from: http://www.theage.com.au/world/obamas-stance-worries-israelis-20090417-aa90.html?page=-1
April 18, 2009
CAN Israel still call the United States its best international friend? Apparently not, if you believe the tone of the local media.
Watching the drama unfold inside Israel, the increasingly tense dialogue between US President Barack Obama and new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking on all the trappings of a duel.
Almost every day brings news of another sore point between the two countries, a source of yet further inflammation of their once warm relations.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the more immediate threat to Israel's national security lay across the Atlantic rather than from closer to home.
It is bad enough that President Obama uses almost every opportunity he can to set the parameters of a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Now US officials are openly using Israeli anxiety over Iran's fledging nuclear program as a bargaining chip to force Israel's hand on giving up control of the West Bank Palestinian territory.
No less a figure than White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel — whose father fought with the militant Zionist group the Irgun, and whose appointment had provided such reassurance to Israeli officials — was quoted this week laying down the law to Israel. If Israel wants US help to defuse the Iranian threat, Mr Emanuel was reported to have told Jewish leaders in Washington, then get ready to start evacuating settlements in the West Bank. Talkback radio blazed with fury across the country the same day, as Israelis protested that no US official had the right to tell them where to live.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I am not quite sure what the point is of posting the present article. At the end of the article, that is not posted, the writer acknowledges that their is a testing going on between Israel and the present administration. The Bush administration made a political calculation to use the fears and views of the far right in this country and in Israel for 8 years. I think its time to try some real diplomacy and leave the political games behind us.
Good point, but if the White House is saying these things that sounds an awful lot like blackmail and they don't really mean it, I would say games are still going on. Unfortunately, I think they DO mean it. As a Biblical scholar, I recognize that all of what is going on is lining up perfectly with a pretty intense endtimes scenario.
Post a Comment