FarLeftist
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 20, 2010
- 363
- 20
Is this is a sick joke?
While visiting Israel in March, Joe Biden, the US vice president, delivered a speech that delighted the Israeli Right and its followers here. The key passage was this: "When it comes to Israel's security there can be no daylight - no daylight - between Israel and the US."
That formulation, which was devised by the pro-Israel lobby here, pleased the Netanyahu government, which interprets it to mean that Israel has carte blanch from Washington to do whatever it wants. No other country in the world enjoys such a pledge from the US.
Within hours, the Israeli government responded to Biden's endorsement by announcing that it would be building 1,600 new settler units in Arab East Jerusalem.
That announcement - and the slap in the face that it represented - led to the Spring 2010 crisis in US-Israel relations that seemed to indicate that, at long last, the US was standing up to Israel on the settlement issue. In Israel, it was widely speculated that Netanyahu's government would fall. Many believed that the dispute would force him to implement a settlement freeze or face serious consequences.
But then, surprising even Netanyahu, the Obama administration surrendered. Without Israel conceding anything, the administration let just a short time pass before it not only caved on settlements but denied that there ever was a crisis between the two governments.
And the sad thing is that Obama could have prevailed. The Israeli Right knew it had a weak hand to play while the Israeli peace camp was suddenly optimistic that Obama would be the "honest broker" he had promised to be.
But political considerations prevailed. Despite the fact that polls have always shown that most supporters of Israel in this country oppose settlements, the lobby and the Democratic Party donors who take their cues from the lobby warned Obama to back off.
Obama did. And the administration has been flailing in the region ever since.
Source:
Al Jazeera
While visiting Israel in March, Joe Biden, the US vice president, delivered a speech that delighted the Israeli Right and its followers here. The key passage was this: "When it comes to Israel's security there can be no daylight - no daylight - between Israel and the US."
That formulation, which was devised by the pro-Israel lobby here, pleased the Netanyahu government, which interprets it to mean that Israel has carte blanch from Washington to do whatever it wants. No other country in the world enjoys such a pledge from the US.
Within hours, the Israeli government responded to Biden's endorsement by announcing that it would be building 1,600 new settler units in Arab East Jerusalem.
That announcement - and the slap in the face that it represented - led to the Spring 2010 crisis in US-Israel relations that seemed to indicate that, at long last, the US was standing up to Israel on the settlement issue. In Israel, it was widely speculated that Netanyahu's government would fall. Many believed that the dispute would force him to implement a settlement freeze or face serious consequences.
But then, surprising even Netanyahu, the Obama administration surrendered. Without Israel conceding anything, the administration let just a short time pass before it not only caved on settlements but denied that there ever was a crisis between the two governments.
And the sad thing is that Obama could have prevailed. The Israeli Right knew it had a weak hand to play while the Israeli peace camp was suddenly optimistic that Obama would be the "honest broker" he had promised to be.
But political considerations prevailed. Despite the fact that polls have always shown that most supporters of Israel in this country oppose settlements, the lobby and the Democratic Party donors who take their cues from the lobby warned Obama to back off.
Obama did. And the administration has been flailing in the region ever since.
Source:
Al Jazeera
