Netanyahu to Obama: Yeah - buzz off!
Last Sunday, I reported that Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe (Boogie) Yaalon gave President Obama's idea of a 'total settlement freeze' a Bronx cheer. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Prime Minister Netanyahu has now done the same (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). Mr. Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said Thursday that the prime minister won't change his long-held position that building should be allowed to continue in existing settlements as part of "natural growth."Netanyahu isn't even getting much support for destroying 'illegal outposts,' which he has attempted to make the sacrificial lamb to placate the Obama administration for his allowing 'natural growth' of 'settlements.'
Mr. Regev said any complete freeze in settlement activity could be discussed only in final-status peace negotiations with the Palestinians. But Palestinian leaders have refused to resume negotiations until Mr. Netanyahu acknowledges the commitments of past Israeli governments to a Palestinian state.
Mr. Netanyahu is trying to find a middle ground. On Monday, he told lawmakers from his Likud Party that Israel would have to destroy 26 illegal outposts in the West Bank in order to win U.S. support for tough action against Iran. After his return from meeting with Mr. Obama in Washington last week, Mr. Netanyahu ordered a few structures built by teenage settlers on private Palestinian land in the West Bank razed. But none of them were among the 26, and settlers quickly started rebuilding some of them.As I tried to explain to someone in the US last week, what people outside Israel don't understand is that even though Netanyahu managed to push Moshe Feiglin out of the 'realistic' 19th slot into an unrealistic 36th slot on the Likud's slate, Feiglin was the big winner of the Likud primary. Netanyahu had attempted to fill the party slate with the likes of Uzi Dayan and Assaf Hefetz. But Feiglin endorsed people like Boogie Yaalon and Benny Begin and Michael Ratzon and those are the people who took the top positions in the Likud's slate. Netanyahu has very little room to maneuver within his own coalition. And that's a good thing.
Meanwhile lawmakers from Mr. Netanyahu's party responded coldly to his proposal. "The message from the party was clear: We were not chosen by voters to evacuate Jews from their property," a Likud lawmaker said after a party meeting Monday.
UPDATE 3:43 AM
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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:45 AM
3 Comments:
Benjamin Netanyahu can either please the US or risk having his government brought down. In retrospect, a misapprehension ought to be corrected: the first time Netanyahu fell from power is not because Israelis punished him for supposedly mismanaging Israel's relationship with the Clinton Administration but rather for the opposite reason: he gave in too much to Clinton. No one, least of all in Israel, likes a pushover. The key to whether the present Israeli government lasts depends not on what Obama does but on what Netanyahu does in response.
how can anyone trust obama........his word means nothing.....he lies all the time.he cannot be trusted.just look at the pictures with him and the prime minister from palenstine where he all smiles.then llok at your prime minister and obama and you see ager from obama...........do not trust him for the sake of israel................who's to say he well not try to tumble netyanhu government.to get a weaker gov.one that he could control...............look at what he doing making peace with all the muslim states............he is no friend to israel or america................god save us all from this madman...........
world net daily is reporting obama promised abbas jerusalem to be it's capital...obama said he would hold israel at bay on it's making new settlements.they know netanyahu won't agree so obama well try to freeze netyanyahu out to get a weaker government......................please don't let this happen.obama well be a one term pres......then israel well once again have a friend .stay strong ad back your prime minister or obama well win.......................
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