Tony Karon in the National:
Conventional wisdom in Israeli politics once held that no Israeli government would survive a clash with the United States; today, Mr Netanyahu is confident that if it came to a showdown, he could make an end run around the Obama administration and win the battle for Capitol Hill. And, of course, the Israelis are betting that the 2012 US election will restore the Republicans to the White House.
So, the Obama administration finds itself politically unable to press Mr Netanyahu into the concessions necessary to restart a credible peace process, even though America’s own interests require one.
The briefers reported that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel..
David Bromwich:
This [Obama's passivity on the Biden slap] is in keeping with the overall approach of the Obama administration on all issues. And it comes from the top. No sense of the moment. No Drama means a perfect indifference to the theatrical dimension of politics–which is real and must be served. Oration, Eloquence, and Harangue are Obama’s substitute for the punctual action that shifts the weight of a crisis. When the South Carolina congressman Joe Wilson shouted "You lie" in the middle of the president’s September address to Congress on health care, it was not "gentlemanly" of Obama to relieve him instantly with casual forgiveness in the course of a panic phone call from Wilson. He should have said nothing in private but gone on the record in public: "This shows how far things have gotten out of control in our country. With Republicans following the example of the wildest voices and the hooligans out there in the streets, there is some real danger of a break of the public peace. Now is the time for them to recognize: there are lines that must not be crossed; to restrain themselves, and to restrain their followers."
The same with the insult of the settlement-order during the Biden visit. "This is an outrage. If the order is not withdrawn immediately, I shall be compelled to recall Vice President Biden to Washington DC, and the U.S. will be under a moral obligation to re-examine our relationship to a government that obstructs the peace we are serious about achieving." There are chances for saying the things that are hard to say but that urgently need to be said. Obama misses those chances.
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I seem to be reading different reports. What I’m seeing is that Omaba was furious at the Israeli attitude during Biden’s visit, and that he unleashed a swarm of official rebukers – Clinton, Axelrod, and whoever in the State Dept took down Oren – they were all speaking for Obama.
…and all they are doing, is talking. No action whatsoever.
If it is ever going to change and America gets out from under israel’s control, this rebuke and humiliation of Vice-President Biden will be looked upon as what served finally as a catalyst for the change
I think you are correct. The SEATTLE TIMES published this editorial, suggesting that Israel’s military aid check should “get lost in the mail.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2011332141_edit14israel.html
Did anyone read this AIPAC, oops LA Times article about how “stunned and perplexed the Israelis are about the whole contretemps? It is so transparently an AIPAC-instigated story, that it’s sad. All the anonymous sources are U.S. officials!
See how the argument is framed, casting the incident as minor and the U.S. reaction unwarranted, tantamount to bullying poor little Israel:
Beginning as a spat over a single housing project
drew criticism from Washington in language rarely directed at even Iran or North Korea
The Israeli government, stunned and perplexed by the U.S. assault, tried to regroup this weekend.
trying to obtain concessions from the conservative Israeli government at a moment when Netanyahu may be politically vulnerable
Netanyahu’s position in his government coalition is “perilous,” another senior U.S. official said, as the prime minister is being pushed to give ground at a moment when he is taking criticism from some on the Israeli right, as well as those in the country’s center and left.
Attacked from the left, and the right, so by U.S. standards, he must be doing the right thing!
And to seal the deal: The Obama administration, facing midterm elections this year, cannot afford to alienate Jewish Americans who support Israel. Israel’s advocates in the U.S. called Clinton’s words Friday “a gross overreaction.”
Some people are starting to say out loud: it’s not the timing of the announcement, or the announcement itself, it’s the policy behind the announcement.
BYahoo has overplayed his hand. Letting his FM guys run amok, the Dubai assassination … people are seeing a pattern here.
Tony Karon in the National:
… And, of course, the Israelis are betting that the 2012 US election will restore the Republicans to the White House.
I’ll restate what I said in an earlier comment. The leadership of the Israel Lobby will do everything they can to ensure that Pres. Obama has a failed presidency. They will cut his political balls off to make an example of him for future White House administrations.
He might as well fight them tooth and nail now, because absolutely no amount of groveling will earn forgiveness for the sin of his earlier efforts to slightly change US foreign policy on Israel occupation of Palestinian territory.
So true. The Lobby will now do everything it can to push US Jews into the arms of the GOP. It remains to be seen how this priority in the presidential race will effect the hold it normally has on the throats of the Democratic congress.
Yes, The Lobby will do all it can to remove Obama and remove him good.
I hear Bibi saying “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” and “What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?”, and US Congressmen wondering where their loyalties will lie. (Look up Thomas a Becket).
Now is the time for people to take sides. J-Street and APN and all USA Jews as individuals will have to inform themselves of the unpleasant issues (still, one imagines, unknown to many) and take sides — us or them — my president right or wrong (and maybe he will contrive to have the law on his side, given time) — or my alma mater Israel right or wrong, but not both. Problems of dual loyalty will spring forth like daisies.
If the president really starts talking about the illegality of the settlements and the wall, and bout the HARM that they each do to Palestinians, and about how neither (placed where they are placed) do anything positive for Israel from a security perspective, he might just swing it.
I really don’t care to think about “otherwise.”
Obama has the bully pulpit for the next three years.
He’s already had it for one full year. What exactly is different now that he’ll use it any more effectively in the next three years, than the abject failure the last year has been?
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