This is a quick hit posing as a diary, but the article it draws attention to is just not a news event, but an analysis of why Obama seems to be screwing up on the Israeli-Palestinian peace front. Well, apart from the fact that he has most of Israel against him, then George Mitchell's threat to cut loan guarantees to Israel (which in any case support Israel's colonialism), and the blowback from Israel's finance minister who said, "who needs you," the article asks whether Obama know what the hell he is doing?
....seeking to reverse Obama's backtracking from his Cairo speech, in particular, contradicting a later statement that Palestinian East Jerusalem is part of the unified capital of Israel, an issue yet to be negotiated.
This gesture is sucking up to the right wing Likud government of Bibi Netanyahu at a time when Netanyahu seems to be putting Obama in his place. Who the hell does he think he is, Bill Clinton once said of the arrogant Bibi.
Jewish American peace activist groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) are beginning to become exasperated over Israel's progressive leaning toward ethnocentric fascism, as indicated by this review of recent untoward, anti-democracy developments by the right wing government. Requiring loyalty oaths from Palestinian-Arab citizens, outlawing anniversary celebrations of Nakba Day, the day of the year that Palestinians commemorate the "catastrophe," the ethnic cleansing of 1948, and other rules such as denial of Israel as a Jewish state, which seem intent on discriminating against Israel's minority Arab population, are cited.
Muzzlewatch, JVP's propaganda watch site, recently published this news about what is essentially the curtailment of free speech in Israel.
These headlines appeared this morning in the sometimes liberal Israeli newspaper, Haartez, about Netanyahu's meeting on Monday with President Obama and the issues likely to be on the table, including Palestinian statehood, settlements, Iran, etc.
When Netanyahu recently announced that this land belongs to the Jewish people, all of it, it merely harked back to the 1996 document, "A Clean Break" and the Likud Orwellian dictum: 'no land for peace, peace for peace.' A Clean Break essentially meant a break from the Oslo Accords, which had promised, falsely, to achieve peace between the Israelis and Palestinians through a two state solution. It was the Clinton era, the settling of the Palestinian territories by Israelis doubled, and then ended in the Camp David/Taba hoax.
So when Netanyahu recently committed himself to giving the Palestinians 'economic peace' rather than promoting the two state solution, the past returned. Economic peace means peace for peace, which means no two state solution.
A Clean Break will undoubtedly, once again, guide Likud policy in negotiations with the Palestinians as well as Washington. Only one change is notable. Instead of Iraq being the security issue, pushed by Neocons Wolfowicz and Feith (along with Richard Perle, a Clean Break author), today it is Iran. But there is also a new player on the field: Obama.
Obama's recent pronouncement on two states suggests that a confrontation with the Likud government of Israel is inevitable. If understood correctly, it is a confrontation with an old if outmoded Neoconservative pro-Likud policy agenda.
And so how is the Obama initiative for the Middle East Peace going? Here are some interesting developments: hubris, blackmail, EU on board, Netanyahu peace plan stall, a Norwegian war crimes tribunal, and the sobering words of Gideon Levy.
And from these developments, what can one conclude? Israel has given up Hamas as its last red herring, to be replaced by Iran.
In his latest article, Biberman & Co, Uri Avnery, the sagacious Israeli peace activist and founder of Gush Shalom, gives his prediction about the next stage of Israeli peace avoidance, which applies to dealing with Obama. How Netanyahu will handle Obama is apparently an old formula used before in keeping the United States in line. Although I will only quote the relevant section from Biberman & Co (meaning Bibi plus Lieberman with Ehud Barak thrown in, as in Bibarak), the entire article can be read HERE.
According to Avnery, a clash with Obama is inevitable. Obama wants to create a new world order in the Middle East and he knows that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict poisons the atmosphere against America in the Arab and the entire Muslim world. Obama wants to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is exactly what Netanyahu and his partners want to prevent.
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