The interview with US President Barak Obama appearing on Bloomberg News is viewed by the Israeli media as an intentional US effort to influence the general elections, which is a week away. Jeffrey Goldberg who published the column does not agree, stating he feels this has more to do with Israel announcing a “new settlement project” the day following US elections. Goldberg told Channel 2 TV News in Israel that this is not about the Israeli election but the statements in his column are a direct result of Israeli actions and statements during the US election.
He added “Netanyahu thinks about Obama more than Obama thinks about him. The US president is simply too busy”.
We may see a new relationship and instead of being marked by anger as seen in the first administration we may see something more characterized by neglect.
Obama: ‘Israel Doesn’t Know What Its Best Interests Are’
Shortly after the United Nations General Assembly voted in late November to upgrade the status of the Palestinians, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it would advance plans to establish a settlement in an area of the West Bank known as E-1, and that it would build 3,000 additional housing units in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
A large settlement in E-1, an empty zone between Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement city of Maaleh Adumim, would make the goal of politically moderate Palestinians — the creation of a geographically contiguous state — much harder to achieve.
The world reacted to the E-1 announcement in the usual manner: It condemned the plans as a provocation and an injustice. President Barack Obama’s administration, too, criticized it. “We believe these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations or achieve a two-state solution,” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
‘Best Interests’
But what didn’t happen in the White House after the announcement is actually more interesting than what did.
When informed about the Israeli decision, Obama, who has a famously contentious relationship with the prime minister, didn’t even bother getting angry. He told several people that this sort of behavior on Netanyahu’s part is what he has come to expect, and he suggested that he has become inured to what he sees as self-defeating policies of his Israeli counterpart.
In the weeks after the UN vote, Obama said privately and repeatedly, “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.” With each new settlement announcement, in Obama’s view, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation.
And if Israel, a small state in an inhospitable region, becomes more of a pariah — one that alienates even the affections of the U.S., its last steadfast friend — it won’t survive. Iran poses a short-term threat to Israel’s survival; Israel’s own behavior poses a long-term one.
The dysfunctional relationship between Netanyahu and Obama is poised to enter a new phase. Next week, Israeli voters will probably return Netanyahu to power, this time at the head of a coalition even more intractably right-wing than the one he currently leads.
Obama has always had a complicated relationship with the prime minister. On matters of genuine security, Obama has been a reliable ally, encouraging close military cooperation, helping maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge over its regional rivals and, most important, promising that he won’t allow Iran to cross the nuclear-weapons threshold.
Yet even this support didn’t keep Netanyahu from pulling for Republican candidate Mitt Romney in last year’s presidential campaign.
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8 Responses
Israel being isolated from Obama is a good thing. Obam is bad news and trouble for Israel.
Here is a president who continues to do bad for his country like unlimited out of control spending, and removing all forces in Afghanistan do you think he will do good for who he considers an enemy. obama is anti Israel, even if he is not a moslem; he buys the garbage coming from them. He return the bust of Churchill since who consider England a evil empire since they were colonistic
That’s funny. Israel doesn’t know what ITS best interests are and OblamO doesn’t know what THE USA’S best interests are either.
The man is stam a yuld!
I’m so glad that obama thinks he knows what’s in Israel’s best interst. I always knew he had Israel’s best interests at heart. He shows it all the time.
If anything, he is helping Netanyahu..
Hey, are all of you nice people who are leaving comments talking about wannabe Ayatollah Obummer?
“politically moderate Palestinians” what ?? All Palestinians Arabs and moslems in general have one goal– the extirpation and extermination of Israel and the Jews therein !!
PM Netanyahu, b’vah’chah’shah, build unbridled in East Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, GAZA, and the East Bank as well—Jews have every right to live, breath and flourish in, especially, Eretz Yisrael !!
Suggest all Jews do more Talmud Torah, more davvening, and more deeds of kindness—and be careful of all goy, Riverside, NJ
A goy, Gerry Mullen, Riverside, NJ
When PM Netanyahu kibbitzed in the US election and gave thinly veiled support for the eventual loser of the election, he made a major mistake that jeopardizes the Mr. Netanyahu’s relationship with Israel’s major ally, the US. Fortunately for Israel, President Obama will deal wisely with Mr. Netanyahu if he continues to be PM after the election next week, which is far from assured, given the jockeying by the minor parties that can take place before a government is formed.
Mr. Obama will continue to support Israel’s interests, as most of the Israeli center and left understand, but Mr. Netanyahu made insulted the US president, and that was not in Israel’s interest.