Here is Jeff Blankfort's shrewd analysis of what he calls Bambi-Bibi:
Obama's statement on freezing the settlements was weak in the extreme, and by failing to mention the historic US opposition to settlements and
Israel's ignoring of the US position, he as good as rolled over on his
back. On Gaza,
he was little better, spending more time on criticizing Palestinian
violence while no making no mention of Israel's nor calling for Netanyahu
to open those closed Gaza borders. That he was overly cautious with his
statement on the settlements must not of only been my opinion because
the much tougher Hillary had to make a statement later reinforcing the
US position.
Also, people should be aware by now that Israel,
going back to statements by Ben-Gurion, has never had a desire to have
normal relations with its Arab neighbors since maintaining a
belligerent state of armed readiness is a necessity for its continued
existence. The Camp David treaty
with Egypt was forced upon Begin by Carter and Begin compensated for giving back the Sinai by expanding Jewish West Bank settlements. The
Jordanian agreement just put on paper what had been going on privately
between King Hussein and Rabin and Peres for years. Olmert was being pushed into an agreement with Syria
by Turkey on the eve of the attack on Gaza and I have a hunch that the
timing of the attack was not only to roll back any illusion of an
Israel-Palestine "peace process" but to torpedo the agreement with
Syria. That's one of the reasons that Erdogan was hopping mad. Israel
had played him for a fool. So unless and until those seeking a just peace in the Middle East come to recognize that changing the status quo is the furthest thing from Israel's mind, that Obama's "peace process"
is just another scam, and we put all our efforts into pushing for
boycotts, divestment and sanctions, we will continue to see Israel put
more "facts on the ground."
