Writing about how Netanyahu fought back and gained the upper hand of Obama, Ari Shavit writes in Haaretz:
After 18 wasted months during which Obama was the president who exerted pressure, he has become the president who embraces. Obama is embracing the State of Israel and the prime minister of Israel. What happened?
Three things have happened. On one level, Netanyahu waged a struggle. And the statesman who is depicted as susceptible to pressure did not succumb to the American pressure of this past spring. He fought back. The price for what Netanyahu did was felt by Obama in Chicago. The Israeli leader applied hidden pressure to the American leader, which made it perfectly clear to him: No more…
Now what is meant by the reference to Chicago? (It can’t be just a slip.) Of course ALL this kind of pressure is "hidden"; doesn’t Shavit imply what he’s talking about was a move more hidden than most? Will American journalists report on this? Does it involve Pritzkers and Crowns, the big money that launched Obama, or Lee Rosenberg of AIPAC, an early backer? Rahm?
