Reb-Bibi Vs. St. Barry: The Fate Of The World In Balance

Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu met today with USer president Barack Obama, and it is fair to say that the foreseeable future hung in the balance. Obama continued to urge Netanyahu to suspend settlement building in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Bibi said "Yeah, sure. You bet. Uhuh." And there's where it stands, tonight.

Not very encouraging, world peace-wise.

Obama is just the latest Murkin Prez to ignore or miss or misunderestimate Israeli "real-Politik."

In a way analogous way Upton Sinclair's cynical "It is hard to get a man to see what his job depends on him ignoring," neither Obama nor any other US leader "can" recognize that Israel has territorial ambitions, between the Jordan and the sea. Netanyahu advisor and former Israeli Cabinet member Dori Gold told NPR this morning that the settlements must continue to provide "a future" for some "300,000 settlers." That is as clear a statement of territorial "manifest destiny' as you'd ever want to hear, outside the 19th Century.

Netanyahu cannot endorse, pursue, or even acknowledge a two-state solution. Any settlement would NECESSARILY entail the redistribution of vital resources the vast majority of which--mainly water--have been stolen from land they Israeli internal policies have forced Palestinians to leave. Israeli hegemony within the borders of the dual-occupation region since 1967 has more than tripled.

Let me hasten to say this is not a 'religious' issue. The habits which different populations deploy to placate their imaginary deities are an incidental, or accidental factor in the political dynamic of the region. It is in fact immaterial that this situation pits "Jews" against their 'semitic' cousins who shifted their allegiance to Allah. That's just an excuse.

Palestine at this moment is nothing less than a political petry dish for "post-modern" colonialism. Edward Said was probably the first guy to formalize this analysis. His narrative was his narrative--it built on the bones of those facts. What has happen in Palestine is what happened when the marginally more technologically sophisticated--and better protected--colonizing force imposing itself on less sophisticated indigenes.

Anyway, the blogs have been active on these matters. I pulled the following cites/sites off Informtion Clearinghouse:

Obama Must Cow Netanyahu

Obama-Netanyahu must not be Kennedy-Khrushchev

By Juan Cole

If Netanyahu comes away thinking he can thumb his nose at Washington, the whole Middle East could be in flames by the end of Obama's first term. Continue

One State the Alternative to Two-State Solution
By Hani Hazaimeh with agency dispatches

"If Israel continues not to accept solving the Palestinian issue on the basis of a two-state solution, then the other option before us is one democratic state in which Muslims, Christians and Jews live side by side enjoying the same rights," Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa said on Sunday. Continue

Below the fold:

>Netanyahu to tell Obama: Time 'running out' on Iran: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will use his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday to stress that "time is running out" for stopping Iran's nuclear program, so Obama must not spend more than a few months on his planned dialogue with Tehran unless real progress is achieved.

Obama: Iran existential threat to Israel: With respect to concerns Israel might carry out an air strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, the US president said that since Israel is "right there in the range" of Iranian missiles, "their calculation of costs and benefits are going to be more acute."

Israel begins new illegal settlement, despite U.S. opposition: Israel has moved ahead with a plan to build a new illegal settlement in the northern West Bank for the first time in 26 years, pursuing a project the United States has already condemned as an obstacle to peace efforts.

ICC to hear Israeli war crime case: A Human Rights group has filed a lawsuit against Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the war crimes they have committed in the Gaza Strip

Hamas rejects Gaza-only joint security force: Hamas movement on Monday rejected the idea of forming a joint Palestinian security force in the Gaza Strip that would not also operate in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Et cetera...