Why on earth is Obama going to Israel?
Alexander H. Joffe:
… Obama’s visit, by virtue of being routine and ill-timed has the potential to feed the region’s worst instincts. Disappointment with Obama will quickly turn to the default setting of blaming Israel. Is that Obama’s true goal, a back handed form of incitement? Probably not. Nothing in the Obama administration’s international dealings suggests this level of sophistication; its manufacture of resentment is generally reserved only for the Republican Party. But that will be one of its effects and it will, in all probability, set back the cause of peace, and that of addressing the region’s other issues.
Americans: Obama Should Pressure PA, Not Israel
New poll finds that 48% of Americans say the U.S. should increase pressure on the PA to compromise for peace, rather than on Israel.
As President Barack Obama is set to arrive for his visit to Israel, the results of a new Gallup poll released Monday find that a majority of Americans prefer that, should the President choose to pressure one of the sides in the Israeli-Arab conflict over the peace process, he should choose to pressure the Palestinian Authority.
According to the poll, 48% of Americans say the United States should increase pressure on the Palestinian Authority to compromise in order to achieve peace, rather than on the Israelis. 25% believe that Israelis should be the ones to be pressured by Obama, while an additional 18% think the U.S. needs to ramp up pressure on both sides, or on neither.
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WJC ANALYSIS – Obama in Israel: a new beginning?
By Pinhas Inbari
President Obama is expected to make his first official presidential visit to Israel this week. It is widely assumed that the main issue the President will discuss with the Israeli government will be nuclear Iran. However, it is not known to what extent the Palestinian issue will be discussed, if at all. While the President is keeping the cards close to his chest, it is worth examining the past four years of the Obama administration in order to gage his perspective on the issue.
Four years ago Obama saw the Palestinian problem as key to American global interests. Accordingly, he chose Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas as the first world leader to call upon assuming office. The phone call was a core part of the administration’s policy of outreach to Islam. The basic assumption was that once the bleeding struggle between Israel and the Palestinians was removed from the global agenda, America’s relations with Islam and the Arab world will get a fresh start without the hindrance of the alliance with Israel.
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Obama’s Middle East Map Erases Israeli Territory
BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
March 18, 2013 5:29 pm
March 18, 2013 5:29 pm
WH
The map of the Middle East displayed in an Obama administration video released days before President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel shows the Jewish state dispossessed of substantial parts of its current territory, including its capital.
The map of Israel, displayed repeatedly during the video, shows the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, northern Israel, and areas surrounding what is currently the West Bank as non-Israeli territory. The Golan Heights is shown as part of Syria; Jerusalem is shown as part of the West Bank; and northern Israel is shown as part of Lebanon. (Read more…)
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
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