Why Israelis Trust Obama More Than Bibi Netanyahu
The Washington face-off between President Obama and Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, prime minister of the new right-wing Israeli government, represents the first chapter in a new era. It could yet go either way.
On the surface, smiles and handshakes are de rigeur. Meanwhile, everyone is asking what's going on behind the scenes. New Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman was in no doubt - he said recently to a Russian newspaper that the US "accepts all Israel's decisions": Obama will do as he's told.
US National Security Adviser James Jones and the president's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel reportedly have a different take. In the words of the Economist, "What may be Israel's most intransigent government ever elected is scared stiff that an American administration may squeeze it until its pips squeak."
Beyond the politicking, questions of what ordinary Israelis and Palestinians want, and who they trust, are just as crucial in determining whether peace is possible. So last week we asked them -- in representative Israeli and Palestinian public opinion polls specially commissioned for global citizens' network Avaaz.
The results of these new polls were striking -- so much so that they inspired us to make a TV ad called "Leadership," addressed to President Obama and opening with Lieberman's incendiary statement quoted above. Running on US television networks this week, the ad centers on what people in the region told us in those polls.
For starters, Israelis trust Obama as a leader far more than their own prime minister Bibi Netanyahu -- with 59% of Israelis calling the US President trustworthy, and only 31% saying this of Bibi.
What is more, 65% of Israelis -- that's almost two in three -- want President Obama to get actively involved to help solve the conflict, as do 70% of Palestinians.
That amounts to a stunning vote of confidence from people in the region for Obama to take a lead for Middle East peace. It seems to be linked to Israelis' and Palestinians' doubts about their own leaders' ability to bring peace when they're left alone together -- doubts which are very understandable when you take even a glance at the record.
It used to be a point of principle for US negotiators like Dennis Ross that "We can't want peace more than the parties." But most ordinary Israelis and Palestinians desperately want a peace based on two states. It is their politicians who are failing to knuckle down and deliver it -- which is why the people's hopes for leadership, and peace, now seem to rest more with Obama.
Two recent polls in the US, by Zogby of Americans at large and by JStreet of American Jews, found similar results supporting forceful leadership by Obama for peace.
Thousands of people have donated to our ad to show the President that people in the region, in the US and around the world will back him if he takes the lead. It calls for him to advance a bold Obama Plan for Middle East peace, instead of endorsing just more dead-end talks between failing leaders. Here is the ad:
Will Obama listen, or will he let Bibi and other regional politicians lead him by the nose? The omens are promising -- but still unclear.
One thing is for sure: we can't afford to fail. As King Abdullah of Jordan said last week, it's now a simple choice between more war or peace in the Middle East.
Israelis and Palestinians are crying out for someone to change the game. Yet if Middle East peace is a US interest, it is US citizens who will need to stand up and be counted, and US politicians and policymakers who will need to steel their nerves, to engage all the parties -- and, finally, to lead.
Avaaz.org - The World in Action
V Summit of the Americas in Trinidad & Tobago: mission impossible, mission accomplished.
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how can we be assured that info like this is ever shared with the president. i mention this because i worked for a congressman. our administation asst screened all info and was total decision maker on what information or correspondence crossed his desk. i imagine rham emanuel is the traffic cop on duty. no one should have such power.
Paul:
No matter who was now PM of Israel your poll would have registered the same 59% vote of trust in Obama. Israeli's see Obama's Arabic middle name and Moslem family roots as giving him a diplomatic advantage over Israel's Jewish PM in persuading the Palis to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and abandon the absurd demand for a right of return of Palestinian refugees. Howver, the chances of Obama succeeding at this is practically nil. Palis who want Obama to get actively involved in a new peace process see him as a potential tool for weakening the Jewish state. The vast number of Palis still don't accept the reality that the Jewish state is here to stay. Until the Palis give up the lunatic hope of victory the conflict will continue..
hey yappenmutt
if you'll recall bush sold himself as a compassionate conservative and the supreme court gave him the office. the second election was questionable, also. he hardly had a mandate and ended his reign with a 22% following. these two guys sold themselves as aggressors and have a mandate of voters.
"Israel has the only democratically elected government in the Middle East" ~B Obama
THEY elected the rightwing nut Zionists.
