Now Netanyahu gets it

Sever Plocker offers breakdown of Netanyahu-Obama dialogue over past year

Sever Plocker|Published: 04.07.10 , 18:06

After patiently listening to his guest’s scholarly lecture, Obama said the following words to Netanyahu: I feel for you, the Israelis, and therefore I recommend that we set a binding timetable for resolving the conflict between you and the Palestinians. I’m determined to end it no later than a year before my first term in office ends. More than 40 years have passed since you occupied the territories and there is no reason to delay or waste more time: Everyone knows what the final-status agreement will look like. You do too. Bill Clinton outlined it in detail. George W. Bush endorsed it. As a black president with Muslims roots, I can get more benefits for you out of the Arabs than my two predecessors.

I therefore expect you, Mr. Prime Minister of Israel, to show guts, draw courage, and lead your state to peace in 2011. The settlement construction freeze is needed only as a start. Meanwhile, I will make the following pledge to you: As long as I am America’s president, Iran will not possess military nuclear capabilities. This I swear. God bless you, Mr. Netanyahu; God bless the people of Israel.

Netanyahu heard this and was stunned. A week before the meeting, he rejected Finance Minister Dr. Yuval Steintiz’s advice not to travel to America, and instead was tempted by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who as always promised a pleasant and friendly conversation with Obama. The aides and advisors prepared Netanyahu for a clash over the issue of Jerusalem construction: He arrived at the White House equipped with good explanations. Yet he was not prepared to hear, from the president, a firm, unequivocal and blatant demand to complete the negotiations (which had not yet started) within a year and a half. He felt the ground is shifting below his feet; his predications and assessments crumbled.

People who spoke with Netanyahu before the elections can attest to his position at the time. Netanyahu viewed himself as a person chosen by history for one mission only: Freeing Israel from the horror of an Iranian nuclear bomb. He did not link the enlistment of US support against Iran to an agreement with the Palestinians. With complete conviction, he argued that the conflict had been resolved in fact, and that the reality which had emerged in the territories is the solution. This is what we have: A Palestinian parliament already exists, as well as Palestinian elections, a Palestinian prime minister, a Palestinian flag, a Palestinian area code, and Palestinian police. They have full autonomy; almost a state.

A focused president

Netanyahu pinned great hopes on advancing the Palestinian economy and reinforcing its institutions; through actions, rather than slogans. The diplomatic process – that is, the shining path that his predecessors took to nowhere – appeared to him as a needless diversion. A sort of ritual. Netanyahu was not excited over its existence, but was willing to take part in it in order to pay lip service. In his view, which was shared by many others, the demographic and political developments – half a million Israelis living beyond the 1967 borders, as well as the Hamas state in Gaza – pre-empted and annulled any thought of a final-status agreement.

The sense of disgust with the “diplomatic process” prompted author and journalist Tom Friedman to urge President Obama to refrain from US involvement in Israeli-Palestinian talks, at least until the sides are prepared for mutual concessions. Up until a month or two ago, it appeared that the Administration in Washington took Friedman’s advice and that Netanyahu’s approach proved itself. Obama conveyed a sense of voluntarily helplessness.

Yet then came the shock, the consternation, and the pressure. Suddenly, the prime minister of Israel found himself facing an American president who is focused on his objective. A president who shakes his finger at the PM and says: Mr. Netanyahu, in order to hit Iran I need an agreement in Palestine. The time for evasive maneuvers has run out. It’s either peace now, sir, or you will pay now.

When Salam Fayyad, the most moderate and pro-American prime minister the Palestinians ever had, and will ever have, declared in Passover that soon his people will celebrate the establishment of their new state, which will be recognized by the world and by Israel with Jerusalem as its capital, it was Barack Obama who spoke from Fayyad’s mouth. Both of them share the same vision.