Cantor promises to check Obama on Israel
On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Netanyahu met for an hour with Eric Cantor (R-Va), the incoming House Majority Leader. Ben Smith has all the details
here, but the statement issued after the meeting is a doozer and bears highlighting.
"Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington," the readout continued. "He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other."
Veteran observer of U.S.-Israeli relations Ron Kampeas said he found that statement "an eyebrow-raiser."
"I can't remember an opposition leader telling a foreign leader, in a personal meeting, that he would side, as a policy, with that leader against the president," Kampeas wrote at JTA's blog -- an interpretation which Cantor's office later disputed to Kampeas. (For my part, I detected in Cantor's statement on the meeting an effort as well to be a bit more restrained and statesman-like -- the nod to the United Nations -- than the usual partisan campaign fare of a hardcharging politico now moving into a Congressional majority leadership position that may require more diplomatic guidance than he needed as minority whip.)
Kampeas also characterized the one-on-one meeting between the prime minister and the lawmaker as unusual, adding that he has "it on good authority that as late as last week, Bibi's people were at pains to deny that such a meeting would take place."
Heh.
Read it all.
Labels: Barack Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, domestic weakness, Eric Cantor, foreign policy
It starts: Obama rebuffed three times this week
Prime Minister Netanyahu wasn't the only ally to rebuff President Obama this week. Ben Smith
reports that Iraqi Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader and close American ally, and South Korea also snubbed Obama this week.
Eli Lake reports today that President Obama called Iraqi Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader and close American ally, and asked him to give up his seat in the interest of a the power-sharing deal the U.S. prefers. Talabani, Lake reports, "rebuffed" Obama, and the piece includes a jab at the White House from Talabani's son.
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Obama also suffered another public rebuff today with the failure to get a trade deal on his trip to South Korea, the third time -- following the failures to get the Olympics and to get much out of Copenhagen -- a high-profile trip hasn't quite concluded as planned.
These allies' willingness to snub Obama may reflect the perception -- among leaders whose habit is to obsess over, and over-read, American politics -- that the American president is on his heels, and among the White House's challenges in the coming months is to remind foreign leaders that Obama's still fully in control of a foreign policy that was hardly mentioned during the election and is not, in fact, expected to change as a result of Republican control of the House.
Unless, of course, he's not fully in control, because he can't back up anything he says. If that sounds like a good thing to most Israelis it may not be. If we can snub him, so can Iran and Syria. Of course, Iran and Syria been snubbing him for the last two years anyway.
Labels: Barack Obama, domestic weakness, foreign policy
Obama to pressure Israel harder?
Rachel Ehrenfeld makes the case that President Obama will
increase pressure on Israel for a 'Palestinian state' now that it is less likely that he will get his domestic agenda passed.
Obama’s defeat also reinforces the already widespread international contempt for this Administration’s lack of resolve. This deterioration could nevertheless spur this ambitious president to leave his mark on world affairs.
Withdrawing from Afghanistan and appeasing the Taliban, North Korea, Iran and Venezuela will not suffice. But perusing the ill-conceived “peace plan” in the Middle East – pressuring Israel to freeze construction in areas claimed by the Palestinians, give up large parts of its territory, and recognize Hamas – seem to fit the bill.
The general opinion in Israel seems to support the notion that the changes in the House will do little to change Obama’s aspiration to create a Palestinian state.
...
One hopes that the Republican House will use its power of the purse to constrain Obama’s ability to spend American taxpayers’ money on foreign aid to the bottomless Palestinian money pit. The Europeans, Saudis and Iran – all funders of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and proponents of an independent Palestinian state, will happily take over the U.S. role. But Obama will do his best to keep his position as the “peace-maker.”
He will continue to ignore the Palestinians repeated declarations in their Arabic language propaganda that Israel doesn’t have the right to exist. He will continue to turn a blind eye to their children television shows which are filled with programs calling for jihad and killing Jews. Instead, Obama will continue to argue that it is possible to reason with people who insist on killing you.
Most Palestinians demands have been met by this, and previous American Administrations. They received billions of dollars in aid and successfully generated pressure on Israel for further harmful concessions. The Palestinians have gotten used to claiming that Israel is the obstacle for peace, and subsequent American Administrations, and in particular this Administration, went along with the charade, blaming the Israelis. Yet, Obama’s plans for peace in the Middle East, and his approach towards Israel, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan did not win him friends or respect in the Arab/Muslim world.
But a weak Obama at home should not be underestimated. He would surely use his office to exert significant power abroad, and perhaps force Israel to make dangerous concessions.
Will this happen? I think it depends on whether Obama still believes he has a chance of being re-elected (in which case he will be more cautious) or whether he believes that it's all over (in which case he is likely to go for broke). Remember the last three weeks of the Clinton administration? Imagine two years of that.
Labels: Barack Obama, domestic weakness, foreign policy, legacy, Palestinian state
On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Netanyahu met for an hour with Eric Cantor (R-Va), the incoming House Majority Leader. Ben Smith has all the details here, but the statement issued after the meeting is a doozer and bears highlighting.
