Echoing the point made by Sheera Frenkel below, here is an interesting column by MJ Rosenberg at Mediamatters, appealing for the two-state solution, and saying that Netanyahu can deliver it, not Obama, because, well, Obama is bought and paid for. Rosenberg is blunt about the fact that Netanyahu is more powerful politically than Obama here, because he has such a base in the American Congress and the donor base of the Democratic party. No wonder Chas Freeman talks about political "pathologies."
[Obama] cannot achieve an agreement without putting pressure on both sides, and particularly on Netanyahu who, after all, holds all the cards (plus all the territory).
But Netanyahu knows that if Obama applies pressure on him, the President will outrage even his Democratic allies in Congress. Lobby-led Representatives and Senators (Democrats as much as Republicans) will oppose asking Netanyahu to do anything he does not want to do. (Count on the donors, the lobby and the Israeli embassy to organize the opposition.)
This applies to any territorial concession Netanyahu might be asked to make. It even applies to an Israeli attack on Iran which, should it come, would have the enthusiastic support of some of the most liberal, anti-war Democrats (let alone Republicans). That is certainly true just prior to an election, but it is also true when an election is two years away. The lobby owns this issue, not the President.
And that is why, in the end, we have to hope that Netanyahu has finally come to understand that the occupation poses an existential threat to Israel as a Jewish state.
If Netanyahu has actually come around to that understanding (as Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert seemed to), it is possible — even probable — that progress will be made.
After all, Netanyahu can deliver the lobby and, with it, Congress.
Oh, I think he does. However, his solution is to end the occupation by accelerating piecemeal ethnic cleansing and colonization and preparing to start a regional war during which the IDF will cleanse the Occupied Palestinian Territories of most of its (non-Jewish) inhabitants. The international political environment isn’t getting less hostile to Israel crimes and in spite of Pres. Obama’s surrender, the Israel Lobby in the United States is being challenged, albeit so far unsuccessfully, like never before. The fact that Lobby leaders are merely being challenged has them thoroughly rattled.
It is highly unlikely that there is going to be a better time than within the next two years for Zionists to solve their ‘Palestinian problem’ their way. Netanyahu and fellow travelers are counting on Israel Lobby control of US foreign policy, European servility and timidity, and Arab weakness to allow them to ride out substantive objections, e.g. sanctions or military action, to a a fait accompli Nakba 2. Who’s going to do anything about it? Any war under which this would take place will cause massive global economic upheavals, not least from disruption of Middle East oil supplies. Everyone is going to have their own problems to deal with, and I think they see any blowback onto the Jewish diaspora as a double blessing, both confirming in their own minds the justice of their cause and increasing aliyah.
I know some will think this is crazy talk. We’ll see. Anyone with two brain cells who has been paying attention to Israel knows that many if not most Israelis and most if not all national-level Israeli leaders are not right in the head. It’s a mistake to project one’s own worldview and values onto them and think they will behave as you think you would if placed in similar circumstances.
Israel has successfully weathered similar crises in the past, although none so challenging as this one will be. What did the world do after the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973? Why would Israeli leaders think wartime mass ethnic cleansing an unacceptable threat to the preservation of a Zionist state when it has worked so well in the past? Do you think they will consider it less of a threat than doing nothing and watching the crescendo of world support for enfranchisement of Palestinians under Israeli rule end their comfortable Jim Crow state? How many average Israelis like Eden Abergil are willing to let their ‘perfect lives’ be disrupted by the end of their state-sponsored racial privileges?
I hope the Red Crescent in Jordan has enormous stocks of food, water purification and portable sanitation equipment, tents, and body bags.
“piecemeal” continuing to cut more holes out of the land that has any potential to be a Palestinian state into the swiss cheese that it all ready is.
I agree.
It’s western guilt. Europe’s leadership and America’s are allowing Zionists to use the holocaust to extort them. Talk about desecrating the memory of the victims. It’s pathetic. Now Israel is shamelessly going after France for its railroad system during WWII or some such nonsense. Meanwhile, actual holocaust survivors are rotting in Israel, living under the poverty line because the banks and the state have squandered their benefits. I don’t understand how all those who claim to be “good Jews” can allow themselves to be so disgustingly opportunistic — and continue to get away with it.
