Israel/Palestine

Israeli

(4,151 posts) Sun Jun 7, 2015, 02:29 AM Jun 2015

Obama warns Israelis of settlement policy consequences

SUMMARY
In an interview with Israeli journalist Ilana Dayan, President US Barack Obama warns that the international community has ceased believing in Israel's willingness to negotiate peace.

AUTHOR
Mazal Mualem

The importance of the interview that US President Barack Obama gave to Israeli journalist Ilana Dayan of Channel 2 lies not in the headlines it provided, but in the fact that it offered a clear view of the inevitable demise of what's left of the diplomatic process with the Palestinians.

Obama warned that in the future it will be harder for the United States to defend Israel in the United Nations. This was the first time that the Israeli public received a firsthand account of how deep the crisis between the two countries really runs, but even then, it remains doubtful whether the president’s frank and agonizing comments sent their intended shock waves through the Israeli public.

The interview aired June 2, the same day that the Home Command conducted a huge drill and exercise designed to simulate a missile attack on Israel. In the background that same week, there were harsh headlines about the spreading delegitimization campaign against Israel. It has affected everything from soccer's governing body FIFA (debating a Palestinian request to suspend Israel from the organization) to the British Students Union, which formally decided to adopt the principles of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Of course, none of that really helped Obama to get his message across.

It seems as if all the masks have been removed and all the cards are on the table. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected to a fourth term, not because he's a popular leader, but because he was able to make Israelis feel as if he is the right man to ensure their safety in a region so full of threats. Obama, who will finish his second term in a year and a half, never really managed to connect with the Israeli public and engage it in a direct relationship, like former President Bill Clinton. Israelis were wary of Obama from the moment he was elected, and their trepidation was only reinforced by Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech. After that, Obama was perceived as someone watching out for Muslim interests in the world.

Continued @ :

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/06/israel-obama-interview-settlement-policy-growing-isolation.html

3 replies

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Highlight:

Obama warns Israelis of settlement policy consequences (Original Post) Israeli Jun 2015 OP

More on Obama's television interview ..... Israeli Jun 2015 #1

This is the stick part. n/t Jefferson23 Jun 2015 #2

What took the US so long to realize what should have been apparent after 1967? guillaumeb Jun 2015 #3

Israeli

(4,151 posts)

1. More on Obama's television interview .....

Reply to Israeli (Original post)

Sun Jun 7, 2015, 02:54 AM

Jun 2015

Obama clearly offered Israel a kid-glove ultimatum

Every Israeli should take to heart and internalize: The issue is not what America wants but what Israel must do for its own good.

By Yoel Marcus

Can I tell you something? Watching the interview with President Obama on TV Channel 2’s “Uvda” (“Fact”) magazine filled me with envy. Why don’t we have leaders like that, without tricks and gimmicks, ones who present their core beliefs without waving around silly diagrams and illustrations? How soothing it was to listen to a leader who doesn’t trigger an anxiety attack after every sentence he utters, by imparting a feeling that our end is nigh.

(snip)

On a personal level, the relations between Bibi and Obama are at an unprecedented nadir. What has transpired in Europe, with its various types of boycott, is gradually creeping into the U.S., starting with isolated pockets of opposition on campuses and continuing with a sharp turn in the attitude of U.S. media toward Israel. This includes professional journals that refuse to publish work by Israeli academics.

We are digging our own pit. The harsher the criticism becomes, the harder it will be to stop it. That’s what it was like in South Africa during the apartheid years. This writer remembers the words of a senior official in the apartheid regime, who said that if South Africa had five million South Africans in the U.S. (the number of Jews there at the time), no one would boycott it. He was wrong, as is anyone else who thinks so. The creeping sanctions against Bibi’s Israel may reach a point at which it is too large even for [influential billionaires] Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson.

One can’t rule only on the basis of intimidation – you are a country that was established on a basis of human rights, the president complimented us. He views the neutralization of a nuclear Iran as his greatest task. Let me get this deal done, he said, since it’s a good one. When I finish I’ll return to the peace process here.
That’s what the president is telling us: I’ll get you security in all areas but, my friends, you are losing the world and the values that underpin your independence. It wasn’t difficult to understand - this was a kid-glove ultimatum.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.659728

Jefferson23

(30,099 posts)

2. This is the stick part. n/t

Reply to Israeli (Original post)

Sun Jun 7, 2015, 11:31 AM

Jun 2015

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)

3. What took the US so long to realize what should have been apparent after 1967?

Reply to Israeli (Original post)

Sun Jun 7, 2015, 12:40 PM

Jun 2015

Also from the article:
"The danger here is that Israel as a whole loses credibility. Already, the international community does not believe that Israel is serious about a two-state solution,” Obama said."

My take:
Israel was never serious about a two (viable) state solution. The current patchwork of Palestinian Bantustans IS Israel's idea of a two-state solution.

And also from the article:
Nevertheless, it's doubtful that the American president’s comments will soak in deep enough to instigate change. These days, Israelis have a tendency to interpret the diplomatic struggle against Israel, including the BDS movement, as an anti-Semitic assault on them. Of course, this plays well into the Netanyahu’s narrative."

And finally, from the article:
"Though Netanyahu did not respond to Obama’s comments in the interview, he said, “Challenges are constantly mounting all around us — inter alia — by missiles and rockets, almost all of which are supplied by Iran. When it comes to Israel's security, I rely, first of all, on ourselves.''

My take:
As in the US, Israel's leaders use threats, real or imagined, to justify endless war and repression. Any response to Israeli aggression, whether the BDS movement or actions by international organizations, is characterized as anti-Semitism. Thus the Israeli leader, Netanyahu today, can pose as the protector who is merely doing what must be done to ensure the safety of the people.

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