VP Biden's visit
US VP Joe Biden was very warmly received by PM Netanyahu. Biden has been a strong and sincere friend of Israel for many years as Senator from Delaware, and his comments at his reception reflected that friendship.
However, as soon as the reception was over the major gaffe was announced that Israel was going to build a futher 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo an Orthodox suburb of Jerusalem. Then the gloves came off. Pres. Obama and the State Department issued a condemnation and of course so did the PA. On meeting Biden in Ramallah Pres. Abbas threatened to stop the indirect talks, and Biden changed his attitude and condemned this Israeli move.
There is no doubt that this was a mistake of major proportions and shows clearly the incompetence or sheer stupidity of the Israeli Government. However, most commentators seem to agree that PM Netanyahu would not have done this deliberately, since it is so embarrassing. Apparently this was a routine housing announcement in Jerusalem, where there is in fact no freeze on building; it was announced by a lowly official with no relationship to the VP's visit. Once again this shows that Netanyahu does no know what is going on and has little control over it. It may very likely have been engineered to deliberately embarrass him by a right wing pro-settler group or one of the right wing parties, such as Shas. However, that also seems unlikely since Housing Minister Eli Yishai of Shas apologized for the gaffe, and what do they gain by embarrassing the PM and theVP over an issue that is not in fact controversial in Israel, namely building in Jerusalem. If the announcement had been for building in the West Bank, that would more likely have been deliberate. The condemnation from the EU, UN and Arab League shows how keenly any such move is being watched. The Arab League made its policy of supporting indirect talks conditional on cancelling this housing development, and if this results in Abbas backing out, that would be a major policy reversal for Netanyahu.
However, even with this international fuss, the situation is in reality unchanged. Israel has not accepted any freeze on building in Jerusalem and the worst aspect of this announcement was the timing. Further, the main issue discussed between Netanyahu and Biden was the Iranian nuclear issue. So far Obama has done nothing effective in that respect, but apparently sent Biden mainly to try to dissuade Netanyahu from taking any rash action against Iran, prior to real sanctions being tried. But, so far Obama has dithered for 6 months to a year, and Netanyahu cannot wait forever. One must ask, what is the point of Israel having sovereignty and freedom of action if it cannot use this when tied to a US Administration that is ineffectual on the most significant threat of our times.
However, as soon as the reception was over the major gaffe was announced that Israel was going to build a futher 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo an Orthodox suburb of Jerusalem. Then the gloves came off. Pres. Obama and the State Department issued a condemnation and of course so did the PA. On meeting Biden in Ramallah Pres. Abbas threatened to stop the indirect talks, and Biden changed his attitude and condemned this Israeli move.
There is no doubt that this was a mistake of major proportions and shows clearly the incompetence or sheer stupidity of the Israeli Government. However, most commentators seem to agree that PM Netanyahu would not have done this deliberately, since it is so embarrassing. Apparently this was a routine housing announcement in Jerusalem, where there is in fact no freeze on building; it was announced by a lowly official with no relationship to the VP's visit. Once again this shows that Netanyahu does no know what is going on and has little control over it. It may very likely have been engineered to deliberately embarrass him by a right wing pro-settler group or one of the right wing parties, such as Shas. However, that also seems unlikely since Housing Minister Eli Yishai of Shas apologized for the gaffe, and what do they gain by embarrassing the PM and theVP over an issue that is not in fact controversial in Israel, namely building in Jerusalem. If the announcement had been for building in the West Bank, that would more likely have been deliberate. The condemnation from the EU, UN and Arab League shows how keenly any such move is being watched. The Arab League made its policy of supporting indirect talks conditional on cancelling this housing development, and if this results in Abbas backing out, that would be a major policy reversal for Netanyahu.
However, even with this international fuss, the situation is in reality unchanged. Israel has not accepted any freeze on building in Jerusalem and the worst aspect of this announcement was the timing. Further, the main issue discussed between Netanyahu and Biden was the Iranian nuclear issue. So far Obama has done nothing effective in that respect, but apparently sent Biden mainly to try to dissuade Netanyahu from taking any rash action against Iran, prior to real sanctions being tried. But, so far Obama has dithered for 6 months to a year, and Netanyahu cannot wait forever. One must ask, what is the point of Israel having sovereignty and freedom of action if it cannot use this when tied to a US Administration that is ineffectual on the most significant threat of our times.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:06 AM
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