He Got His Glow Back: Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to the Jewish Federations in Washington on Monday and basking in his renewed advantage against the Obama administration. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
How quickly it faded, that promise--not of peace, exactly, but of breaking down stalemates and getting something done on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. That had been the Obama promise. Add it to the list of the president's own reversals.
Six months ago when they first met at the White House, Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu literally looked like the new sheriff in town telling the serial miscreant to shape up or else. Obama wanted a freeze on all Israeli settlements in the West Bank before moving on to further talks with the Palestinians. Netanyahu looked humbled.
That turned out to be a pose. His version of a breakthrough, spelled out in a speech a month later, turned out to be a mixture of more of the same, but with that special brand of Netanyahu contempt for anything resembling respect or concessions toward Arabs. He topped it off with what he knew to be a deal-breaker: the demand that Palestinians not just recognize Israel, which they did almost two decades ago, but now recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a distinction even Harry Truman, unquestioned friend of Israel, refused to make.
Netanyahu was in Washington again this week. He delivered a speech to the Jewish Federations. The Obama administration thought he might make some new concessions. But why bother? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just finished praising Netanyahu for doing nothing. She had just made the Obama administration's about-face on Israel official. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had just surrendered all pretenses of moving forward. Netanyahu had the advantage. He wasn't about to give it away. He pressed it.
As Philip Weiss summarized Netanyahu's words to the federation, "The speech had blood-and-soil overtones. It boiled down to: We're smarter than other people, we have a lot of Nobel Prizes, we are leading the world in desalination and we are going to replace oil with another energy source, and we are the Jewish people!"
The speech contained another Netanyahu characteristic: the radical contradiction. "Religious pluralism and tolerance will always guide my policy," he said, only to immediately add: "What does a Jewish state mean for the Palestinians? They must abandon the fantasy of flooding Israel with refugees." Note the allusion to flooding: Palestinians are a cataclysm, a catastrophe (al naqba in reverse), a plague to be resisted. Not, by any means, a people to make peace with, let alone human beings deserving the same shot at pluralism as Jews.
It was with that version of one-man chest-bumping that Netanyahu then met with Obama at the White House the evening of Nov. 9. The White House summed up the meeting in a terse, almost huffy 51-word statement that said absolutely nothing: "The President and Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed a number of issues in the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship. The President reaffirmed our strong commitment to Israel's security, and discussed security cooperation on a range of issues. The President and Prime Minister also discussed Iran and how to move forward on Middle East peace."
Round Two, in other words, went to Netanyahu. Obama looks out of punches.
See Also:
- How Obama and Clinton Caved On Israel's Settlements
- Palestinian Authority, Never Authoritative, Is Near Collapse
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Quitting Act
- Obama-Netanyahu: Round 1 Goes to Obama (or Dr. Phil)
- How Obama Can Resolve the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
- The Annapolis Summit: Shooting for the Palestinian-Israeli Moon
- Can Netanyahu Be Trusted? You Decide
Comments