"… then calamity struck. At their White House meeting, Obama made clear to his guest that the letter Netanyahu had sent was insufficient and returned it for further corrections. Instead of a reception as a guest of honor, Netanyahu was treated as a problem child, an army private ordered to do laps around the base for slipping up at roll call.
The revolution in the Americans' behavior is clear to all. On Sunday morning Obama was still anxiously looking ahead to the House of Representatives vote on health care – the last thing he wanted was a last-minute disagreement with congressmen over ties with Israel.
The moment the bill was passed, however, a victorious Obama was free to deal with his unruly guest.
The Americans made every effort to downplay the visit. As during his last visit in November, Netanyahu was invited to the White House at a late hour, without media coverage or a press conference. If that were not enough, the White House spokesman challenged Netanyahu's observation at AIPAC that "Jerusalem is not a settlement."
The Americans didn't even wait for him to leave Washington to make their disagreement known. It was not the behavior Washington shows an ally, but the kind it shows an annoyance." Ha'aretz
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Bibi was "dissed." Good, he needed the lesson. I think there will be more such lessons. Obama is a patient man. I now see that he favors the "ambush" style. Israeli hubris and arrogance favors an "adversary" who employs such method. They will not learn the lesson implied in this Ha'aretz editorial because to do so would require a basic change in the way they think pf themselves in relationship to the outer world and gentiles. They carry this burden in trying to deal with difficult situations. In the same way they will continue down the road of trying to deal with the Palestinians by treating them as sub-humans. That road leads to a dead end.
It leads to a future in which emigration and unending Arab and Muslim hostility end the experiment. pl
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1158992.html
PS People keep referring to Bibi as an invited guest of the US in this visit. So far as I know this was a"self invited visit." The only thing we did was give him a visa. pl
Well COL, let’s hope you’re right about this.
One wonders what kind of temper tantrum Bibi and the Likudniks will throw now?
Some more “lawn mowing” in Damascus or Beirut?
SP
Interesting take on Bibi’s visit.
The relationship of the Fundamentalist “Settlers Movement” (Gush Emunim as the spearhead) to Israeli political parties is of course significant. The relationship is not just to “rightist” parties like Bibi’s, however.
The so-called “settlers movement” (squatters) is led by the Gush Emunim which in turn is linked to the Christian Zionists in the US. The Gush Emunim is linked to a number of parties in Israel including elements of Labour.
“While rejected by all mainline Christian churches in the United States, Christian Zionist ideology is aggressively promoted by a small minority of fundamentalists linked to the Jewish Zionist lobby in the United States and allied to the most militant extremist elements of the Israeli political spectrum.
“Although this strategic political alliance was forged in the mid-1980s, it did not become a topic of national political discussion until the current crisis triggered by the Israeli provocation and aggression led by Sharon. Even though Congressman Armey is retiring this year, his protege and fellow Texas Congressman, Tom DeLay, is scheduled to step into his place next year. Like Armey, DeLay openly espouses Christian Zionist ideology using such coded terms as “Judea and Samaria” to described occupied Palestine.
“The relevant background on the Israeli link to American Christian Zionists dates to the 1967 war. In the wake of the war, extremist elements in Israel formed the Movement for Greater Israel, and the settler movement that established Kiryat Arba near Hebron. The extremist Gush Emunim settler organization grew out of this environment.
“In the years after 1967, the Gush Emunim became the leading edge of the Israeli new right. There were three components of this new right: Labor Party factions supporting the Movement for Greater Israel, the new religious-nationalist activists, and the old-line Jabotinsky nationalist right converted into the Begin-led Herut Party.
“From 1974 to 1977, three Labor Party leaders vied for supremacy, and each had his Gush Emunim supporter within his ministry. Prime Minister Rabin had General Ariel Sharon as his special adviser. Defense Minister Shimon Peres had Yuval Neeman, later leader of the pro-Gush Emunim Hatechiyah Party. Foreign Minister Yigal Allon was the patron of the fanatic settler network behind Kiryat Arba.
“By the time Likud came to power in 1977, the power of the Gush Emunim over the government was complete because Begin was a long-time supporter of the settler movement.
“In the United States, however, the Carter administration attempted to pursue a more evenhanded policy in the Middle East in the face of an omnipotent domestic Zionist lobby. So hard-line Jewish Zionist intellectuals formerly associated with the Democratic Party adopted a new stance. They repackaged themselves as neoconservatives in order to penetrate the Republican Party foreign policy network with a view to the 1980 election and a potential victory for the US new right.
“In Israel, preparations were made by the Likud to form political relationships with Christian fundamentalist groups in the United States because they could be counted on to support Likud’s “Eretz Israel” policy. In turn, such a political alignment would enhance the position of the Jewish neoconservatives in a Republican administration in Washington.” http://www.lebanonwire.com/0205/02050914DS.asp
I wrote this in May 2002 for the Beirut Daily Star.
The Christian Zionist cult ideology moves in parallel with the messianic ideology of the Gush Emunim. Hagee has addressed the AIPAC conference in the past and a large number of Christian Zionists were at AIPAC this year (as usual) along with something like half of Congress.
On the Gush Emunim squatters, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gush_Emunim