Peres in Washington
Israeli President Shimon Peres is in Washington today visiting President Barack Obama in the White House. But, these two Presidents have different roles, that of Peres is supposed to be purely ceremonial, while in Israel the power lies in the hands of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But, Peres in this case is generally agreed to be a pathfinder for Netanyahu, someone who has better relations with Obama and may be trying out various ideas and concepts on President Obama to see how he will respond.
There are two major issues, one is whether or not Israel should be pursuing peace negotiations with the Palestinians at this time of turmoil in the Arab world, and also given the apparent decision by the PA to push the issue of unilateral independence for a Palestinian State at the UN at the next session in September. In order to do this PA President Abbas has asked Hamas to join with them in a unity Government, since he realizes that few will take the idea of a Palestinian State seriously if the Palestinians are split (40:60) between Hamas and Fatah. PM Netanyahu has made it clear in public statements addressed to Abbas that he will not negotiate with any entity that includes Hamas, because of their policies against peace with Israel, so that Abbas must make a choice, between Hamas and Israel. In other words, now is certainly not a good time to be considering restarting negotiations with the PA. By contrast, the American position, stated by Pres. Obama today today, is that even though the times are "challenging," now may be a good time "to seize the opportunity" to press for negotiations again. Does that make rational sense?
The second issue is that of Iran. While the US may have given luke warm support for the demonstrations against the regime in Tehran, Israel is much more anxious about taking the Iranian threat seriously, especially the threat of nuclear capability. When Israel is threatened by Iranian missiles by the two Iranian proxies, Hamas and Hizbollah, right on its borders, the Israeli PM takes a jaundiced view of Obama's policy which was to "engage" with Iran.
No doubt Peres is pointing out the fundamental changes that are occuring in the Arab world and suggesting to Obama that his rather naieve view of that region until recently is widely divergent from reality. Netanyahu has said that he wants to make some new proposals with regard to the Palestinian situation, and no doubt Peres is trying these out on Obama. So Peres is likely to be reporting back to Netanyahu, and our fate will depend on to what extent Obama and Netanyahu can find common policy.
There are two major issues, one is whether or not Israel should be pursuing peace negotiations with the Palestinians at this time of turmoil in the Arab world, and also given the apparent decision by the PA to push the issue of unilateral independence for a Palestinian State at the UN at the next session in September. In order to do this PA President Abbas has asked Hamas to join with them in a unity Government, since he realizes that few will take the idea of a Palestinian State seriously if the Palestinians are split (40:60) between Hamas and Fatah. PM Netanyahu has made it clear in public statements addressed to Abbas that he will not negotiate with any entity that includes Hamas, because of their policies against peace with Israel, so that Abbas must make a choice, between Hamas and Israel. In other words, now is certainly not a good time to be considering restarting negotiations with the PA. By contrast, the American position, stated by Pres. Obama today today, is that even though the times are "challenging," now may be a good time "to seize the opportunity" to press for negotiations again. Does that make rational sense?
The second issue is that of Iran. While the US may have given luke warm support for the demonstrations against the regime in Tehran, Israel is much more anxious about taking the Iranian threat seriously, especially the threat of nuclear capability. When Israel is threatened by Iranian missiles by the two Iranian proxies, Hamas and Hizbollah, right on its borders, the Israeli PM takes a jaundiced view of Obama's policy which was to "engage" with Iran.
No doubt Peres is pointing out the fundamental changes that are occuring in the Arab world and suggesting to Obama that his rather naieve view of that region until recently is widely divergent from reality. Netanyahu has said that he wants to make some new proposals with regard to the Palestinian situation, and no doubt Peres is trying these out on Obama. So Peres is likely to be reporting back to Netanyahu, and our fate will depend on to what extent Obama and Netanyahu can find common policy.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:15 AM
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