Talk about chutzpah, or arrogance personified, a throw back to Clinton’s complaint when Netanyahu first visited the White House in 1996. But on the night before Netanyahu’s current visit to meet with Obama, the Israeli government announced that a new settlement will be started in the Jordan Valley. Netanyahu has already stated that Israel will never give up the Jordan Valley. By the same token, President Obama as well as Secretary of State Clinton made clear that settlement activity much stop if peace is ever to be attained.
Was this a symbolic response to Obama’s proposal for a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Israel begins new settlement, despite U.S. opposition
Israel has moved ahead with a plan to build a new settlement in the northern West Bank for the first time in 26 years, pursuing a project the United States has already condemned as an obstacle to peace efforts.
The move comes on the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, despite Western calls for Israel to halt its settlement activity.
Tenders have been issued for 20 housing units in the new Maskiot settlement and contractors have arrived on site to begin foundation work.
Talk about chutzpah.
Sounds like Netanyahu is trying to determine how serious Obama is about change. If we let this one slide, he’ll try something more outrageous next, and just keep ramping up until he finds where the limit, if any, is.
Considering the current composition of the Israeli government, it would not surprise me at all if they are eagerly awaiting some particularly egregious terrorist attack, a sort of Israeli 9/11, to serve as a pretext for the long hoped-for “mass transfer”.
Of course, if it doesn’t come soon, there won’t be much mass to transfer out of the remnants of the West Bank.
Dear Crow, with respect, I think you have misread the situation. I think Netanyahu knows very well that he can do any damned thing he pleases, and that Obama is in no better position to set limits than any other American politican is or ever has been.
Take Bill Clinton and George Bush, as examples.
Even a minor league politician like Olmert was able to brush off Bush’s Annapolis last gasp attempt to make peace. For that matter, Clinton’s effort was also a last gasp predicable failure, even though not many of us believe he was sincere in his efforts in the first place. Afterall, Clinton allowed the rate of settlement and the number of settlers on the West Bank to double during his two terms, without a word. One might assume he was taking his lead from Dennis Ross.
Talk about chutzpah.“
To consider this chutzpah one has to assume that the United States has some kind of real power over Israel.
Interestingly, Netanyahu was also arrogant toward Bill Clinton in the 90s. I gather that he was getting his power from AIPAC and the Congress it allegedly controls.