Het Steve you,re out of touch with reality,Kings David and Solomon are ,to this day recognised by Judaism as great,wise ,shrewd Jewish kings of Israel,Samuel ,Moshe (Rabeinu),Eliya hu,great prophets,when all is said and done ,the Yiddisher seichel shall prevail when Abbas and his PLO/Fatah cronies have no option but to accept settlement building ,they already have,and accept Jordan as the Palestinian state,as mandated all those decades ago by the UN ,so yes Bibi and Avigdor are being extremely clever by playing the Palestinian leadership at their own game,the local Israeli population(Jewish)will have the final say ,by electing who they reckon will be the most suitable PM ,Foreign Minister etc. of the Jewish state of Israel,in the interim what do the Palestinians have for all their belligerence and intransigence,abs olutely zilch ,even during a Centre right govt. and nowhere near a far right wing one that the ignoramuses profess it currently is ,being very clever is the name of the game these days ,with the Sunni madman Saddam Hussein just a distant memory for Sunnis and sanctions hurting the Shiite madhouse very badly ,playing clever games means arming the Sunnis against their bitter foes the Shiite,so they can kill each other,once again ,but in far greater numbers than ever ,wait and see,it,s coming soon?

While I might concede your point about King Solomon - he did speak of the virtue of prudence or shrewdness (cunning) in his proverbs. But remember Solomon's later end; how he fell into sin and married all these foreign women who seduced Solomon away from God. King David rarely behaved shrewdly and perhaps then only when he was in a terrible fix, as for instance when his own son (Absolom) rose up and rebelled against him and tried to kill David. Generally King David is described as acting "wisely." The "Yiddisher term you use, "seichel" (or sachel) is more properly defined as "having understanding" or "conducting oneself wisely." Some define it as "intelligence." I understand your point. You seem to be saying, because Obama and Abbas are crafty and cunning men, Netanyahu and Lieberman must be equally shrewd and cunning. I don't take this road, though I am not suggesting your prescription will not succeed. I prefer honesty. I prefer telling Mr. Obama the following: "This land is ours by right. Just as we do not question your right to the North American continent (which you took by conquest), why do you question our right to the land of Israel? We are not going to make any more concessions of land. Sinai and Gaza are the end of our concessions and we reserve the right to re-occupy these territories in the future....." Then the ball will be in Mr. Obama's court. Let's see what he does when we are honest and firm rather than cunning and shrewd. There is this proverb in our Bible that goes like this: "He (God) frustrates the plotting of the shrewd....He captures the wise by their own shrewdness and the advice of the cunning is quickly thwarted." This is my prayer for Obama and Abbas, that God will capture them in his own shrewdness. Why should our side behave in such a duplicitous manner?