From the category archives:

Obama

Gen’l Petraeus channels Walt and Mearsheimer

by Philip Weiss14 March 2010

The establishment consensus is cracking. A new report by Mark Perry has it that David Petraeus has gotten religion on the Israel/Palestine conflict– as any thinking person with responsibility for American lives in the Middle East does– and is now mainlining the Walt and Mearsheimer realist critique of our foreign policy in the Middle East [...]

17 comments

Melville on Obama?

by Philip Weiss14 March 2010

The other day I likened Bibi to Ahab with respect to Iran, and suggested Obama might be Ahab’s first mate, Starbuck. A friend passed along Melville’s characterization of the tall, conscientious, and courageous Starbuck (from the Knights and Squires chapter of Moby-Dick, before the crisis, of course):

With memories like these in him, and, moreover, given [...]

1 comment

Is Hillary’s ‘deeply negative signal’ a deeply positive signal?

by Bruce Wolman12 March 2010

The Obama Administration finally realized its credibility was in tatters after the shenanigans of this week in Israel. With the President apparently sedated and the Vice President hoarse from crooning love songs to Israel, it was decided to have the top wimps step aside and let the only one in the Administration with any guts [...]

44 comments

Israeli insult to Biden should have been no surprise

by Philip Weiss12 March 2010

Max Blumenthal puts the lie to the claim that the interior minister surprised Netanyahu with his announcement of further settlements with this report on a hoedown with John Hagee and Netanyahu on the eve of Biden’s visit, in which there was endless talk of further settlements:

Vice President Joe Biden was greeted in Jerusalem with the [...]

26 comments

‘To wipe the spit off his face, Biden had to say it was only rain’

by Philip Weiss12 March 2010

Akiva Eldar in Haaretz says that the US signed off on the East Jerusalem Judaization.

To wipe the spit off his face, Biden had to say it was only rain. Therefore, he lauded Netanyahu’s assertion that actual construction in Ramat Shlomo would begin only in another several years.

Thus Israel essentially received an American green light [...]

20 comments

Marty Peretz, Arabist

by Philip Weiss12 March 2010

Marty Peretz consults his ouija board, and urges on the Judaization of East Jerusalem:

"I believe that the great rabbi in the skies has not instructed Israel to force history to stand still. So let me be direct: The Palestinians have only themselves to blame on Jerusalem, as on other disputed matters."

and learns some secrets about [...]

30 comments

Biden to Bibi: You are endangering us

by Philip Weiss11 March 2010

The Netanyahu insult to Joe Biden is the greatest thing that ever happened. It has woken a lot of people up, maybe including Joe Biden, who is streetsmart, and will allow the mainstream press in the US to finally question the special relationship and what it is doing to the American interest. You say I’m [...]

56 comments

Netanyahu steals more land, so Biden is late for dinner

by Philip Weiss10 March 2010

I felt nauseated when I heard that the big gesture by Joe Biden, in response to Israel announcing more settlements on his arrival in Jerusalem, was being late to dinner. Paul Woodward nails it:

The administration either needs to threaten to apply real pressure on the Israeli government, or, if it wants to confine itself to [...]

12 comments

Lord almighty, MSM covers dissing of Biden

by Anonymous10 March 2010

Notice how the mainstream press (Time Magazine) dissed the Israeli government and Bibi. This is new. Change that we can believe in (We hope):
Guardian:

It doesn’t seem to realise it, but Israel cannot afford to keep on behaving in this disobliging manner towards its friends. Whether it is blatant disregard for international rules concerning the protection [...]

29 comments

Lobby’s purchase of Republican Campbell recalls its purchase of Obama

by Philip Weiss9 March 2010

Alison Weir of If Americans Knew has published a piece on Tom Campbell’s back pages–the former California congressman who is now running for Senate. Note that Campbell obviously had realist bona fides back in the day, but has utterly abandoned his pro-Palestinian position. Campbell’s collapse is remarkably similar to Obama’s progress during the same period. [...]

7 comments

J Street says Obama is serious (but Israeli Foreign Ministry shrugs)

by Bruce Wolman9 March 2010

J Street and the Israeli Foreign Ministry offer contrasting reactions to the just announced Israeli-Palestinian "proximity talks" – indirect talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians with the United States serving as the go-between. By summer we should know for certain which organization has a better read of Obama Administration policies.
Isaac Luria of J Street [...]

42 comments

Obama’s Cheney

by Philip Weiss8 March 2010

Greenwald on Rahm:

One related point about the spate of "Obama-should-have-followed-Rahm’s-centrist-advice" articles that have appeared of late: if you really think about it, it’s quite extraordinary to watch a Chief of Staff openly undermine the President by spawning numerous stories claiming that the President is failing because he’s been repeatedly rejecting his Chief of Staff’s [...]

14 comments

Sunstein augured Obama’s strategy back in ‘04

by Anonymous4 March 2010

I suspect chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and regulatory czar Cass Sunstein have become the advisers that Obama follows most closely. For Emanuel, look at the New York Times story today on his almost completed agreement with S.C. Senator Lindsey Graham: closing Guantanamo in exchange for making military tribunals the norm, and the invention of [...]

9 comments

Haaretz: In Iranian-Israeli brinksmanship, Obama is powerless

by Bruce Wolman3 March 2010

Aluf Benn in this morning’s Ha’aretz describes an increasingly dangerous poker game being played out over Iran’s nuclear program. With war now being threatened, "the stakes are constantly rising with the expectations that one of the players will recognize his weakness, blink and leave the table."
Player one, the Prime Minister of Israel has certainly upped [...]

38 comments

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