Obama takes tough and risky stance on Israeli settlements
Source: McClatchy
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Thursday ratcheted up what might be America's toughest bargaining position with Israel in a generation, demanding anew that Israel stop expanding its settlements in the disputed West Bank as a key step toward making peace with its Arab neighbors.
Obama made the demand after a White House meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, building on unusually blunt language the day before from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Each party has obligations," Obama said of the so-called Road Map to Peace, to which Israel is a party. "On the Israeli side, those obligations include stopping settlements."
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"What we're seeing from the Obama administration is an uncharacteristically tough policy on settlements without a corresponding detailed strategy to justify it. It looks like a significant fight with the Israelis," said Aaron David Miller, a veteran of Arab-Israeli peace efforts in administrations of both parties and now a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
"They've essentially issued an ultimatum to Israel. It's a game of chicken, an Obama-Netanyahu game of chicken."
Clinton signaled the raised stakes when she said Wednesday that Obama wanted new construction in the settlements stopped and rejected Israel's insistence that it needed to allow for such things as "natural growth."
"He wants to see a stop to settlements," Clinton said. "Not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly."
"Her comments," Miller said, "were about as tough and as shrill as I've heard from any senior American official on this issue since Baker told Congress, 'When the Israelis are serious, have them call me.''' In 1991, former Secretary of State James Baker and President George H.W. Bush tried to press Israel to stop building settlements by urging Congress to suspend loan guarantees to Israel, but then they backed down.
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A key question heading into next week is whether Obama can get Arab states to offer some concession that might prompt Netanyahu to agree to freeze the West Bank settlements. He could, for example, get them to offer travel visas to Israelis, or to allow the use of their airspace by commercial Israeli flights.
It's noteworthy that Obama this week announced that he'd go to Saudi Arabia early next week for a private dinner with King Abdullah, en route to Cairo.
"If what Obama is trying to do is get states like the Saudis to actually do things now, not only will he have achieved something pretty significant, he'll make it almost impossible for the Israelis to say no," Miller said. "No Israeli prime minister can afford to mismanage Israel's most important relationship, especially at a time when the Iranians are closer to nuclear power." LinkHere
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Thursday ratcheted up what might be America's toughest bargaining position with Israel in a generation, demanding anew that Israel stop expanding its settlements in the disputed West Bank as a key step toward making peace with its Arab neighbors.
Obama made the demand after a White House meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, building on unusually blunt language the day before from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Each party has obligations," Obama said of the so-called Road Map to Peace, to which Israel is a party. "On the Israeli side, those obligations include stopping settlements."
-snip-
"What we're seeing from the Obama administration is an uncharacteristically tough policy on settlements without a corresponding detailed strategy to justify it. It looks like a significant fight with the Israelis," said Aaron David Miller, a veteran of Arab-Israeli peace efforts in administrations of both parties and now a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
"They've essentially issued an ultimatum to Israel. It's a game of chicken, an Obama-Netanyahu game of chicken."
Clinton signaled the raised stakes when she said Wednesday that Obama wanted new construction in the settlements stopped and rejected Israel's insistence that it needed to allow for such things as "natural growth."
"He wants to see a stop to settlements," Clinton said. "Not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly."
"Her comments," Miller said, "were about as tough and as shrill as I've heard from any senior American official on this issue since Baker told Congress, 'When the Israelis are serious, have them call me.''' In 1991, former Secretary of State James Baker and President George H.W. Bush tried to press Israel to stop building settlements by urging Congress to suspend loan guarantees to Israel, but then they backed down.
-snip-
A key question heading into next week is whether Obama can get Arab states to offer some concession that might prompt Netanyahu to agree to freeze the West Bank settlements. He could, for example, get them to offer travel visas to Israelis, or to allow the use of their airspace by commercial Israeli flights.
It's noteworthy that Obama this week announced that he'd go to Saudi Arabia early next week for a private dinner with King Abdullah, en route to Cairo.
"If what Obama is trying to do is get states like the Saudis to actually do things now, not only will he have achieved something pretty significant, he'll make it almost impossible for the Israelis to say no," Miller said. "No Israeli prime minister can afford to mismanage Israel's most important relationship, especially at a time when the Iranians are closer to nuclear power." LinkHere
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