Even those familiar with the long and shameful history of America\u2019s appeasement of Israel were taken aback by the Obama administration\u2019s extraordinary offer to Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
In exchange for a paltry one-off 90 day freeze on illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), Israel will get 20 F-35 stealth fighter jets worth $3 billion and a slew of other goodies. Yet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly gave up to eight hours with Netanyahu trying to persuade him to accept \u201cone of the most generous bribes ever bestowed by the United States on any foreign power.\u201d Praising the Israeli Prime Minister for eventually agreeing to put the offer to his security cabinet, President Obama took it as \u201ca signal that he is serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
But is there any reason to believe that Netanyahu is any more \u201cserious\u201d about consenting to the creation of a viable Palestinian state today than he was in 2001? In a video aired on Israel\u2019s Channel 10 this summer, Netanyahu was seen during the second intifada bragging to West Bank settlers about how he had sabotaged the Oslo Accords. \u201cI\u2019m going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the \u201967 borders,\u201d he told them. In that secretly filmed conversation, Netanyahu also revealed his dismissive attitude toward the United States. \u201cI know what America is,\u201d he said. \u201cAmerica is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won\u2019t get in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there is good reason for the Israeli leader\u2019s arrogance. In a pre-midterm election interview with the Jewish Daily Forward, Congressman Gary Ackerman stressed that \u201cIsrael\u2019s best bet for addressing any concerns about Obama\u2019s policy\u201d was for the Democrats to retain power. As evidence of their pro-Israel influence, Ackerman and other Jewish Democrats cited \u201cthe forceful criticisms they conveyed to the White House when they thought that Obama was leaning too hard on Israel.\u201d Ackerman, who chaired the subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said that if Israel wanted \u201cpositive influence on the White House\u201d it needed what he called the \u201cfirst-class team\u201d of Howard Berman, Barney Frank, Henry Waxman, Sander Levin and himself to continue chairing key House committees, because \u201cwe are all pro-Israel and we all have major, major, major influence in the executive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Republicans\u2019 subsequent gains in those midterms, however, are only likely to boost Netanyahu\u2019s confidence in his ability to move America \u201cin the right direction.\u201d On the eve of his November 11 meeting with Hillary Clinton, the Israeli Prime Minister had what has been described as an \u201cunusual, if not unheard of\u201d (read: illegal) one-on-one meeting with incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. According to Cantor\u2019s office, the Congressman assured Netanyahu that \u201cthe new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration.\u201d It wouldn\u2019t be the first time that Cantor\u2014 set to become the highest ever ranking Jewish member of\u3000Congress\u2014has attempted to undermine official U.S. policy in Israel\u2019s behalf. Last year, while leading a delegation of 25 Republican congressmen to Israel, Cantor publicly criticised the Obama administration for interfering in such internal Israeli matters as the eviction of Palestinian families from their East Jerusalem homes and the ongoing 43-year Jewish colonization of the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Given who has been shaping Obama\u2019s Middle East policy, his administration may not require that much checking though. Since 2002, he has been advised by Lee Rosenberg, a key member of \u201ca close-knit network of Chicago Jews,\u201d who, in the words of the Chicago Tribune, \u201cnurtured and enabled\u201d Obama\u2019s political career. According to Rosenberg, the then U.S. Senate hopeful \u201creached out\u201d to the jazz recording industry entrepreneur and venture capitalist \u201cto learn more about the issues affecting Israel and Middle East, and the U.S.\u2013Israel relationship.\u201d Later, when Obama\u2019s Chicago backers made it clear to him that Israel was an issue \u201che had to get educated on,\u201d Rosenberg accompanied the then-senator on his first trip to Israel, where he learned \u201can appreciation of the security needs.\u201d A longtime board member (and currently president) of AIPAC, Rosenberg also introduced the presidential candidate at the pro-Israel lobby\u2019s 2008 conference, when Obama, in contradiction of international law, vowed that Jerusalem \u201cwill remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennis Ross, one of the principal authors of that speech, is also the originator of the incentive package. Having convinced Obama of the need \u201cto come off as friendlier\u201d to Netanyahu, the president\u2019s current top adviser on the Middle East worked closely with Ehud Barak and Yitzak Molho, Netanyahu\u2019s adviser, on preparing the original proposal which Netanyahu subsequently rejected. Ross, dubbed \u201cIsrael\u2019s lawyer\u201d for his over-solicitousness to Tel Aviv\u2019s interests as President Clinton\u2019s chief negotiator, was accused by an American government official earlier this year of being \u201cfar more sensitive to Netanyahu\u2019s coalition politics than to U.S. interests.\u201d A fellow at the AIPAC-sponsored think tank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he also served, until his government appointment, as founding chairman of the Jerusalem-based Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, which views intermarriage with non-Jews as an \u201cinsidious\u201d challenge. On hearing that Ross had joined Obama\u2019s team, one Chicago-based pro-Israel activist commented, \u201cnow \u2026 we have no concerns whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet there are some who believe that Obama is anti-Israel\u2026<\/p>\n