The Sunday Times of London has this to say:
Administration officials say privately that Obama has given himself two years for a diplomatic breakthough on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, despite the opposition of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to America’s minimum demand for a freeze on all settlement building in disputed territory…
“Some of the things that you will hear in the speech are returning to proven and effective policies and initiatives that have . . . served the national interest well in the past,” said Denis McDonough, Obama’s foreign policy adviser.
Ha’aretz brings some Israeli government reactions to the changes, which I find quite amusing:
Meanwhile, tensions between Washington and Jerusalem are growing after the U.S. administration’s demand that Israel completely freeze construction in all West Bank settlements.
Israeli political officials have accused the administration of taking a preferential line toward the Palestinians with this regard.
Some officials expressed disappointment after Tuesday’s round of meetings in London with George Mitchell, Obama’s envoy to the Middle East. “All of the understandings reached during the [George W.] Bush administration are worth nothing,” said one senior official.
Another official said the U.S. administration is refusing every Israeli attempt to reach new agreements on settlement construction. “The United States is taking a line of granting concessions to the Palestinians that is not fair toward Israel,” he said.
Translated into simple English: Obama says “no settlement construction whatsoever.” Israeli government assumes Obama’s like his predecessors and tries to negotiate the usual modification to that position, viz. “thickening” settlements is fine and dandy. Obama administration refuses to back down, realizing that this “modification” is tantamount to letting all settlement activity continue. Israelis are shocked and confused. Obama says what he means! “Not fair” whines Israeli officials. “Bush & Co let us do whatever we wanted! Pout.”
A quick reaction to this line from the Times article:
The Obama administration believes Bush’s democracy drive was counter-productive and came at the expense of economic programmes which might have done more to foster moderation.
Make that “democracy” drive, please. Bush & Co never cared about real democracy. One need look no further than Bush & Cos total rejection of the Palestinian elections which gave Hamas control of the government, to show what a sham this “democracy” drive was. The neocons and the liberal hawks loved this “democracy drive” rhetoric as it gave a “moral” cover for heavy handed US imperial intervensionism around the world, most notably for the Iraqi war.
Tags: Israeli Politics, US Politics