Obama using Goldstone Report as a club against Israel
Haaretz reports that the Obama administration is using the Goldstone Report as a club against Israel.
Even if the legal process that Goldstone initiated ends up being halted, and Israel is not put in the dock in The Hague, its hands have been tied. The world, led by Obama, will not let it initiate a Cast Lead II operation. Certainly not when a right-wing government is in power in Jerusalem led by Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the world loves to hate. Netanyahu's clumsy attempt, in his Knesset speech this week, to link the war in Gaza to opposition leader Tzipi Livni did not really succeed. He is in power and the world considers him responsible. The Americans and the Europeans are using the Goldstone report to punish Netanyahu for his refusal to freeze the settlements.You can take that with a grain of salt, since it's Haaretz and it was written by Aluf Benn. But he's right that Obama and the Europeans may well use the Goldstone Report as a club against Israel. The good news is that there is almost no backing in Israel for a total 'settlement freeze' as demanded by Obama (not even from Livni by the way). If Netanyahu is going down, everyone else is going down with him.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:22 PM
5 Comments:
Wow, if true, The Barry's popularity may go into negative numbers in Israel. Does Norway hand out a prize for that?
Then Israel should club Obama with this video delivered by the British Col. Richard Kemp at the UN Human Rights Council, 12th Special Session
Debate on the Goldstone Report
Geneva, 16 October 2009.
He says that the 'IDF Most Moral Army in History of Warfare'
Really, the best Israel can hope for in this situation is American abstaining in the Security Council. On the Left and Right of America, people are getting increasingly fed up with Israels refusal to face reality.
According to Barry Rubin, the main effect of Goldstone is to kill the two state solution for good. Israel is not going to withdraw from territory and allow itself to be attacked and be condemned by the world for defending itself. No Israeli government is going to agree to a Palestinian state in the wake of Goldstone and the Israeli public will not support such a solution.
NormanF; Rubin is foolish to count those chickens before they hatch. Israel is sending envoys to Washington to continue negotiations on this "settlement freeze" nonsense. The current leadership doesn't have the backbone to stand up and say, "Enough."
I'll believe the two state solution is dead when I see it. The leadership speaks out of three sides of its face.
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