Israelis Look to Obama for peace

It is often the case that one perceives a monolithic Israeli perspective as presented by AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobby groups in the United States. What is particularly ironic is that the press in Israel itself represents a broad spectrum of views and perspectives that one does not usually get to see through the filter of the global mainstream media.

I found the following article rather interesting for its analysis of the liberal perspective of the Israeli press.

Israelis Look For Hope In Washington
Mark Leon Goldberg - May 18, 2009 - 11:25am

Diplomacy
As it happens, I am in Israel this week. And in Israel, all eyes are on Washington, D.C. as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Obama White House for the first time. The meeting, however, has the potential to be somewhat awkward the Israeli Prime Minister has yet to endorse the "two state" solution.

Scanning the Israeli press today it is stricking to see the degree to which Israelis are depending on Obama to press Netanyahu to once and for all endorse a two-state solution. For a good chunk of the Israeli body politic, all hope lies with Obama. Ha'aretz has a three-fer of editorials today which all reinforce this same point.

The lead editorial in Ha'Aretz advises Bibi to "say 'yes' to Obama:"

Now Netanyahu must show he can set aside his ideological opposition to dividing the country and support for expanding settlements and, for the good of the state, strengthen relations with the United States and advance the peace process with the Palestinians and the Arab states.

The Israeli public expects him to adjust his political stances to international reality.

Gideon Levy calls for a "political U-turn by the prime minister," and see's the American president as Israel's "final hope."

Obama is the final hope: Only if he throws his entire weight into the process will anything in the Middle East start moving. Any American president could have long ago brought about substantial progress, first and foremost ending the intolerable Israeli occupation. But Obama's predecessors shrank from the task, preferring to yield to the Jewish and Christian lobbies and to engage in masquerades of negotiations leading nowhere.

And Zvi Bar'el says an endorsement of a two state solution


As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lands in Washington Sunday, he brings a valuable gift for U.S. President Barack Obama: new U.S. legitimacy in the Middle East. If Netanyahu says the right password at the White House gates - "two states for two peoples" - Obama will have his first Israeli political achievement. Then there will be no escaping attributing this ideological compromise to American pressure on Israel.

Bottom line: A nation turns its lonely eyes to you, President Obama

Of Rice and Lies

Concerning Former American President Jimmy Carter's visit to the Middle East and in particular his meeting with Hamas, the American Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said this:

"We counseled President Carter against coming to -- against going to the region, and particularly against having contacts with Hamas." "We wanted to make sure that there would be no confusion and that there would be no sense that Hamas was somehow a party to peace negotiations."

The Carter Centre has now released the following official statement:

President Carter has the greatest respect for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and believes her to be a truthful person. However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true. No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President Assad or leaders of Hamas.

Before leaving on the extended visit to monitor an election in Nepal and then to visit Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, President Carter placed a telephone call to Ms. Rice to describe his itinerary and to inform her of his intended conversations. She was in Europe and her deputy returned his call. They had a very pleasant discussion for about fifteen minutes, during which he never made any of the negative or cautionary comments described above. He never talked to anyone else.

Jimmy Carter is a man I admire a great deal. A rare politician who has his heart in the right place. He works tirelessly for the common good of humanity even though he is not in office.
Rice, on the other hand, is mixing with the wrong crowd.

I guess it is clear as to which of their statements, I think, is the truth.