Obama heading for a fall

Obama heading for a fall


By Ted Belman

Aluf Benn reports
The prime minister has reached the moment of truth, where he must choose between his ideological beliefs and political cooperation with the right on one hand, and his need for American support on the other.

It is a difficult dilemma. If he comes into conflict with the U.S. administration - hoping his friends in Congress and the Jewish-American community support him in the name of Washington’s obligation to the “eternal capital of the Jewish people” - he could jeopardize Israel’s security cooperation with the Americans against Iran. Netanyahu knows that the fuel and spare parts for Israel’s air force, as well as the warning signals for missiles headed this way, all come from the United States. He also knows that Israel has no other allies with which to face the threat posed by the Islamic Republic.


According to the Sidney Morning Herald:

“The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, was set to withdraw from all peace talks with Israel last night after the announcement this week that 1600 apartments would be added to Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

The announcement enraged the visiting US Vice-President, Joe Biden, who has told the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that it was liable to ‘’set the Middle East on fire”.

Mr Biden blames Mr Netanyahu for the decision, telling officials on Wednesday that the United States’ close relationship with Israel was jeopardising its other bilateral relationships across the region.

”This is starting to get dangerous for us,” he reportedly castigated Israeli officials. ”What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.”

There you have it. Israel is causing American troops to be killed and jeopadizing all US relationships in the region. And the kicker, Israel is endangering regional peace.

That’s some trip to lay on Israel and its all BS.

Obama tried as hard as he could to get a total freeze and in the end accepted what he could get but only temporarily. He had not given up.

It was no secret that Israel was going to build in Jerusalem and the Arab League voted to restart negotiations even so. There is no way anyone could have been surprised or embarrassed by the announcement. Obama simply took advantage of an opening to demand again the full freeze. He preferred an early confrontation rather than a later one, to give his public a chance to forget. But once again he over-reached, even with his dire threats.

The Arabs are demanding all of Jerusalem, east of the armistice lines where 300,000 Jews live and not just Arab areas. Obama is supporting them by demanding a full freeze.

My sources in Jerusalem tell me that the Knesset is unanimous, except for the fringe parties on the left, in support of rejecting his demand, regardless of consequences. Obama will have to back down again.

A current poll JPOST is running on whether Netanyahu will buckle. almost 2:1 say “no”.

So once again, negotiations are delayed and Abbas and the Arab League are rethinking their position. This is good for Israel and bad for Obama. With every passing week the November mid term elections are drawing nearer. Opposition to him will continue to grow,
With every passing week Israel is nearer to the end of its freeze.

For Obama to blow this issue wide open before negotiations even started was stupid. He should have waited until the four months were over. Meanwhile if he and the Arab League back down and return to negotiations, Israel will be stronger for the blow up.

Obama is demanding that Israel make more concessions to enable negotiations to restart. Israel should refuse. Israel did nothing wrong. The Arabs decided to not negotiate. It is not for Israel to give more.

Labor has been threatening to leave the coalition if Israel starts to build at the end of the freeze. Let them. Netanyahu will still have a majority of 61 seats and can always bring in Arieh Eldad’s National Union with its four seats.

When playing chess, one can always castle if the pressure is too much. Similarly, by the end of this year Netanyahu will have been in office for two years and will be able to call a new election and stop negotiations. This will take four five months. By that time Presidential primaries will be on their way and this conflict will be very much in issue.

Things are not as bad as they seem. They could be worse.
http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=21408