Tools of Persuasion

[T. Belman. This gives you an idea of what Netanyahu was up against in 2009.]

By Ted Belman [July 8, 2009]

The headlines are coming fast and furious.

Did U.S. okay Israel construction of 2,500 settlement homes?

Israel had won agreement from the United States for the continued construction of 2,500 housing units in settlements in the West Bank, despite U.S. calls for a freeze, according to the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv.

‘We’ll evacuate 23 outposts very soon’

Defense Minister Ehud Barak  Middle East envoy George Mitchell for the second time in a week on Monday , and promised that Israel would evacuate 23 illegal outposts in the West Bank in a matter of weeks or months, as opposed to years, Army Radio reported.

Israel authorizes weapons transfer to Abbas

IDF to radically cut W. Bank presence

All this in the last week and more with no quid pro quo. Add this to the fact that Netanyahu for the first time in his life conceded “two states for two peoples.”

On the diplomatic front we hear that the US/Israel bond is “unbreakable”, that both sides are working out a compromise solution, that Obama is making demands on the Arabs and according to Biden, Israel is a sovereign nation and the US can’t tell it what to do.

All the movement set out in the headlines suggests otherwise. After all Kadima never did these things (it did other things).

I just had a long meeting with an MK of long standing on the right who told me a little of what was going on.

Apparently, Netanyahu came away from his meeting with Obama, a changed man, a shell of his former self.

Imagine if you will being ordered by the Mob at a Casino to come into the back room due to your “independence”. You see on entering some heavy set men around a table on which there is a hammer, a saw, razor blades, a vise, acid and a number of other persuaders. Well you get the idea of what Netanyahu’s meeting was like.

The gloves came off and the Obama administration put their tools on the table.

1. withdrawal of support at the UN.

2. preventing Israel from using their GPS which is needed to guide Israeli missals, planes and tanks.

3. cancellation of 3 billion in annual grants.

4. barring Israel from using American ammunition stored on Israeli soil,

5. avoiding resupply should Israel run out of munitions.

6. initiating sanctions and other drastic measures at the UN.

7. withdrawal of guarantees

8. full US support of the Saudi Plan

9. Israel to give up Jerusalem and the “illegal settlements” around it.

I can’t even imagine all the tools that were put on the table.

Bottom line was, you better cave or else. Obama was ready to declare diplomatic war on Israel. In fact he had already started the war. He had his team make outrageous demands on Israel such as stopping construction on the large suburbs around Israel and even had a think tank recommend Israel give up Jerusalem. He would not have done that if he didn’t mean to take Israel to the mat.

Obama means business. Every other arena in foreign affairs is getting more and more problematic with no good result in sight. Only by crunching little Israel could Obama hoped to have a foreign affairs success. He set a goal of solving the Palestinian conflict with two years. Just when his campaign for re-election would be beginning. beginning.

Netanyahu left the meeting thoroughly chastened. He rushed over to his old friends in Congress only to find out they backed Obama. He careened over to his friends at AIPAC and other Jewish organizations only to find that they still supported Obama. It was surprising that Netanyahu could make it back to Israel on his own.

Netanyahu is doing his best to salvage the situation and buy for time. That’s why he is agreeing to a six month freeze in exchange for US approval of subsequent building within the construction line and that ain’t much. Maybe he will get the permission to build the 2500 units mentioned above.

Nevertheless he is opposed by key Cabinet Ministers. According to YNET NEWS which reported the last meeting between Mitchell and Barak as a “Huge Flop“.

Ministers Moshe Yaalon, Benny Begin and Avigdor Lieberman have tried to obstruct Barak’s attempts at reaching a compromise with the US, which demands a complete halt to all settlement construction.

Lieberman recently advised why Barak is negotiating on the settlements and not he, the Foreign Minister. To my mind his reason is not convincing. It may well have been that he was persona non grata in Washington.

My informant in the Knesset, suggested that the 300,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria should start massive building there in order to frustrate any compromise that Netanyahu might make. He suggested that the government of Israel would be powerless to stop it. He also wanted to mobilize what friends Israel had left in America.

We both shared the view that Israel has a bad image on the settlements because Israel never demands the right to build as a matter of right. Instead she begs for allowances.

He viewed the situation as really serious and supported Netanyahu’s attempts to buy time.