A politician is expected to reward friends and punish whoever dares to cross him. So Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s barely veiled backing for Mitt Romney not only bent the unwritten rule requiring Israeli leaders to preserve a posture of immaculate neutrality in US elections; it meant that Obama owes the Israeli pol some sort of payback.
If Obama’s past performances can be taken as a reliable guide, there is little chance he would retaliate against Netanyahu by meddling in the Israeli election scheduled for Jan. 22. But he should. Not for the petty motive of settling scores with Netanyahu, but to safeguard the true long-term interests of Israelis, Americans, and all the peoples of the Middle East.
Comments
How exactly are the Israeli's supposed to negotiate with groups and others in the Middle East who do not acknowledge the right of Israel to exist and are committed to and preach for the destruction of Israel. This is the reality the Nation of Israel has to deal with, irrespective of who the Prime Minster of Israel is.
The answer to your question might be for Israelis to do the same things that the Jewish people once painstakingly did to establish Israel as a nation: slow, deliberate, infinitely difficult small actions and negotiations with its neighbors and world powers that ultimately accumulate and coalesce to achieve the desired end result. Personally, I don't see any other way or course.
Israel, by its actions, seems bent on denying a Palestinian homeland to exist. There is no innocent parties in this conflict.
I would prefer to leave Israel to negotiate and deal with Israels problems. It is sufficient for the US to simply state that it will not allow the destruction of Israel. After that Israel is on its own. If the Israeli right can't figure out a way to handle the nations problems, then too bad. There are legitimate grievance for both Israeli's and Arabs and they need to figure it out. We should simply state we support the two state solution and leave it at that.
You say that Israel should deal with Israels problems. Then you say that the US will not allow the destruction of Israel. THEN you say after that Israel is on its own. HUH? How would Israel be on its own if the US would not allow it to be destroyed? What you wrote just didn't make a lot of sense to me?
This whole mess is one of the reasons some folks look at the UN as a total disaster.
BTW, I don't disagree with WHAT you wrote, per se. If one reads the history of the area, it is bound to be like this until one of them wipes out the other. No, we can't all just get along together.
It merely sets a baseline. Their will be two states. That's all how those two states draw the line is up to them. We merely gurantee the existence.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
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