Obama tries to bully Israel into 'concessions'
Scott Johnson noted on Sunday that the Obama administration's bullying of Israel was likely to be followed by demands that Israel make concessions to the 'Palestinians.' The apparent purpose of this public display of animosity toward Israel is the extraction of some concession to offer to Israel's Palestinian non-interlocutors. In the purported peace talks that the administration seeks to facilitate with the part of the Palestinian Authority over which Mahhmoud Abbas presides, Abbas's representatives do not deign to meet face to face with Israel. Such obstruction does not elicit condemnation because the administration sympathizes with Abbas's need to keep up appearances with the fans of Hamas who forthrightly pledge the destruction of Israel.The Jerusalem Post identifies some of those concessions.
The Obama administration refused to let go of the Ramat Shlomo construction controversy Sunday, with two top aides to US President Barack Obama slamming Israel amid a growing sense in Jerusalem that Washington was using the issue to squeeze diplomatic concessions from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.I was thinking this morning that in the George H.W. Bush administration, they would have just kept Mitchell home and told Netanyahu to call when he was ready to talk. But that's not likely to happen in this administration. First, because keeping Mitchell home has already been tried in the month or two leading up to the 'settlement freeze.' Second, because much as Bush Senior hated Israel, he didn't feel a fierce moral urgency to bring about the creation of a 'Palestinian' terror state as Obama feels. So will Netanyahu stand up to Obama? So far, the answer seems to be yes.
While the Prime Minister’s Office would not confirm the reports, it is widely believed that the US is now pressing Netanyahu to cancel the entire 1,600 housing-unit project in Ramat Shlomo.
In addition, Washington wants Israel to make a confidence building measure – such as releasing Palestinian prisoners – toward Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before US Mideast envoy George Mitchell arrives later this week to try to get proximity talks off the ground; and to agree that the proximity talks will deal with core issues of the negotiations, and not only technical matters as a way into direct talks, as Israel had demanded.
One source inside the Prime Minister’s Office said he was unaware of any intention by Netanyahu either to roll back the Ramat Shlomo project, or declare a moratorium on construction in east Jerusalem, something the Palestinians have been demanding for months.Well, there are lots of ideas that can be brought to the table that don't involve making concessions to the 'Palestinians.' Both sides can stop inciting in their educational systems.... Oops, Israel did that a long time ago. Israel can offer to reopen road blocks in Judea and.... Oops, Israel did that already too. Perhaps rather than make more concessions, Netanyahu needs to point at what has been done already, and to the fact that the 'Palestinians' have turned down three way-too-generous offers in the last ten years and try to throw the ball back into the 'Palestinians' court. Under what circumstances are they willing to make peace and live side by side in peace next to a Jewish state? We all know the answer to that question: None.
The source denied reports that before the Ramat Shlomo brouhaha erupted there were informal agreements between Mitchell and Netanyahu’s aides that once talks began Israel would make no announcements of new construction in east Jerusalem.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, speaking on Fox News on Sunday, characterized Netanyahu’s comments Sunday as a “good start,” but said more needed to be done to rebuild trust.
“I think what would be an even better start is coming to the table with constructive ideas for constructive and trustful dialogue about moving the peace process forward,” Gibbs said.
“There’s no doubt that events like last week weaken the trust that’s needed for both sides to come together and have honest discussions about peace in the Middle East,” he said. “So there’s no doubt that that was not a bright spot for the Israeli government.”
Will this blow over? We await the next headline. Remember Dubai?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:40 AM
2 Comments:
This didn't take long:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100315/D9EETGSO0.html
"They also reported that the U.S. wants Israel to make a significant confidence-building gesture toward the Palestinians. Suggestions included releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails; turning over additional areas of the West Bank to Palestinian control; removing some of the roadblocks hampering the movement of Palestinians and goods in the West Bank; and easing the blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, media reported.
Washington, they added, also has demanded that Israel officially declare that talks with the Palestinians will deal with all the conflict's big issues, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes during the war that followed Israel's 1948 creation."
This was, and is, posturing on the part of the failed US administration to shore up its arabic bona fides. Under Obama, my government has become the Palestinians lawyers.
The people and the congress still like Israel. Just this administration, with its failed policies, failed approaches is looking for one singular "success" it can call its own.
Israel, help us defeat this fool by not giving in to their bluster. The special relationship is ending, but it couldn't go on forever. It may be restored in the future by a smart and forward thinking administration, but this group has destroyed valuable things and replaced them with useless things.
Yes, I am advocating you do what is right for you, and in your best interests. The failed Obama administration was going to press you hard on these things anyway, the building is just a convenient way for them to start. Nothing that was said on their part would not have been said without all the bluster, but you gave them the possibility to claim righteous indignation, and as politicians, they claimed it.
See this manufactured crisis for what it is, and don't betray your people. I apologize to you for our failed administrations actions, and can only express by deepest sympathies for your having to deal with the byproduct of an election of a savior by the media here.
Israel should quit all peace talks.
and I mean ALL peace talks (there is no one to talk).
and after that make a anouncement that there will be 0 tolerance to attacks.
that way, you can tell biden, Mitchell and oblama to fuck off
and to wipe out hamas before the engagement with Iran.
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