RE: “…MJ Rosenberg at Mediamatters, appealing for the two-state solution, and saying that Netanyahu can deliver it, not Obama, because, well, Obama is bought and paid for.”
MY COMMENT: Someone (possibly Daniel Levy or Aaron Miller) recently said that the only hope was for the Europeans to apply the pressure to Israel because the U.S. would (or could) not.
ALSO – France: EU must play role in Israeli-Palestinian talks, By The Associated Press, Haaretz, 08/27/10
SOURCE – link to haaretz.com
Obama has to be the biggest American disappointment since the Edsel; he was exposed when he didn’t turn down the undeserved Nobel. Now he’s down to threatening Abbas against walking out of the talks if the Israelis don’t put a stop to settlements construction and has thus become Netanyahu’s “boy”. Bush must be laughing his head off at this masquerade.
Obama has to be the biggest American disappointment since the Edsel
that’s hysterical walid, good one.
>> [Obama] was exposed when he didn’t turn down the undeserved Nobel.
Obama was exposed well before that, when he failed to hold members of the previous Administration accountable for war crimes (illegal invasion of a sovereign nation, occupation, torture, mass murder, etc.).
Unlike RW, I believe that laws serve a purpose. And I believe that if anyone, anywhere, breaks a law, he/she should be punished. To pretend things didn’t happen, to “forget the past”, to “look ahead”, et cetera ad nauseam, is pure bullshit.
If the laws state that occupation or invasion or colonialism or white phosphorus or depleted uranium munitions or targeted assassinations are illegal, then the people or countries who transgress those laws deserve punishment. Period. No excuses because you’re America or “generation to generation” fear-scarred Israel. No hypocrisy because “they” are dirty and uncivilized freedom-hating Muslims/Arabs.
‘Netanyahu can deliver the lobby and, with it, Congress.’
From ‘canard’ to truism in two years flat.
Two more years, and the retired O’Bomba will be out playing golf with his mentor George W. Bush.
Next!
Nice bit of ham and cheese theatre these peace talks, what?!
And why praytell would it take a ‘year’ of negotiations? Why a year?
Because the USA and Israel will need a year of distracting the world with what we all already know are the I/P failed peace negotiations while they quietly set-up and ready-up on all fronts including the global PR front, for a joint attack on Iran.
These peace talks are just a temporary cover, a wacky charade: it IS Alice-in-wonderland wacky when thieves and weasels meet at tea-time to discuss how to right the wrongs of the word. The USA government and israel don’t care about the Palestininas, we all know this. But they really, really do care about USA and Israeli hegemony in the middle east. Hegemony, hegemony, hegemony!
It’s the hegemony stupid!
That the folly of the Iraq war cost us dire loss of influence and pretty much catapulted Iran into a regional power ‘MUST BE IMMEDIATELY RECTIFIED’, is USA and israel’s ultimate and only concern and strategy in the middle east.
There is NO OTHER GAME being played and configured behind closed doors.
Don’t be fooled, people. The empire wants to strike again.
It would be something to witness, if Obama could get back at Netanyahu in public. Take the gloves off and start the fight at some soiree and lay out a series of jibes to roast Yahoo, for his willful negligence.
How the press would fawn for Netanyahu, over their president. It would be a risky move, but one that may pay off for the country and Obama’s party. And republicans could learn how to wait long enough to drop the axe, properly. One can hope…
But there would be a scramble to placate Israel, and the media would be in a frenzy.
too bad obama has no one in his court to pass the ball to. Guy couldn’t pick a decent team. With people like Biden at his side, there are not many options to score. poor schlub…
Why would Obama have pressed for these peace talks that he must have known were doomed to fail with an election so close in time? Hasn’t he had enough of Netanyahoo and AIPAC rubbing his nose in the dirt?
His only hope of a political redemption is for Netanyahoo to categorically refuse a settlement freeze and then for Abbas to walk away from the talks – he could then say: “At least I tried”.
What an abominable SNAFU!