Israel's Titanic moment: Does Obama want Bibi's head?

[azurnoir]

Hamas has designated this day, in this place, its Day of Rage. Why, then, the smiles on the faces of Mahmoud Zahar and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

Perhaps it's because after more than 22 years of costly trial and error, Hamas has finally come upon the secret of how to bring down the Jewish state:

Let the ship sink itself.

Israelis woke on Tuesday to an Army Radio report that George Mitchell had abruptly cancelled his scheduled visit to Israel, and that the U.S. Mideast envoy would not resume his discussions with Jerusalem until Israeli leaders agreed to three conditions set by Washington - an uncomfortably familiar echo of the U.S. position on contacts with Hamas.

In one of the more remarkable, and ill-advised, editorials in its 77-year history, the Jerusalem Post poured oil on the smolder this week, rewriting Jewish history and tradition to declare that the newly dedicated Hurva synagogue in the Old City, "symbolizes, perhaps more than any other site, the Jewish people's yearnings to return to its homeland."

The piece is an extraordinary example of internal logic, and an indirect confirmation of fundamentalist Islamic fears of hopes to encroach on the Muslim shrine of Al Aqsa for the ultimate purpose of building a third Jewish Temple. Referring to the literal meaning of the Hurva, the editorial goes on to state that "To name something that is built a 'ruin' reveals a stubborn unwillingness to accept the present reality as unassailable."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1156827.html

[Poll_Blind]

1. From the same article:

This is the key, IMO:

Judging from the administration's responses thus far, it appears far more likely that what the president would like to see laid low is not the Netanyahu government's head, but rather the part that often verbally functions as its butt end - specifically Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party and Interior Minister Eli Yishai's Shas.

In the current Israeli political constellation, these two men, and these two parties - a volatile alliance of ultra-secular Russian-born immigrants and ultra-Orthodox sabras with roots in the Muslim world and the Mediterranean - are the effective veto both to the peace process as a whole and to a settlement freeze of any substance.

They represent a total of 26 of the 61 Knesset seats needed for a Netanyahu majority. More crucially, they are the primary roadblock to the entry of the centrist Kadima party, which at 28 seats is larger even than Netanyahu's ruling Likud.

Obama, whose math and history skills are as good as anyone's, knows both that Israeli government concessions are a near-monopoly of the center-right Likud. It is thus reasonable to assume that the president would like to see a Netanyahu-led coalition anchored by Kadima and Labor, whose 68-seat cushion could allow for the inevitable resignations of "rebel" Likud backbenchers.

If Sharon can break from Likud and form Kadima, Netanyahu can replace Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu with Kadima et al (I read that Jewish Home was pushing for this too, they're small but almost 3% is still sizable in Israeli politics). After all, it is the land of miracles. ;-)

PB

[azurnoir]

2. The land of "miracles" but

Kadima is also the party of playing politics and while the words may be prettier I question how much different the actions would be

[Poll_Blind]

3. Agreed.

The first draft of my response was quite a bit bigger and covered some of that and then of course I felt I should add a little more, and a little more- and the thing just got out of control length-wise and I shot it in the head and started over. But yeah, it's not like Kadima come out the "good guys" unless you boil the whole negotiation process down to "Shas and YB will not negotiate" and "Kadima will at least entertain the thought"- which is basically what I did.

It's grossly oversimplified and (possibly) over-optimistic.

PB