Please - don't come running to Uncle Sam when your process fails you.
I am truly sad for Israel, a young 60+ and she STILL doesn't 'get it'.
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There is a logical and obvious solution, although one which demands a hard compromise. Some of us remember the partition of India into two states based also on religion. There were two parts of an Islamic state - West Pakistan and East Pakistan, separated by 1,000 miles of India. Of course that did not work and East Pakistan became an independent state. We have a similar situation here with Gaza and the West Bank. Israel should transfer all its West Bank settlements to the new Palestinian state which will transfer Gaza to Israel. That is a sensible and geographically logical solution. Jersusalem becomes an internationa city administered by the UN, which began the process in 1947. Israel and Palestine recognize each other modeled after Egypt. It is pointless to discuss historical borders and just accept the reality of now.
I'm sorry, but that's absurd. There is no reason the Palestinians should surrender Gaza -- not only is it currently the highest concentration of Palestinians in the world (thanks to the Nakba, one notes) but it also has undeveloped off-shore fossil fuel resources.
International law makes this /very/ clear -- Gaza and the West Bank, in their entirety, both belong to the Palestinians. International law is /not/ negotiable.
Chaos,
- Isn't Gaza, West Bank, Israel, & Jordan all part of Palestine? If so, don't the Muslims already have more than their fair share?
You speak of what the Palestinians want as if they have a choice in the matter. Do not make the mistake of equating the Israelis' power to enforce change in a democratic state with one that rules its people through fear and intimidation.
Also, you seem to also skip over the fact that the offiicial line from the Palestinian "authority" is not a two-state solution, but the removal of the state of Israel. How can Israel negotiate a two-state solution when the other state will not even recognize them as a sovereign nation with a right to exist.
Another question, how involved are other nations (besides the U.S.)? How much influence do they have? Iran, Syria, Lebanon all seem to be pulling the Palestinian strings at one point or another. How do they figure into this?
"How can Israel negotiate a two-state solution when the other state will not even recognize them as a sovereign nation with a right to exist." Israel has been refusing the existence of Palestine for sixty years running. Your argument works both ways.
No it does not. Israel has always been willing to recognize a Palestinian State if one could exist. The only problem is, they allow themselves to be led by terrorists, not statesmen.
Netanyahu will capitulate on the two state solution. He's just trying to stop it from being a steamroll.
Really? Then how do you explain the statements of his foreign minister? Or the stated platform of Likud that they will refuse to pull any settlements -- and in fact, wish to restore the Jewish settlements in Gaza as well!
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"The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.
Something you have to understand is that within the arab and the jewish culture, to look for compromise is not something that looks good. It is perceived as weak. For example, Isreal withdrawing from Gaza was not perceived as a gesture of good will but as a sign of weakness. So all the political moves and posturing you see coming from both sides have to be understood within the frame of their respective cultures, and not yours.
Regardless of what they say, Israel's government isn't the real power broker in the situation when 70% of the Israeli public supports a 2 state solution.
That said, still pertinent that settlement activity is a place of contention
The USA should stop funding and supporting Israel unconditionally. 60 years of Palistinian apartied must come to an end. The US Constitution has no mention of Israel for good reason, it didn't exist. Stop forcing American taxpayers and citizens into believing that our National security is tied into theirs. The fact that America is forcibly tied to Israel because of American politicians, and the Jewish business community actually makes us a target that we would not be if this alliance did not exist. Treat Israel with the same respect as we treat other countries that we have little or no commercial, economic, resource oriented ties too. Israel is a religious country obviously, why are we, a secular Government supporting a religious country, yet get nothing in return but religious confrontation with other Nations?
The biggest obstacles to a solution between Israel and Palestine are AIPAC and their neocon friends.
Why does the Press & Hussein Obama keep mentioning “2 States in Palestine?” When there’s already 3 states in Palestine: Israel, Jordan, & Gaza. Jordan is the largest State in Palestine, comprising 76% of post-WW I Palestine. In summary, with Jordan and Gaza comprising 77% of Palestine, it clearly does not make sense to carve up Israel to make a 4th State in Palestine; especially one that would be Islamic and harbor terrorists.
