Avigdor Lieberman arrived today in the US today for his first visit as Foreign Minister. He is scheduled to cover all the bases over the next two days meeting with Hillary Clinton, National Security Adviser James Jones, Joe Biden and leaders in Congress.
We’ve been giving a lot of attention to the recent Israel Project poll which shows American support for Israel dropping like a rock, and Lieberman seems aware of the trend in general. Over on the Peace Now’s blog, Ori Nir quotes Lieberman as telling the Knesset’s Security and Foreign Affairs Committee that Israel “‘cannot continue with a successful foreign policy without changing the way we are perceived’ internationally. He lamented: ‘We have a fundamental problem: we are not perceived well.'”
Israel’s plummeting international support is contrasted to a new poll which shows rising Israeli support for the agenda Netanyahu laid out on Sunday. Ha’aretz reports:
Public support for Netanyahu’s speech is sky-high, even though Israelis do not have illusions about the prime minister’s motives, which they generally attribute to American pressure. But it turns out that Israelis prefer a prime minister who does the right thing even if he does it for the wrong reasons. And most of the public thinks the right thing is the combination found in Netanyahu’s address: right-wing rhetoric mixed with the desire for peace, an undivided Jerusalem, opposition to the return of Palestinian refugees, a demand for defensible borders, and the words that made the big headline – a demilitarized Palestinian state.
The article adds, “The public liked the speech not just because it was based on the Israeli consensus, but also because of its tone: moderate with a desire for peace and casting the blame for a lack of peace on the Arabs.”
Increasingly the Israeli consensus and US consensus are at odds. It is also easy to imagine that Lieberman’s visit will highlight the difference in Israeli tone as well. This will be the Obama administration’s first chance to offer a substantive response to Netanyahu’s policy speech and engage with Avigdor Lieberman, himself a settler. Hopefully they recognize that the pressure they are exerting is working – and that it’s not enough.
