Israel Matzav

Obama defends Abu Bluff

In an earlier post, I mentioned that President Obama was going to have a conference call with a group of rabbis to update them about the 'peace process.' The conference call was to remain confidential - no tweeting or blogging during the call. But of course, as usually happens, the truth came out. The President was confronted with 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's endless statements that he would not compromise and that he would walk out on the negotiations. And of course, Obama gave him a pass.

According to American rabbis on a White House conference call Tuesday, United States President Barack Obama indicated that he understood recent statements from the American-backed Palestinian Authority threatening to quit negotiations with Israel as political posturing.

Obama, who spoke with rabbis of various denominations in a call marking Rosh HaShanah, was asked by a participant about comments from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas perceived in Israel as hostile to the negotiating process he launched with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu just last week in Washington.

The 'political posturing' claim might be plausible were it not for the fact that both Abu Bluff and his predecessor have a history of not compromising, and of initiating hostilities whenever things don't go their way.

I wonder if the rabbi who asked the initial question managed to raise that history as a follow-up or whether he was silenced.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:24 PM