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."
Blankfurt's statements that Israel has never desired reconciliation with Arab states is a lie. Israel has treaties with Jordan and Egypt, comprising the majority of its borders (if you ignore the length of the maze "border" with Palestine) My impression is that Netanyahu was the one that hit the dead end.
Zionism is just the latest manifestation of the "permanent offensive" interpretation of Judaism: relentless, grasping, zero sum game thinking. The reason Obama got "bamboozled" is either that he is naive about the nature of what he is dealing with, he was deferring to his Zionist colleagues, Congress and the Israel lobby and planned to allow himself to be bamboozled all along, or a combination thereof. I can't help but believe there is an element of theater to the way the US presidents continue to profess to want a freeze to the Israeli settlements but do absolutely nothing whatsoever when Israel thumbs its nose at supposed US will, and actually continue to reward it with more funding, arms and UN vetoes. The entire ritual, president after president, is beginning to feel like farce. Yet another example in a long-running pattern of Washington fraud against the best interests of its own citizenry.
Poor Phil, After crowing about the beating that Obama was laying on Netanyahu, now this…"Bibi bamboozled Bambi." What a laugh! The reality is that Israelis want a peaceful settlement very badly-but not badly enough to drink Weiss' kool-aid. Obama knows the problem is not on the Israeli side. The Arabs could have had peace had they accepted any of the offers from 1937,1947, 1967 and so on. Even today the "moderate" Palestinian leadership can not bring itself to acknowledge the permanence of the Jewish Democratic State of Israel. Sorry, Phil, another disappointment for you from the great new president of hope. Am Israel Chai.
"the Camp David treaty with Egypt was forced upon Begin by Carter". There were two aspects of the treaty which Begin did not want to accept and finally acquiesced to, forced by Carter and accepting the advice of two Israelis who accompanied him Dayan and Weitzman: 1. the autonomy granted to Palestinians and 2. the dismantling of Yamit. But to dismiss Begin's willingness to cede all of Sinai as something that should be summarily dismissed and to maintain that Israel never wanted to have normal relations with its Arab neighbors puts you firmly in the propagandist camp and far removed from any label of analyst.
It is hard to argue that any country, Israel included, does not want peace. The problem is that Israel wants land more than it wants peace, and that is a pattern that goes back to 1947. Israel could have peace and 78% of the land west of the Jordan river but it consistently rejects it and instead builds more and more settlements, every single one of which is illegal under international law. Every single Arab nation and all the major groups including Hamas have said they could agree to the Arab peace plan. The only way you could say that the obstacle is not Israel is to say that plan that gives 78% of the land to Israel and 22% to the Palestinians (at a time when the populations are about 50/50) is unfair to Israel – and I do not. If you believe that everyone should be treated equally – Jewish, Muslim, Christian – then the only problem with the Arab Peace plan is it is *too* generous to Israel, and the land should be divided 50/50 or everyone lives in a single state where everyone is treated equally. Historically the term "Palestinian" meant Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and anyone else who lives between the Jordan river and the sea – it is only Israel that says what matters is how you answer the question "Are you Jewish?"
Unfortunately, Blankfort got it right. Although I do believe many Isarelis do want peace and will give up a lot to achieve it, their leadership is paranoid and that leadership answers to outside interests not to their people. Turkey conducted military exercises with Syria a few days ago and i think this is to show their anger and frustration with Israel's leadership. Sooner or later Turkey will fall in line to protect its own national interest. Obama, no matter how much he sees the solution, the one he has to follow is the one that keeps him in the white house and allows him to keep leading the nation even if he has to sacrifice some of his beliefs. I think N-yahou must have made it very clear, that Israel is not your problem and the decisions as to what happens there are not up to you. Obama will sit through his presidency and watch just like all the previous presidents. Eight more years where the only thing Obama can do, is try to slow the take over of the US by outsiders.
RE: "do absolutely nothing whatsoever when Israel thumbs its nose at supposed US will, and actually continue to reward it with more funding, arms" *TAKE ACTION TO END THE OCCUPATION Send a personalized letter (E-mail) to the Members of Congress on the Appropriations Subcommittee. Let these Members of Congress know that you oppose the President's FY2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel. *TO SEND YOUR LETTER (E-mail) – http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/2439/c...
I agree. Let's divide the region in half. 50% Jews, 50% Muslim. Only allowing Israel a half of a percent of the region is totally unfair.
If one reads the diaries of Moshe Sharett, he describes how Ben-Gurion was opposed to normalizing relations with the Arab countries because he believed that it would lead to the Israelis becoming lazy and eventually succumbing to Arab armies which would take advantage of their weakness and come across the borders to destroy Israel. What was necessary, in Ben-Gurion's opinion, was to maintain "tension" on Israel's frontiers and to do that Israel adopted a policy of "heating up the borders." This was accomplished by having Israeli soliders launch attacks into Egypt, Jordan, and Syria which went unreported in the Western press. When one of those countries responded, this would then get reported as would Israel's "retaliation." In 1983, when I was in Israel and interviewing members of Yesh G'vul, one who had been stationed on the Golan Heights told me that Israel had snipers regularly shooting at Syrian soldiers to "heat up the border." When I asked him if he was aware that Ben-Gurion had initiated that concept, he said that he was unaware of it. An immigrant from Brazil where his family had emigrated from Hungary, he later returned to Brazil. He had seen enough of Israel including some days inside ot an Israeli prison for refusing to take part in the Lebanon invasion.