  1. @ yamit82:

    Ayn I want to believe you are still out there.

    If so, you know we all miss you.

    You are one smart lady, witty and a great scriptwriter.

    A Jew like Yamit who wasn’t ashamed or afraid to say you were Jewish and proud of it.

    Again, if so, the door is wide open.

  2. A STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE

    more effective Hasbara but it does not seem so.

    ayn reagan says:
    November 19, 2009 at 8:40 pm

    If I were Jewish (Yamit, Uncle Nahum is working on this)

    He is an amateur mohel.

    If you see him walking towards you with pruning shears, run like hell.


    yamit82 says:
    November 19, 2009 at 9:33 pm

    He is an amateur mohel
    If you see him walking towards you with pruning shears, run like hell.

    No longer amateur, It’s all scientific today, we use computerized robots with a very precise electronic knife. The technology is sound,it was developed in Bangladesh, by the main Guru there; but somehow we can’t find victims, I mean volunteers. I think I will advertise using that tried and true formula “Try it, you’ll like it” or “Even Obama recommends it!” CHANGE IS GOOD ISN’T IT?

    rongrand says:
    November 19, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    If you see him walking towards you with pruning shears, run like hell.

    Ayn, thanks for the warning, especially since I was passed over for this ritual when I was quite young.

    I think my mother got worried when she heard the local Rabbi say ” It won’t be long now”

    You never know, Uncle may even bring his Mexican/Palestinian gardner to do the job.

    yamit82 says:
    November 19, 2009 at 9:59 pm

    Mexican/Palestinian gardener is no more! He was my first human volunteer…( Well Not Quite a Volunteer). No great loss though he had 18 kids and 150 grandchildren so he had fulfilled his biblical obligations already. There are plenty more to replace him ( AS A GARDENER, AS A GARDENER)!!

    ayn reagan says:
    November 19, 2009 at 10:12 pm

    First they downsize the Hanukkah Party.
    Then they downsize Israel:

    The White House’s forthcoming state dinner with the Prime Minister of India is expected to be larger than those of President Barack Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush. But another upcoming White House event will be smaller than in years past: The White House’s annual Hanukkah party.

    The guest list is expected to be shrunk by more than half, according to the Jerusalem Post. “Though several Jewish leaders expressed understanding for the economic and other reasons behind the cut, they acknowledged that it would likely help feed feelings in some quarters of the American Jewish community that the White House is giving them the cold shoulder.”

    The move comes on the heels of Obama’s cancellation of an appearance before the General Assembly of North American Jewish Federations last week.

    The White House’s decision is likely a response to tough economic times and a desire to keep the holiday festivities reasonable.

    A White House official told the Post that Obama “looks forward to celebrating Hanukkah at the White House and having many members of the Jewish American community at that event.”

    http://www.politico.com/click/stories/0911/w_h_shrinks_hanukkah_party.html

    Just as well, since Obama’s first choice to give the toast was reportedly Louis Farrakahn.


    rongrand says:
    November 19, 2009 at 10:54 pm

    Ayn this community organizing acorn Muslim is distancing himself from Jewish leaders. Why? His Muslim heart dictates and worst of all and I mean worst, those two buddies of his, Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod are no doubt in favor of this.

    Tell me please, how is it that the American Jewish leaders don’t see this, especially his treatment of Israel?

    All the Jewish obama-democratic strategist (over 90% are Jewish)are they deaf and dumb? They treat him like a messiah.

    There must be a supreme Rabbi out there to scold them, if not I am sending Yamit with the shears.

    All kidding aside, I have a hard time trying to understand and justify their actions. The Jewish neighbors I knew growing up talked about solidarity.

    ayn reagan says:
    November 19, 2009 at 11:16 pm

    Tell me please, how is it that the American Jewish leaders don?t see this, especially his treatment of Israel?

    They see it.

    Draw your own conclusions.

    I am so happy. I just get giddy every time Obama urinates on the kapos and they revel in the refreshing mist.

    I love this line: ?Though several Jewish leaders expressed understanding for the economic and other reasons behind the cut, they acknowledged that it would likely help feed feelings in some quarters of the American Jewish community that the White House is giving them the cold shoulder.?

    What’s to understand? He is cutting funding for the Jewish party while increasing funding for the other parties. As mysteries go, this one is pretty easily solved.

    Obama and I have finally achieved common cause. Neither one of us wants to celebrate Hanukkah with a room full of self-hating Jews.

  3. @ Honey Bee:

    Parle vous la Francais

    Mais oui chère abeille…

    (Il ne faut pas oublier la lettre ” z ” et on oublient le “la”)
    C’est votre anglais que j’adore….
    🙂

  4. @ yamit82:

    I use to enjoying to El Paso and cross into Juarez to shop,but no more,to dangerous. Or just as dangerous as it was in the 1870+. The firt European to cross the Rio were converosos, I believe their leader was Juan de Archuleta.