Jerusalem Post: Americans Cool With Pressuring Israel PLUS Shalit Release Today?
Check this out. Shmuel Rosner reports on a new poll that shows strong backing here for the President's tough stand on Israel-Palestine. He infers from the poll that Americans favor pressuring Israel. Of course, they do.
The key thing is that the President understand (1) that he holds all the cards in the US-Israel relationship and (2) that unless he starts showing results to fulfill the promise of the Cairo speech, he will be viewed by Israelis and Arabs as all talk.
I am, in fact, sure he knows that. So I expect that he will come down hard against Israel's plans to expand the illegal Har Homa settlement in Jerusalem. The Israelis are testing his resolve by approving another $50 million for Har Homa. The United States needs to speak out in no uncertain terms.
Ha'aretz reports that captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, may be released today. I sure hope that turns out to be true both for his and his family's sake and also because his release, should it happen, will make it easier to provide needed aid to Gaza and to foster Palestinian unity and Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
We'll see what happens.
Perhaps a two to one dollar reduction in aid to Israel would get their attention. Appropriate $50,000,000 for settlements in Palestine, reduce aid by $100,000,000. Obama will never do it of course.
June 23, 2009 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
That could be interesting. It might work!
June 24, 2009 8:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here is my favorite line in the Ha'aretz article: "Earlier Tuesday, Israel released from prison the Hamas speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Aziz Dweik, who was jailed following Shalit's abduction, to serve as a bargaining chip in negotiations for his release."
So the Israelis kidnapped a Palestinian as a "bargaining chip."
And Zionists wonder why their court rulings are ridiculed the world over?
June 23, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd have to say that Israeli court rulings are about 1000% better than all the court rulings from the Moroccan west coast to the Saudi east coast and all the way through to the Straits of Hormuz. So while it may be true that these rulings are mocked from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, one can only call this the mocking of the pot. Yes, sometimes "the world" is wrong.
June 24, 2009 8:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Huffington Post has a story;
Israel Defies Obama's Settlement Demand, Authorizes Construction Of 300 New Homes In West Bank
If it's true Bibi has drawn a line in the sand. What would Obama do?
June 23, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is what I've been wondering.
Bibi tells our President to go scratch his ass. What does the President do?
This seems like an intentional provocation, too. And if it really is, then Bibi has mapped out what he thinks the President's options may be, and every one of those Bibi will have booby-trapped.
It's quite a juncture we're coming to here.
June 23, 2009 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe that's a GOOD thing. All those boobies might come back to haunt him.
June 23, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmmmnnnn!
By jove, you could be right, Tintin!!
:0
June 23, 2009 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
See, this is the thing: Drawing lines in the sand is actually a sign of WEAKNESS. You're putting all your chips on 7Red. You only do that when you KNOW you have an overwhelming superiority, see the first Gulf War and HW's line in the sand.
When you draw a line, you're stuck on the line. Obama is too smart for that. Take basketball as an example. There are lines, but they are highly fluid, and events are fluid. Obama has made his GOAL clear, but he's not going to "take a position" that doesn't allow him to move.
See, as soon as you draws a line, all the usual suspects line up along either side of it, teethed bared and swords drawn. This makes progress harder. If the way forward were clear, it would have been taken by now. Obama knows this. IMO.
June 24, 2009 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing. Like every other American president.
June 23, 2009 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
This one is different and has political balz...
June 23, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Build a tunnel underneath it!
June 23, 2009 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Rosner is such a biased dishonest "reporter", that if he is actually choosing to interpret the polling data that way, then it must be incredibly strongly unequivaclly supportive.
June 23, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bibi does not want the nobel peace prize. He wants to be seen as the one who made greater Israel happen.
As such, Bibi just gave Obama the middle finger, a triple dare, a three-stooges poke in the eyes, and a va fangul.
If Obama is smart he will use some type of deflecting jiu jitsu move. That is, the force from the obstacles that Bibi is putting up will end up being the very force that will bring down Bibi. Voila.
June 23, 2009 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. Triple dares trap the darer if he has a smart opponent. And Bibi does.
June 24, 2009 9:03 AM | Reply | Permalink