It is rumored Obama won’t get into details, but will set the goal of 2014 or else …
“Report: Obama demands timetable for West Bank withdrawal”
(Times of Israel) – US President Barack Obama demanded a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, the World Tribune reported on Monday.
“Obama has made it clear to Netanyahu that his visit is not about photo-ops, but the business of Iran and a Palestinian state,” the World Tribune quoted anonymous Israeli sources as saying.
According to the source, Obama intends to act on his own if Israel refuses to “give him something he can work with.”
Netanyahu begins talks for haredi-free government (without Shas party)
(JPost) – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu began working on a coalition without haredi parties on Sunday, breaking the news to Shas and then negotiating with Bayit Yehudi.
One day after Netanyahu accused Yesh Atid and Bayit Yehudi of boycotting an entire population group, which he said was unacceptable, he admitted to Shas the unlikelihood of forming a coalition with the haredi parties.
The impression the Shas leaders have received, a party source said, is that the pact between Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid is too strong to break and that the only way into government for them would be if Labor (15 Knesset seats) joined, in which case Netanyahu would not need Yesh Atid and Bayit Yehudi’s collective 31 Knesset seats.
Yacimovich, however, has not wavered from her campaign promise to remain in the opposition, even when Likud Beytenu offered her party the Finance; Industry, Trade and Labor; and Social Services ministries. According to the Labor leader, her views are too different from those of Netanyahu.
“It seems that the bond between Lapid and Bennett and their hatred for the haredim is unbreakable at this stage,” the Shas party official said.
