Obama en Netanyahu maken voorlopig nog geen afspraak

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Het wordt een kat en muis spelletje.
Obama die niet thuis geeft, Netanyahu die publiekelijk niets zegt, en
Mitchell die alles 'warm houdt.'
Netanyahu kan niet te lang wachten met een bezoek (onder Obama's
voorwaarden) aan Obama.
Hij wordt thuis niet voor vol aangezien zolang hij El Presidente niet
officieel ontmoet heeft, en Abbas wordt op 28 mei bij Obama verwacht.

Opvallend dat én Time én CNN Obama steunen. Toch redelijk conservatieve
organisaties.

Groet / Cees

Israel: Halt Iran to allow Mideast peace efforts (AP)

By AMY TEIBEL – 2 hours ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said
Wednesday that Iran must be reined in if Israel and the Palestinians hope
to move along the path to peace.

Ayalon made it clear, however, that this was not an Israeli condition for
going ahead with peacemaking, though Israel charges that Iran is the main
backer of the violent Islamic Hamas rulers of Gaza as well as Hezbollah
guerrillas in Lebanon.

"We should continue on the path of peace with the Palestinians as if there
is no Iran threat," Ayalon told The Associated Press in an interview
Wednesday.

"Simultaneously, we should move forward on stopping Iran as if there was
no Palestinian issue," added Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the
U.S.

Tehran is working hard to derail any possibility of effective peacemaking
through its backing of anti-Israel militants in the Gaza Strip, West Bank
and Lebanon, he said.

"Realistically and effectively, if we want to go on the path without
additional obstacles and dangers to the process, we have to rein in Iran"
because of its nuclear program, its dissemination of extremist ideology
and its support of terrorism, Ayalon said.

"But this is not a condition for going ahead with the Palestinians," he said.

Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has refused to back
Palestinian statehood, putting him at odds with the Obama administration.
Netanyahu sees defusing the Iranian threat as Israel's top strategic
priority.

Israel has long considered Iran its chief threat because of its nuclear
program and development of ballistic missiles that could reach Israel,
possibly with a nuclear warhead. Israel does not believe Tehran's claims
that its nuclear program is meant to produce energy, not weapons.

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/04/22/israels-iran-game/?iid=tsmodule
Time in partnership with CNN
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 10:51 am
Israel's Iran Game
Posted by Joe Klein

I have no doubt that Israel is--legitimately--freaked out by Iran,
although not so much by the prospect of an Iranian bomb as by Iran's
support for Hezbollah and Hamas. (The only plausible use of an Iranian
bomb would be as a deterrent against Israel's own nuclear weapons.) But it
seems clear that the Netanyahu government's wild overstatement of the
Iranian threat, and its linkage to progress on the Palestinian issue, is a
subterfuge to allow the continued illegal Israeli settlement of
Palestinian areas on the West Bank, which will ultimately subvert a
two-state solution.

It's time for President Obama to make clear, in no uncertain terms, that
the U.S. favors a Middle East peace settlement similar to the one proposed
by Bill Clinton in 2000: no right of return for Palestinians, Jerusalem as
a shared capital, the restoration (more or less) of the 1967 borders and
an American peacekeeping force in the Jordan River Valley. The idea that
Israel can continue to slow-walk the process and, by continuing to seize
Palestinian lands, create a new reality on the ground, needs to be
vehemently opposed by the U.S. government. A quiet message also needs to
be sent to Netanyahu that the U.S. will not be pressured into rushing
negotiations with the Iranians, or taking military action against them,
and that we will continue the Bush policy of actively opposing any Israeli
military strikes against Iran.

As for Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's latest anti-Israel rant seems to have
increased the possibility that the Europeans will join us in raising
economic sanctions if Iran doesn't fully comply with the IAEA
non-proliferation regime. Obama's quiet diplomacy with the Russians and
Chinese has increased the possibility that those countries will also send
the message to Iran that a bomb-making program will have negative
consequences. I'm not sure that any of this stop the Iranians form
developing a bomb, but I remain convinced that if Iran does go ahead, a
policy of strict deterrence and containment--perhaps including the Arab
states threatened by Iran's aggressive posture--is far preferable to any
sort of military action.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/21/The-President-and-King-Abdullah-on-Peace-in-the-Middle-East/

    Q I just want to follow on the previous question. You sent Senator
Mitchell to the region to listen. Is he done with the listening now
and -- because all the signals we have from the Israeli government
basically that they are not in favor of the two-state solution. The
opposition is strongly advocating that.
    .
    So I wanted to ask also His Majesty, President Obama said that there
is positive elements within the Arab Peace Initiative, but he didn't
say what he disagree about. Can you tell us if you have noticed any
tangible results, what the disagreement with that, and can the Arab
Peace Initiative be the base now for a peace process in the Middle
East?
    .
    PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, I think it is very important to
recognize that the Israelis now have had a government for a few weeks
and it was a very complicated process for them to put a coalition
together. So I think more listening needs to be done. They are going
to have to formulate and I think solidify their position. So George
Mitchell will continue to listen both to Arab partners, to the
Palestinians, as well as the Israelis.
    .
    But I agree that we can't talk forever; that at some point, steps have
to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground. And that
will be something that we will expect to take place in the coming
months and we will help hopefully to drive a process where each side
is willing to build confidence.
    .
    I am a strong supporter of a two-state solution. I have articulated
that publically and I will articulate that privately. And I think that
there are a lot of Israelis who also believe in a two-state solution.
Unfortunately, right now what we've seen not just in Israel but within
the Palestinian Territories, among the Arab states, worldwide, is a
profound cynicism about the possibility of any progress being made
whatsoever.
    .
    What we want to do is to step back from the abyss; to say, as hard as
it is, as difficult as it may be, the prospect of peace still exists
-- but it's going to require some hard choices, it's going to require
resolution on the part of all the actors involved, and it's going to
require that we -- we create some concrete steps that all parties can
take that are evidence of that resolution. And the United States is
going to deeply engage in this process to see if we can make progress.
    .
    Now, ultimately, neither Jordan nor the United States can do this for
the Israelis and the Palestinians. What we can do is create the
conditions and the atmosphere and provide the help and assistance that
facilitates an agreement. Ultimately they've got to make the decision
that it is not in the interests of either the Palestinian people or
the Israelis to perpetuate the kind of conflict that we've seen for
decades now, in which generations of Palestinian and Israeli children
are growing up insecure, in an atmosphere of hate.
    .
    And my hope is, is that -- that the opportunity will be seized, but
it's going to take some more work and we are committed to doing that
work.

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