NOTHING NETANYAHU WANTS IS IN THE U.S. INTEREST, TRUE OR FALSE?
Obama will meet with the man who could seriously dent his Presidency.
All roads point to the emergence of yet another "roadmap" without consequences (pdf), rather than robust settlement talks ("peace" is elusive, practically and theologically -!!!-, today).
First impressions matter. Experts say we size up new people in somewhere between 30 seconds and two minutes. So how will the first 30 seconds, and the rest of the meeting, go when President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sit down together on May 18?
- Elliot Abrams, WSJ (yes, that Elliot)
- Elliot Abrams, WSJ (yes, that Elliot)
The situation in the mid-east is grave.
- Netanyahu is a walking provocation with a smile.
- Obama doesn't have time to get involved in high-level diplomacy, of almost any kind.
- Few outside Israel seem to have the stomach to put real pressure on the Hammas, physical and otherwise.
- Hizb'allah is getting along apparently better than ever (U.S. training of the Lebanese Army is being recyled into capturing Isreali intelligence operatives inside Lebanon!).
- Except, they will take a second-seat only to Tehran and Syria.
- Netanyahu has pre-empted the ability to hold multi-party talks outside of Israel, by putting his public face against real talks with Syria (although, truth be told, the people of the Golan don't even want Syria...).
- The nuclear pressure-cooker continues to whistle on the back-burner, sounding all the way from Iran.
- The Hamas, despite their rocket sex antics, seem to have hit a stride, at least (they aren't being rejected by the Palestinians they 'sacrifice'). Their black-hole formulation of a settlement without a peace declaration is mind numbing, but apparently is good enough to hold the fort.
