Tikkun (https://www.tikkun.org/author/a_rosenbergm/)
The Netanyahu government is now just where it wants to be. It feels no need to take any action to accommodate the Palestinians or entertain President Obama’s suggestions for restarting negotiations.
by MJ Rosenberg
This article originally appeared as “The Fake Outrage Of The Israel-Firsters” on TPM Cafe. There was absolutely nothing about President Barack Obama’s Middle East speech to get excited about. (And even less in his statement following Friday’s meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.) The president did not even attempt to set out an action plan; he offered broad principles, ones that have been offered before by five previous presidents. He delivered the speech in an effort to get the jump on Netanyahu, who is in town to address Congress and AIPAC. Bibi’s goal is to mobilize his followers against any U.S. efforts to promote an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
Any doubt about how the United States makes its policies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be dispelled by the Obama administration’s near-instant reaction to the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation announcement: it is determined to be fully in sync with Prime Minister Netanyahu.