I turned to J Street this morning to see where they are on Netanyahu’s push for an election in Israel. No comment. AIPAC also is concerned with Iran. Isn’t there a strong American interest in heading off Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz? Even as a non-Zionist, I am much less afraid of Tzipi Livni, who is negotiating hard, than I am of the anti-two-state solution right in Israel. The U.S. offers its opinion all the time re Hamas and Fatah, what about extremists in Israel? How committed are we to the two-state solution? How much power do the One-Jerusalem neocons still have? Sarkozy just interfered, charmingly, in our politics. Can’t Obama do a wink-wink to Tzipi now? What does it mean that 3/4 of Netanyahu’s campaign contributions have come from diaspora Zionist nuts–isn’t that interference?
Everywhere I go people speak of the weakness of the political leadership of the Palestinians and the Israelis. I wonder if in the end that weakness will not mean a continued cycle of violence, international intervention, and an imposed solution–as a solution was imposed by the United Nations in 1947 in complete defiance of Arab opinion. Maybe we can head off further calamity, and let the Israelis know where we stand.
