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Subscribe to Print Edition |Tue., June02, 2009 Sivan 10, 5769| | Israel Time: 15:45 (EST+7)Back to Homepageweb haaretz.com
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Last update - 15:02 01/06/2009
WhatwillhappenifIsrael'defeats'Obama?
ByAkivaEldarTags:
U.S.
,
Settlements
 
You had to read it twice to believe it: "Criticism of the UnitedStates in Jerusalem." A senior Israeli official warns: "We aredisappointed." The fly hovering about is complaining that theelephant is not obeying its orders. What chutzpah on the part ofBarack Obama. He just entered the White House and already hassomething to say - about how many new houses we are buildingin Ofra, and about when we will dismantle the walls in the "illegaloutposts," which are already beginning to disintegrate because ofold age.Instead of dismantling settlements, he would do better todismantle the Iranian nuclear program. Otherwise Jerusalem willreassess its special relationship with Washington, and willreconsider its commitment to ensuring the qualitative advantage ofthe United States. If this situation continues, we may even stopvetoing anti-American decisions in the United Nations SecurityCouncil.Let's assume that there is some point to the criticism of the U.S.president's determined insistence on petty details when it comesto Jewish construction in the territories. Let's agree that Obama inhis naivete really has become preoccupied with inconsequentialmatters, such as a handful of pathetic outposts. Should the Stateof Israel risk a crisis with the most important power in the worldbecause of what it considers "inconsequential matters"? DoesIsrael have a greater existential strategic asset than its relationswith the U.S. and its neighbors' understanding that these intimaterelations are unshakable?Is this the wayto keep "alloptions open,"includingreceivingAmericanapproval to flyover the skiesof Iraq, on the
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The Pope in the Holy LandDurban II conferenceIran: Nuclear and regional ambitionsIsrael vs. Hamas
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way toattackingIran's nuclearinstallations?And what willwe do whenthe Iranianslaunchmissiles at TelAviv? Will wesend the newAbba Eban,ForeignMinisterAvigdorLieberman, toWashington toask Obama to declare war on Tehran? At the same time, thesettler from Nokdim can reprimand the president for refusing totake his "natural growth" into account.Does Israel really have an interest in winning the battle over thesettlements? What will happen if we destroy the prestige of thestrongest man in the world and portray him as an empty vessel,incapable of halting the settlement program of a U.S. protege?Will an Israeli "victory" strengthen the status of the U.S. in theinternational campaign against Iran?A partial answer to these questions can be found in the addresslast week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before membersof the Likud faction, regarding the necessity of evacuating theoutposts. The right believes that the more they fatten this bastardgoat, the more its removal will be considered to be what formerprime minister Ariel Sharon called a "painful concession."However, even Netanyahu knows that Obama does not intend toparticipate in these goat games. The U.S. president is not apolitical amateur, as Defense Minister Ehud Barak implied whenhe said that dismantling the outposts would not stop the Iraniannuclear program. Obama will be visiting Riyadh and Cairo thisweek, in an attempt to revive the Madrid conference coalition,which president Bush, Sr. formed after the first Gulf War, inOctober 1991. Incidentally, then too, the Likud, led by YitzhakShamir, "leveled harsh criticism" against the U.S. administrationand "expressed disappointment" at its refusal to recognize thenatural growth of the settler population. We can assume thatObama has also heard the news that its number (without EastJerusalem) has grown since then, from fewer than 100,000 toalmost 300,000. Enviable fertility indeed.The new-old Arab-Israeli-American coalition is Obama's answer tothe Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah one. It is based on the peace initiativeof the Arab League, which was adopted by the Organization ofIslamic States, including Iran. An Israeli decision to adopt itsprinciples - all the territories in return for a general peace - willremove the Shi'ite-Iranian minority from the Arab and Muslimconsensus. As far as the latter are concerned, let Israel nurturethe outposts, expand the settlements, clip the wings of PalestinianAuthority President Mahmoud Abbas. It will help pave a shortcutfor Iran from Gaza to Ramallah.Israel itself, the Israel that does not understand the connectionbetween the settlement of Yizhar and the reactor in Bushehr,claims that Hamastan is nothing more than a subsidiary of Iran.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not shed a tear if
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