Obama’s going to put pressure on Israel?
….you’re living in Disneyland, said John Mearsheimer.
John Mearsheimer, famous for co-authoring the book on the Israel Lobby, recently spoke these words on Philadelphia talk radio:
Barack Obama pandered to the Israel lobby coming and going. What did he do during the recent Gaza war… He kept silent. The idea that Barack Obama has backbone on this issue is laughable. Barack Obama is not going to challenge the lobby. He did absolutely nothing to save Charles Freeman. And if anybody thinks that Barack Obama is going to put pressure on Israel to give the Palestinians a state, they’re living in Disneyland..
Yesterday’s headlines in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on Obama’s stance:
Haaretz exclusive: Obama to visit Israel, West Bank in June
U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Israel and the West Bank in June, according to an announcement circulated among American diplomatic representations in the region.
The decision to visit Jerusalem several weeks after his first meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington is meant to emphasize Obama’s commitment to an active role in achieving a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
And,
ANALYSIS / Obama saying Israel still bound to two-state solution
Dialogue between Jerusalem and Washington over the past week has been done via speech-making. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman swept aside the Annapolis process, and U.S. President Barack Obama swept it right back. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the two-state solution and Obama “clarified” that the United States not only “strongly” supports it, but he himself intends to advance it.
And,
Obama’s Turkey address draws praise across Middle East
Syria’s foreign minister praised President Barack Obama’s address to the Arab and Islamic world in Turkey, and many Arabs were cheered by the American leader’s promises to push for a Palestinian state.
On his first visit as president to a predominantly Islamic nation, Obama reached out to Arabs and Muslims in his Ankara address, saying the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. He also spoke of the Arab-Israeli peace process, saying he will actively pursue the goal of creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
And, this morning,
Obama team readying for confrontation with Netanyahu
In an unprecedented move, the Obama administration is readying for a possible confrontation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by briefing Democratic congressmen on the peace process and the positions of the new government in Israel regarding a two-state solution.
Among these reports, it was also indicated by Obama, in his carefully worded statements, that the Palestinian state must be contiguous. But is that all?
With Netanyahu already on record as stating that he will not evacuate any settlements nor relinquish the Jordan Valley, which, with Its border abutting Jordan, comprises about a quarter of the West Bank, how can there be a “sovereign” Palestinian state that is both contiguous and does not lie within borders of Israel. Borders located within Israel is just another definition of a Bantustan state, contiguity notwithstanding.
Here is part of some commentary from Philip Weiss of Mondoweiss suggesting that contiguity is an unlikely outcome of any peace talks, let alone sovereign borders:
Netanyahu, in February: ‘I will not evacuate any settlement’
Ira Glunts reports:
This weekend the Israeli daily, Ma’ariv, published an interview in Hebrew with Professor Ben Zion Netanyahu, the 99-year-old father of the new Israeli prime minister. The elder Netanyahu is known for his outspokenness and extreme right-wing views–and he did nothing to contradict his reputation. He decreed that the only solution to the conflict with the Palestinians is the use of military force. He stated that he would not return the Golan Heights to Syria because “you do not return land.” He also explained that in his view it is impossible to compromise with Arabs. The Prime Minister’s father further opines that the Turks used brutal deadly force to suppress the Arab population and that should be an example to Israel in dealing with Arabs whose nature dictates that they live in a state of perpetual war.
(snip)
When I learned of the interview, I searched Google hoping to learn more about the father. In doing so, I stumbled across a February television interview with both father and son, again, in Hebrew. In this brief television appearance the then-candidate Benjamin Netanyahu appears very comfortable when his father states that Israel is today in great danger of being completely destroyed and that the “holocaust never ended and is continuing at this very moment.” In this dual appearance, Benjamin Netanyahu, reflecting the direct influence of his father’s view that no territory should ever be returned, proclaims that there will not be any evacuations of settlements during his administration. This position places him on a direct collision course with the Obama administration which claims to want to work toward a negotiated peace in the region.
What follows is a translation of Netanyahu’s statements:
Netanyahu: I think that anyone who has eyes in his head understands that today any settlement that will be evacuated will be grabbed by the bitter enemies of the State of Israel.
Question: So you can say that the Likud [Netanyahu’s party] will not evacuate settlements during its term of office?
Netanyahu: Yes.
Question: Will not evacuate?
Netanyahu: Indeed.
As the interviewer stated, Benjamin Netanyahu has been greatly influenced by the views of his father. Under his father’s watchful eye and possibly affected by what some say has been an overbearing parental manner that influence is very painfully apparent.
LINK to Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-y1xUfxCUc
As Obama is moving fast on what he seems to regard as the fulcrum of a new Middle East policy, a Palestinian state, next year’s events will be interesting to follow.
(The New Yorker) April 6, 2009 – The Obama transition team also helped persuade Israel to end the bombing of Gaza and to withdraw its ground troops before the Inauguration. According to the former senior intelligence official, who has access to sensitive information, “Cheney began getting messages from the Israelis about pressure from Obama” when he was President-elect. Cheney, who worked closely with the Israeli leadership in the lead-up to the Gaza war, portrayed Obama to the Israelis as a “pro-Palestinian,” who would not support their efforts (and, in private, disparaged Obama, referring to him at one point as someone who would “never make it in the major leagues”). But the Obama team let it be known that it would not object to the planned resupply of “smart bombs” and other high-tech ordnance that was already flowing to Israel. “It was Jones”–retired Marine General James Jones, at the time designated to be the President’s national-security adviser–“who came up with the solution and told Obama, `You just can’t tell the Israelis to get out.’ ”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."And so we are still between a rock and a hard place. Mearshirmer either knows Obama better than we do or he is dead wrong. I tend to read literally because of the carefulness with which words are used by the Obama administration. He did not say sovereign. Does that mean he will compromise the Palestinians?
I see again the photo of Obama and Michelle listening to Professor Said as a former community worker in the slums of Chicago.
Mearshirmer is dead right. Sorry. That’s what I think/feel. To make peace with the Palestinians outside Israel, Israel would have to reinvent itself. It can not even make peace with the Palestinians living inside Israel. Israel has condemned itself to being ostracized. Nevertheless it will survive and expand. Prosper? I can’t say.
“You just can’t tell the Israelis to get out.” What a shame.