Back to the Israel crisis.
Washington sharpens crisis with Israel, may give Palestinians military shield
DEBKAfile Special Report March 18, 2010, 11:36 AM (GMT+02:00)
"Israel is one of our closest allies and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away," said President Barack Obama to Fox News Wednesday, March 17, after denying any crisis in the relationship. debkafile's Washington sources note that denial makes a lot of sense for the president because it lets him off the hook for dealing with it.
However, in Jerusalem, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu called his inner cabinet into its second session on the crisis that same night. The seven ministers were asked to review the situation after President Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton turned down their initial proposals for easing the upset and laid down three pre-conditions for restoring normal relations with Jerusalem:
1. The Netanyahu government must extend the 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction to include East Jerusalem;
2. When the moratorium runs out in September, it must be renewed for the duration of peace negotiations with the Palestinians;
3. Israeli must make more concessions to the Palestinian Authority and its chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
The Israeli government was informed that until those conditions were met, its ministers would not be received in Washington by high-level American officials - a virtual boycott, which downgrades the normal diplomatic, strategic and security exchanges between the two administrations to the level of senators and the special Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
Netanyahu tried offering the Obama administration a number of compromise proposals, such as the suspension of construction in East Jerusalem and the city's outlying Jewish suburbs until September, but they were rejected, as was an offer to prohibit further Jewish purchases of land and buildings in Jerusalem's Arab districts during peace negotiations.
Obama and Clinton made it clear they would brook no departures from their three demands, which Israel is required to treat as an ultimatum.
Neither party to the difference has mentioned the US administration's fourth condition for resuming normal relations: an Israeli commitment to refrain from attacking Iran's nuclear program without prior US consent. Because that commitment has not been offered, administration officials are continuing to hammer Israel in every possible arena. Indeed, the gloves are now off in earnest for insinuations that Israel's settlement policy is the root-cause of Iran's drive for a nuclear bomb and of the conflicts endangering American lives in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Vice President Joe Biden launched this drive, when he reportedly attacked Netanyahu for the announcement of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem by saying: "What you are doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."
A much-admired American military figure, CENTCOM chief, Gen. David Petraeus, was the next US official to put this linkage into words. In his briefing to a Senate panel, he said Wednesday, March 16: Clearly the tensions on these issues [with Israel] have enormous effect on the strategic context in which we operate in the Central Command's area of responsibility."
The general denied he had as yet formally asked for the Palestinian territories to be transferred to his command, but added: "In fact, staff members at various times have discussed asking for the Palestinian territories to be added to CENTCOM's turf."
debkafile's military sources explain that, if approved, this step would be tantamount to providing the Palestinians with an American military umbrella against Israel.
More than one friend of Israel demurred against the Petraeus suggestion.
Former presidential candidate, Republican Senator John McCain, caught on fast to the way the wind is blowing in Obama's Washington: During his testimony, he put in: "Isn't the issue not the issue of settlements as much as it is the existence of the state of Israel…? So maybe you could put it all into the larger context of what needs to be done to reduce tensions on the US's closest ally and friend in many respects."
The general did not rise to the senator's challenge, except for a polite: "Absolutely true."
Some of the more respectable US and British media are playing up the theme that Israel has shot itself in the foot and therefore deserves what's coming, namely escalating punishment from the Obama administration. http://www.debka.com/article/8657/[It would appear to me that it is not Israel that has shot herself in the foot but it is Israel that will now realize that there is NO ONE to turn to but The Holy One of Creation who is their redeemer and the US better get ready to receive the judgment of this same Holy One because it will be coming soon. Israel must break free from the US government and realize that for many years they have had no friend in the US government. The Jewish people are intended to be the servants of God not the slaves of the unrighteous leadership of the US. The Obamanation is a spiritual idiot and a very wicked man. Clinton and the remainder of our executive branch are no better because of their participation. They have now declared themselves and chosen their side and it is Islam, the religion of a false god. –rdb]
Goldberg: Obama wants Livni in coalition
By GIL HOFFMAN 18/03/2010 02:59
Reporter close to US president says Washington trying to get Kadima into gov’t.
US President Barack Obama’s administration’s recent pressure on Israel is designed to force Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to add Kadima to his coalition instead of Israel Beiteinu or Shas, influential American columnist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in a story published on Tuesday.
In a column in The Atlantic magazine titled “What Obama is Actually Trying to Do in Israel,” Goldberg, who is close to Obama, said the president wanted to cause a rupture in Netanyahu’s coalition that would necessitate bringing in Kadima. He said he spoke about the matter with officials in the White House.
“I’ve been on the phone with many of the usual suspects (White House and otherwise), and I think it’s fair to say that Obama is not trying to destroy America’s relations with Israel; he’s trying to organize Tzipi Livni’s campaign for prime minister, or at least for her inclusion in a broad-based centrist government,” Goldberg wrote. “I’m not actually suggesting that the White House is directly meddling in internal Israeli politics, but it’s clear to everyone – at the White House, at the State Department, at Goldblog – that no progress will be made on any front if Avigdor Lieberman’s far-right party, Israel Beiteinu, and Eli Yishai’s fundamentalist Shas Party, remain in Netanyahu’s surpassingly fragile coalition.” [If this isn’t meddling, then what is? – rdb]
Livni’s spokesman declined to comment about the column, but Kadima MK Shlomo Molla, who is her close ally, warned Obama and his advisers against interfering in Israeli politics. “We don’t need Obama’s help,” Molla said. “But we agree that the current coalition is bad for Israel and for US-Israel relations and that if Livni was working with Obama, there would be much more trust from the White House.”
Coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) responded by complaining about Livni’s behavior during the current crisis with the US. At a Kadima rally in the North on Tuesday night, Livni accused Netanyahu of “weakening Jerusalem” by “acting stupidly.”
“Had the opposition acted in a statesmanlike manner, Israel would not be under such international pressure,” Elkin said. “Israel is a democracy, and only its citizens will decide what our coalition will look like.”
Representatives of the parties in Netanyahu’s coalition took offense to Goldberg’s characterization of them as “gangsters (Israel Beiteinu), messianists (Habayit Hayehudi) and medievalists (Shas and United Torah Judaism).”
Israel Beiteinu MK David Rotem said Obama should “check how many gangsters he has in his own government.” He called the prospect of Kadima replacing Israel Beiteinu in the coalition “wishful thinking on the part of the reporter.” “With all his problems, Obama should be too busy to run our government,” Rotem said.
A Shas official noted Goldberg’s Jewish name and said that “even in Medieval times, Jews were their own worst enemies.” http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=171259 [It would appear that the Obamanation is trying to implement the Chicago Politic Style into the world arena. This could get interesting and before it is over with, He will loose and God will win.
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Originally Posted by TYLERTECHSAS
