Netanyahu thought he could take Obama, and lost

[ProgressiveMuslim]

By Anshel Pfeffer
Tags: Barack Obama


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quite right. As he said in his speech at the Knesset on Monday while greeting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, over the last four decades, every single Israeli government has built Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

No prime minister, from the right, left or center, has ever caved to international pressure and agreed to curtail the development of the capital east of the Green Line.

What Netanyahu did not say, but certainly alluded to, was that until last weekend, no American administration had ever openly demanded that Israel abort a housing project in East Jerusalem. This is also perfectly true.

But there is another conclusion to be drawn from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's unprecedented ultimatum - revoke the planning permit to build 1,600 new homes in Ramat Shlomo or else - and that is the simple fact that on no other Israeli prime minister's watch has Israel's most crucial international alliance been allowed to deteriorate so badly, and so quickly.

Even supporters of U.S. President Barack Obama would have to agree that his foreign policy over the past year, particularly in the Middle East, has been exceptionally clumsy, to say the least. It's not only Israelis who feel exasperated at the way the Obama administration has tried to "engage" and curry favor with despotic regimes, from Russia to Iran to China, at the expense of America's traditional allies in many parts of the world.

The Obama approach has not only failed to deliver results, it has by and large emboldened tyrants and dictators to harden their opposition to America and the West...

read on...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1157469.html

[Donald Ian Rankin]

1. We don't yet know if he lost or not.

No significant concessions on Netanyahu's part have yet been announced, so far as I know.

[Jefferson23]

2. There exists a profound opportunity for Obama to influence Israel

to abide by agreements as a first step. To what degree Obama utilizes the Petraeus report and when, is yet to be seen, but the report is there and is not ever going to go away. Obama will always be able to reinsert in it, and he can do so by way of a more open and honest conversation
that has not taken place in the U.S. on this subject imo. Some of that conversation began a couple of months ago by mainstream supporters of Israel here in the U.S., I believe that will continue, and thank goodness...it is long over due.

I don't think anyone needs to frame this as Bibi lost, Obama won, to me this is more about a sitting president who has been given a detailed
strong analysis report from our top military commander with precise reasons why this conflict must come to a close. There is also the political pressure for Obama to push Israel, as he is the first president to win the Nobel Peace Prize preemptively.

If this were a card game, all bets are off, but my belief is that Obama has the clear advantage, he is the one who has the leverage...at long last.

I have never felt more hopeful.