What Peres will tell Obama
President Shimon Peres and opposition leader Tzipora Livni are headed to the United States, where they will each address the AIPAC convention, which opens on Monday in Washington, and where Peres will meet with President Obama. "The government is currently undergoing a policy review and we need to wait until it's complete," Peres told Army Radio. "I will update Obama on the developments, but the main thing that unfortunately cannot be ignored is Iran, which is trying to gain control of the region."Curiously, JPost left out one little detail that was reported on Israel Radio this morning.
According to Israel Radio, Peres will tell Obama that Netanyahu really will attack Iran if necessary to stop it from attaining nuclear weapons.
Maybe Obama can let Ahmadinejad know that in his next video message.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:16 PM
7 Comments:
Most of the time, I have little patience for Peres; however, he does have cred with the Europeans who see him as the closest thing to one of their own in Israel. This perception of Peres likely extends to Obama and his administration who, if nothing else, will listen kindly to the Octogenarian (before doing what they want to do anyway).
At any rate, I see this exercise as a last ditch effort to demonstrate to Obama that even the most liberal Jews in Israel recognize the need to strike Iran, that time is truly running out, and that if the US chooses to stand on the sidelines, Israel will not.
A shrewd use of personnel and diplomacy for Netanyahu.
I don't much care for Peres. What is significant though is the Palestinian issue is not a high priority for the new Israeli government. As I noted in my previous post, leaving things as they are is better for Israel than making them much worse. Hopefully, Peres will tell the Administration that a statehood is a quick-fix solution that no one in the Middle East really wants and it is better to tackle regional problems from the ground up rather than being imposed from above. The former approach has a better chance of bringing true peace and stability to the region. But no initiative has any chance of succeeding if Iran is not addressed first.
Are there any American Jews who voted for Obama reading this blog?
If you are one of them, please tell us that you now regret it and that you are through with this stupid notion that the Democrats are the party which cares about Israel's survival.
I remember going nuts talking to such people who were convinced the man was Messiach...I could never understand it..and now understand it even less. For any American Jew to support Obama is pure and simple treason against fellow Jews living in Israel.
Andre,
I'm an American Jew and I didn't vote for O, but everyone I know did. As they say, politics is local. American Jews are mostly liberal and mostly live in Blue states. They voted for the Blue state candidate. Important issues were abortion, gun control, stem cell research, and the like. There was no way they were going to vote for an evolution-questioning Alaskan like Palin. As a rule they hated GWB with a passion.
American Jews who live in Israel voted two to one for McCain. And the reason is the same. Politics is local. They don't care much about gun control in the US or other Red state/Blue state issues. They care about their local issues. Like war in the middle east. Like Iran. Like who they thought would be more likely to pressure Israel into making concessions to the Pals and Syria.
O hasn't been in for very long and hasn't made any big mistakes yet. Expecting anyone who voted for O to have buyers remorse at this point in the game is unrealistic.
Andre,
I'm an American Jew and I didn't vote for O, but everyone I know did. As they say, politics is local. American Jews are mostly liberal and mostly live in Blue states. They voted for the Blue state candidate. Important issues were abortion, gun control, stem cell research, and the like. There was no way they were going to vote for an evolution-questioning Alaskan like Palin. As a rule they hated GWB with a passion.
American Jews who live in Israel voted two to one for McCain. And the reason is the same. Politics is local. They don't care much about gun control in the US or other Red state/Blue state issues. They care about their local issues. Like war in the middle east. Like Iran. Like who they thought would be more likely to pressure Israel into making concessions to the Pals and Syria.
O hasn't been in for very long and hasn't made any big mistakes yet. Expecting anyone who voted for O to have buyers remorse at this point in the game is unrealistic.
Hi Utopia,
Thank you for your response. I have often argued that the only reason O got elected is that the Republicans nominated their weakest ticket in many years (probably ever) and basically gave up the White House without a fight.
You are right that many issues are local (as far as the Jews are concerned) but when O soon starts making openly hostile decisions towards Israel, I would hope (against all hope) that American Jews will realize that elections DO have consequences and that a candidate has to be judged on his/her entire platform. Some items, such as Israel's survival, must take precedence over everything else. If (God forbid) Israel disappears, American Jews will be the next most obvious target for radical Islam as clearly the world Jewry would not be able to rebuild in any appreciable way after Israel and US Jews are gone.
What Peres told AIPAC today is what he will tell Obama on Tuesday: Iran is the main threat to Israel, Israel wants peace and most notably Israel is prepared to discuss the Saudi plan but it doesn't obligate itself to accept all of its provisions. He mentioned Palestinian self-rule but did not speak of a Palestinian state. The priorities of Israel's governments are different from those of the Americans and Europeans. Deal with Iran first and then it may be possible to achieve something with the Arab World. The chances of a positive breakthrough on both of the above fronts for the foreseeable future are slim to none. But buffing Israel's PR image and Benjamin Netanyahu's image as a moderate may stand a chance of giving the latter a more friendly hearing when he comes later to Washington.
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