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 If the order is not withdrawn immediately, I shall be compelled to recall Vice President Biden to Washington DC, and the U.S. will be under a moral obligation to re-examine our relationship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.
