The Israel countdown seems to have begun. The president leaves tomorrow for an overseas trip that will put him, on Thursday, in Cairo, where he will give a major speech. In this speech he is expected to send the signals that will indicate whether it's a new deal for Israel.
While there will surely be no fighting words here, there could well be a sense of how far the present administration is going to move from standard policy, in which Israel gets the benefit of the doubt, to, in effect, doubting Israel.
The Times offers a front page story about how indications of the new tensions are swirling around the issue of West Bank development: Israel wants to build, Washington says no. This is a story out of Israel, meaning the Israelis are starting their pushback campaign. It's directly about Thursday's speech: It's a warning. But the Times has another, rather buried, story out of Washington, very clearly a response to the settlement dispute, in which the president says, in an NPR interview, "Part of being a good friend [to Israel] is being honest." After years of saying very little, of openly tolerating the clearly preposterous, that's a deep cut. He goes on, in the interview, to reiterate his position regarding a "freeze on settlements."
Part of understanding what's happening in the US-Israel relationship is understanding who is saying what to whom. Because the language here is so ritualized and proscribed, the entire conversation takes place in subtext. The president will never say we're cutting off Israel; we're dumping them; we're finished--but, on the other hand, he will.
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Every president for a long time has asked Israel to stop the settlements
And every Israeli president has not done so. Its all a show
Obama has not done or said anything that Bush didn't say or do
He has not hinted at any kind of reduction in aid, he actually increased aid
He has re-iterated the policy to block the UN from sanctioning Israel
I'm not sure why the extra press this time, I suppose the "Obama is a secret muslim" talking point caught on.
We are not even asking Israel to do what is legally obligated of them and give up the settlements, we are just saying they should stop building on existing settlements. And when Israel refused to even do that, we apparently aren't going to do anything about it.
Remember this is our money doing this. We like to pretend that the "crazy Israeli's" are the ones doing it, but its us. We could stop it at any time, but we choose not to. And it wouldn't even take a funding cut to stop something as small as new building on settlements, just a threat to do so would collapse Likud's coalition and oust the current prime minister. He is very shaky as it stands even without any pressure from us
I hope he proves me wrong, but right now all signs point to Obama as a centrist wuss
The whole point of seeking peace in the Middle East is so that no one destroys anyone. I hope that the President is saying the lives in Palestine are no less valuable than Israeli lives.
If Israeli wants to avoid destruction, as you claim is the issue, it will have to respect its neighbor.
Dumping Israel isn't the goal. The US isn't "breaking up" with Israel, so to speak. But for years we've had a rather unbalanced relationship. We try to express a problem, and they pout. Or they decide to break things. Or they call their lobbyist friends and pull strings to get their way. Or they act out. It's been a troubled relationship which seems to be based on a lot of manipulation.
He said that he was going to be their friend by being honest. And it's honest to tell them it isn't in their interest, nor in ours, to continue on their path to "natural growth". There's nothing natural about it. It's deliberate and it's dangerous.
I believe he's going to shake things up. I also believe Israel isn't going to like it.
In fact, Israel's mischievous behavior is liable to continue ad infinetum until or unless we finally muster the resolve to cancel any further military aid.
Israel will not allow Bibi to screw this up.
I support Obama's cooler climate towards Israel. I would like even better if we would cut aid to that country, Israel does not need it and it would put to better use here. By the way, I do not support the terrorism from the Palestinian side at all. It has done them more harm then good. If the Palestinians were to quit using terrorism and the Israelies continued their settlement building it would put the Palestinian cause in a much better light.
For decades, Israel is practicing the politics of creating conditions to make a Palestinian state not possible and arguing the status quo cannot be changed.
Israel needs to be forced to cooperate for the sake of peace.
It's sad that such an open and hospitable population as the Arab people have been demonized so effectively.
It's all the fault of the United Nations