Israel harbored terrorists too, junior.
Your bigotted assumption that an arab state would essentially harbour terrorists aside, you have a point. Unfortunately it is no the fault of the palestinians that foreign powers decided to carve up their territory, facilitate the way for a European settler state that ethnically cleansed the majority of the them from the homes and villages..
" ... most ordinary Israelis and Palestinians desperately want a peace based on two states."
Well, that may be true, but as this map of the West Bank indicates, a viable Palestinian state isn't possible without massive uprooting of Israeli settlements, which might spark a rebellion within the settler-heavy IDF and a civil war. The Palestinians already live in a Bantustan, calling it a "state" solves nothing.
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The two state "solution" died with Rabin. There are only two alternatives.
A single democratic state that embraces Arabs and Jews. Difficult, but not impossible. See South Africa. The settlements can stay, they'll just have many, many new Palestinian neighbors as the dispossessed and their descendants return
or
Continued war, killing and possibly an attack on Iran -- with catastrophic regional and global effects. Even without an attack on Iran, the unravelling of Israel as fewer people settle there and younger people emigrate. Death by slow leak. The Arabs just need to wait.
I think you underestimate the value of pulling up those illegal settlements, arvay. Israel is responsible for funding a colonization effort that amounts to organized international crime... they can deal with the fallout. If that means they have a rebellion of Jewish religious extremists on their hands, well... it's about time the world stops coddling the real terrorists of the Middle East.
Both sides need to stop grandstanding and share. It's that simple. Israel needs to look in the mirror and realize they are in trouble without U.S. support. It's time for real change, now is the time like the President says...per
Let's make peace with a two state solution and move on!
Share. Do you understand the concept of Greater Israel?
God promised the land to the Jews, so whoever is living there must leave or be killed.
And forces like Iran, trying to prevent this must be stopped by the Noble Americans.
Iraq was about spreading Freedom, Iran will be about helping the state of Israel achieve it military superiority- because we can never let the a Holocaust occur again.
That is a crock of sh*t.
I can write a book and say that god promised me the land where Israel is also.
A large amount of global responsibility now lies on the shoulders of the ordinary voting American. Countries where America has created problems, it is needed for the solutions. As long as the US population remains largly ignorant of the world, then at least a couple of major problems will remain and continue to deplete America - Israel and climate change. Only when ordinary people wise up to what Israel's highly distorting influence is doing to their country, will anything change. Climate problems are now at last being treated with the first signs of seriousness - ONLY because there is just enough awareness in the voting public to force it to happen. Only the people can instigate meaningful change because America's ruling elites in business and politics are taught from infancy to ride gravy trains until they crash.
Its a nail-biting time for the rest of the globe because, of all the first world's populations to bear such critical responsibilities, why did it have to be the most naieve, least politically sophisticated, most commercially manipulated population on the planet? Doh!
I'm an Israeli and I agree completely with your post.
I wish we had inspirational leaders like Obama in here. The Israeli side and the Palestinian side suffer from the same problem.
The political environment in Israel is pretty crazy right now, and nothing will be done unless there will be pressure from the US government.
I do hope that your president will be more serious then Bush and will have a good plan to end this horrible conflict, because our leaders will never do anything that will jeopardize there political place (and right now Bibi is in a serious mess with his all-over government, where each side tries to drag him to it's way).
(Why Israelis Trust Obama More Than Bibi Netanyahu.
I read your whole post but I didn't really need to (interesting article by the way). But it can be summed up best as follows:
Netanyahu's nuts!
Anyway we slice it, Netanyahu is nuts and has the nuts to wreak great harm to the United States should he want to - and, the CIA notwithstanding, we'd never know who did us in. The Mossad infrastructure is in place, and so is the Israeli Airline El Al ready to detonate a hydrogen bomb high up enough not to kill their fellow compatriots living here, but to knock out the electrical grid for the entire East Coast of the United States.
Israel has the know how, the treachery, and the motivation to say "screw you" to the United States, inasmuch that it will never give up part of Jerusalem, water rights, and its desire to keep the West Bank, and to maintain that it has the right to not be content with the confines given it when it was created by the United States, Britain, and France under UN aegis.
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