Israel Matzav

US - Israel relations at their lowest point evah....

Jennifer Rubin reports that relations between the Obama administration and Israel are at an all-time low. (Note: As this post is being written, the quartet has yet to issue a statement).

But let’s see where we are today. Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies e-mails me while we await the results of the Quartet meeting today: “The Quartet, after meeting today, will likely release a statement urging both the Palestinians and Israelis to return to the negotiating table, in a bid to avert potential conflict over the planned Palestinian unilateral statehood initiative at the UN in September.” However, he explains, this isn’t necessarily a good thing for Israel: “Reports indicate that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fears the Quartet will issue a statement affirming US President Barack Obama’s controversial formulation of peace based on the 1967 lines with land swaps. Netanyahu also fears that the Quartet may issue some ‘surprise’ guidance, without having first consulted with the Israelis.” If so, that will be a surprise sprung by Obama, again, for the U.S. is obviously part of the Quartet. (And Schanzer, who is in frequent contact with Israeli officials, says there really shouldn’t be a factual dispute about the Obama-Israel relationship: “While they won’t say it explicitly, the Israelis feel more besieged and isolated under this administration than any other in recent memory.”)

But after today, where do we go from here? Elliott Abrams, former deputy national security adviser for President George W. Bush, tells me, “The Administration continues to look for ways to avoid a confrontation in September, and that would be a good thing. But then what? ‘Avoid September’ is not a policy.” In fact, Obama has presided over the death of the “peace process.” As Abrams puts it, “The belief that negotiations, if they ever got started, would lead anywhere right now is at best a faith-based foreign policy disconnected from reality. [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas is concentrating on holding elections and retiring, not some heroic effort at the negotiating table.”

But 60% of American Jewry still thinks Obama is doing a great job. What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, US-Israel relationship

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:19 AM