Caroline Glick points out that in regards to the upcoming meeting between Netanyahu and Obama, that this time Israel actually will be dealing from strength. The backlash against the unbelievably rude reception that he received last time he was in Washington from Obama, has hurt the Democrats coming into an election in November in which they are expected to lose big. Netanyahu needs, to stall (essentially play “rope-a-dope”) in the hopes of a more sympathetic congress curtailing Obama’s wings.
by Caroline Glick
Just ahead of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s trip next week to Washington, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas went on a charm offensive towards the Israeli media. On Tuesday, Abbas invited representatives of the Hebrew-language press to his office in Ramallah and assured them of his good intentions towards Israel.
We have been here before. In Netanyahu’s last go-around as prime minister, it seemed like every time he was due to visit Washington, then president Bill Clinton’s advisers would set up a meeting for Abbas’s predecessor Yasser Arafat with the Israeli media. Arafat would talk about how much he wanted peace with Israel, and how he was just waiting for Netanyahu to agree to embrace the cause of peace.
The peace-crazed Israeli media enthusiastically reported Arafat’s lies to the Israeli people without questioning either Arafat’s motives or his honesty.
[…]
Last year, Obama and his advisers justified their demand that Netanyahu act to strangle the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria by claiming that doing so would make the Arab world begin normalizing its relations with Israel.
Obama’s Jewish surrogate, former congressman Robert Wexler, told Netanyahu last July that in exchange for barring Jews from building kindergartens in Israel’s heartland, Israel would see 20 Arab embassies open in Tel Aviv.
Of course not only did that not happen, moments after Netanyahu announced the prohibition on Jewish building, Obama’s peace mediator George Mitchell claimed that his massive and unprecedented concession was insufficient
[…]
Netanyahu’s desire to avoid a confrontation with the Obama administration is understandable.
Given the nature of the Israeli media, Netanyahu would certainly pay a political price if he were to be blamed for making the administration turn against Israel. But the truth is that today more than ever, Obama shares Netanyahu’s desire to avoid an open clash.
THE MIDTERM congressional elections are just four months away and Obama’s Democratic colleagues are running scared. Polls show that the Democratic Party is likely to lose control over the House of Representatives. The Democrats will also likely see their control over the Senate weakened if not lost. As The Wall Street Journal’s political analyst John Fund reported this week, out of 70 competitive congressional districts, the Democrats will likely lose 60 and so lose control over the House.
Going into such a problematic electoral season, the last thing Obama needs is an open confrontation with Israel. A new row with Netanyahu will not only harm Democrats in key states like Florida, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
It will harm the Democrats’ fund-raising efforts among Jewish American donors. Over the past several months, there have been repeated reports that Jewish Americans are drastically cutting back their donations to Democrats. The trend will likely escalate if Obama forces Netanyahu into a corner next week.
What this means is that Netanyahu is well placed to stand up to Obama’s pressure. If he plays his cards wisely, he can say no to Obama and avoid an open confrontation. For instance, instead of agreeing to extend the building prohibition, Netanyahu should say that he is willing to discuss that demand in face-to-face negotiations with Abbas. Rather than agree to Abbas’s preconditions, Netanyahu should say that he is willing to listen to Abbas’s position in face-to-face negotiations. And so on and so forth. Such statements by Netanyahu will take the pressure for making concessions off him and put Obama and Abbas on the spot.
Even more importantly, it will buy Israel time.
And buying time should be Israel’s chief goal with respect to Washington today. Since taking office, Obama has repeatedly demonstrated that he will not reconsider his fundamentally hostile view of Israel. Obama’s basic belief that Israel’s strength and size are to blame for all the violence and radicalism in the Arab world is not subject to change, regardless of how clearly and continuously events on the ground prove it wrong.
Read the rest here: Netanyahu must play for time
Tags: Caroline Glick
