For the second time in two years, the President of the United States injected unnecessary tension and toxicity into a vital meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—the democratically elected leader of America’s principle ally in the volatile Middle East.
The two leaders met at the White House on March 3rd to discuss the latest effort by a U.S. Administration to broker a peace-bringing accommodation between the Palestinians and Israel. The day before the meeting, however, President Obama granted an interview to Jeffrey Goldberg of Bloomberg News in which the president characterized Israel as being the main barrier to peace in the region.
As Jonathan S. Tobin described it in Commentary magazine’s blog:
By slamming Netanyahu’s policies as the primary, if not the sole obstacle to peace in the Middle East . . . the president put the Israeli on the defensive and undermined his attempts to rally support for his positions with both AIPAC members and Congress. (Commentary, 03.03.2014, 6:30 p.m.)
In the interview, Obama also issued a veiled warning to the Israeli Prime Minister, declaring it would be harder for Washington to defend Israel against efforts to isolate it internationally if U.S.-led Middle East peace talks fail.
The irony of President Obama’s remarks is that Israel has already agreed to the framework of the talks Secretary of State John Kerry has been pushing. It is the Palestinian side that has rejected Kerry’s framework because it calls for a simple recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
Contrary to the president’s assertion that the Palestinians are ready to make peace with Israel, a 2011 survey of Arab residents in the West Bank and Gaza revealed that 60% have no interest in a two-state solution that acknowledges Israel’s right to exist. What’s worse, 73% of those surveyed agreed with the section of the Hamas Charter that calls for the killing of “Jews hiding behind stones and trees.”
There is no indication that sentiments among Palestinians have shifted dramatically in the months since.
It is no wonder then that Netanyahu pushed back against Obama’s false assumptions when they met this week. In his remarks he gave President Obama what was in essence a history lesson covering the last 20 years of Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Sadly, it seems that such a lesson is necessary.
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