David Bromwich writes that the New York Times story on wiretaps of the Israeli embassy in Washington is significant for an additional reason, having to do with the Times’s revelation that “the Israeli Embassy provided ‘regular written briefings’ on Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza to President Obama in the weeks between his election and inauguration.” Bromwich:
It adds to the probability that the IDF invasion and bombing of Gaza were brought to a close by pre-arrangement just in time to yield a stainless Inauguration Day. Something Obama could have learned from Reagan: the Iranian hostages released on Inauguration Day 1981.
Obama’s silence about the Gaza onslaught was noted by many at the time. Not a word, even, about the hundred-to-one disproportion of deaths. His only comment on the subject came by anticipation, during a July 2008 visit to Sderot, when he said that if his daughters were sleeping while rockets were coming in from Gaza, he would do everything he could to stop them. Nothing further about the particular “everything” the Israelis chose to inflict.
There was likely a double quid pro quo. In exchange for receiving reports in December, the president-elect agreed to say nothing about the Israeli action; just as Olmert, Barak, and Livni for their part agreed not to spoil his opening day. They would have learned something else, too, from the transaction and the silence of Obama afterward. It showed that he would never be a serious obstacle to any plan they made or any action they undertook. The test was administered before his presidency began. He passed.
