what about Obama's recent praise?

Jerusalem
Photo by: Associated Press
The Region: Behind the praise
By BARRY RUBIN
07/12/2010 00:06

The recent meeting between Obama and Netanyahu was as good as it’s going to get.
At the recent meeting between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the president could not have been more effusive. They had an “excellent” discussion, Netanyahu’s statement was “wonderful,” and the USIsrael relationship is “extraordinary.”

Hard to believe this is the same Obama.

The US president wants to improve relations with Israel for several reasons.

Obviously, he doesn’t want to be bashing Israel in the period leading up to the November elections. Polls show that for Americans, his administration’s relative hostility toward Israel is its least popular policy...

AS I’VE pointed out before, once Israel concluded that there would be no Western commitment for overthrowing the Hamas regime, it might as well go to a containment strategy. This Western policy is terrible but Israel is merely recognizing the real situation and making the best of it...

OBAMA PRAISED Netanyahu just as much on the “peace process.” The president said: “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu wants peace. I think he’s willing to take risks for peace.”

Remember that quote when Obama turns on Netanyahu again after the November elections. As for risks, we’ve had enough of those, thank you very much.


DOES ISRAEL’S government trust Obama? Of course not. Israelis in general are under no illusions about Obama’s view of their country, his willingness to battle revolutionary Islamists, or his general reliability and toughness...


There is a possibility of Obama turning to a much tougher stance on Israel after the congressional elections are over. Yet with a plummeting popularity at home and many domestic problems, perhaps Obama will have more on his mind than playing Middle East peacemaker.

The Palestinian Authority is so uneager for a peace agreement that anything Israel says on the subject is most unlikely ever to be implemented. And it seems that the Obama administration has at least some sense that it isn’t going to get an Israel-Palestinian peace agreement so it doesn’t want to look foolish in making this a high priority and then failing.

Thus, Israel’s strategy is as follows: try very hard to get along with the administration, seek to keep it happy, and avoid confrontation without making any major irreversible concessions or taking serious risks. Have no illusions, but keep the US government focused on Iran as much as possible.

The next Congress will be more likely to constrain the president and who knows what will happen in future. A building freeze might be ended on strong grounds the next time. It is quite possible that Iran, Syria, and other radical forces will so assault the United States and trample on its interests that Obama will be forced to alter course. And there’s always the 2012 presidential election.This, then, is the best policy for Israel to follow considering the more unattractive options. And for the foreseeable future, Obama will play along.
It isn’t neat but it is real world international politics.

The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs and Turkish Studies. He blogs at www.rubinreports.blogspot.com Post
what about Obama's recent praise?