Obama officials must now decide whether more international pressure on Israel can help bring a conservative Netanyahu-led government back to the negotiating table with the Palestinians — or whether such pressure would simply provoke a defiant reaction, as some fear.In other words, he'd be fine with the PLO making war crimes accusations? Sigh. Very galling if so. As will any attempt made to let the PLO continue to rob money from taxpayers. Thank goodness if the Israeli government won't just sit around waiting for this scenario to actually happen, and it's fair to guess they won't.
Obama has other diplomatic options. He could expend less political capital to oppose growing momentum within the European Union to impose sanctions on Israel for its settlement activity.
More provocative to Israel would be any softening of Obama’s opposition to Palestinian efforts to join the International Criminal Court, which the Palestinian Authority will formally join on April 1. Under a law passed by Congress, any Palestinian bid to bring war crimes charges against Israel at the court will automatically sever America’s $400 million in annual aid to the Palestinian Authority, although some experts suggested Obama could find indirect ways to continue some funding — even if only to prevent a dangerous collapse of the Palestinian governing body.
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ReplyDelete...Earlier Thursday, Netanyahu walked back his disavowal of a two-state solution, a position he endorsed in an effort to appeal to right-wing voters with polls showing him facing tough competition....
I know that Netanyahu continued on with "I don't want a one-state solution. I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution," Netanyahu said Thursday in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. "I haven't changed my policy," but I still feel disheartened as I read CNN's lead story tonight.