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Last update - 08:38 07/07/2009
In the absence of Dr. Kissinger
By Yoel Marcus
Tags: netanyahu, obama, israel news

It is not clear if this is true or just a feeling. Either way, the impression is that President Obama doesn't really like Bibi. Or in other words - unlove at first sight.

One of Friday's columnists wrote that "Bibi suspects Rahm Emanuel is polluting the atmosphere against him." It's easier to accuse Jews of inciting against Jews than to assume that the president himself had been under whatever impression he was under after his meeting with Netanyahu at the White House.

The president probably saw intelligence evaluations about Bibi's personality and heard former presidents' impressions. Clinton told a friend once that "in my conversations with Bibi you could think he was president of America and I was prime minister of Israel."
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Obama must have also heard how Bibi finagled an invitation for his wife Sara and two children to the Oval Office, where the children hurled cushions at each other. When Bibi visited this time, Michelle Obama fled from Washington to New York and gossipers say what the reader of this line can only imagine. If Obama missed something about Netanyahu's character, Hillary Clinton has surely filled him in.

In preparation for the next 100 days, a made-up milestone, Bibi declared in the cabinet on Sunday that he "achieved" national consensus for two states for two peoples. This is an eye-catching headline regardless of the attached conditions and reservations voiced in his Bar-Ilan speech. And since the devil is in the details, George Mitchell was charged with sorting the wheat from the chaff. But it is not certain that he is the right man for this mediation mission.

Throughout Israel's history two American mediators managed to achieve arrangements between Israel and the Arabs. The first was Dr. Ralph Bunche, a black diplomat who brokered the 1949 Armistice Agreement between Israel and the Arab states. Just before the signing of the accords, someone there began to hesitate. Bunche produced ceramic memorial plates he had commissioned for the signing ceremony. "If you come to an agreement, you will each receive such a plate as a souvenir," he informed them. "Otherwise I will personally smash them over your heads."

Years later Dr. Henry Kissinger, who invented shuttle diplomacy and the ploy of the "reevaluation" threat, succeeded to pave the way from the Yom Kippur War to the arrangement and peace track, exerting heavy pressure on both Egypt and Israel.

Harnessing Ehud Barak to manage the negotiations on all the conflict's aspects with Mitchell was Netanyahu's idea. The two had already discussed all the issues at their meeting in New York last week, and set their first goal at restoring confidence between Washington and Jerusalem over the settlements and outposts. Barak's reputation precedes him as a man with a broad outlook and the ability to simplify problematic issues with a comprehensive analysis and the ways to sew the seams. The administration, at least for now, trusts Barak and the talks have moved from the minute details to an overall arrangement.

Yesterday's meeting in London is a sequel to the previous meeting in New York - an attempt to reach a situation that would enable Mitchell to come for a summing-up meeting in a week or two. Barak believes the Kissinger-style "shuttle diplomacy" could be of use at this time.

On the practical level, Barak believes the track must reach the stage it was at in 2000 at Camp David. The way to get there is through confidence-building measures, understandings on the settlement issue and right of return, and advancing toward a comprehensive agreement.

Bibi is beginning the next 100 days more popular, more balanced and above all freer - due to Lieberman's situation - to charge Barak with negotiating with the administration. Indeed, he faces internal threats, rivals like Benny Begin, Silvan Shalom, Dan Meridor, Miri Regev and even family pressure - his father, wife and brother-in-law. But his coalition is sufficiently broad to prevent toppling him.

Since no love is lost between Obama and Bibi, a mobile, wise, authoritative mediator is needed, one who will join the threads without either party feeling screwed. When no direct or indirect talks are being conducted between us and the Palestinians, someone must cut the Gordian knot. I have no doubt who would be suitable for this mission had it not been for his age. But in the absence of Dr. Henry Kissinger, Ehud Barak will have to do.
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  1.   A little story about unlove 08:56  |  S 07/07/09
  2.   The definition of redefine 09:00  |  Natallie Durson 07/07/09
  3.   "in the absence of... 10:45  |  saul a. readner 07/07/09
  4.   Taba, NOT Camp David 10:48  |  Roo 07/07/09
  5.   In the absence of Dr. Kissinger 10:54  |  reglindis 07/07/09
  6.   Politics is never a win-win business ! 11:13  |  Akram Zekaria 07/07/09
  7.   love and politic 14:32  |  oz 07/07/09
  8.   natallie durson 15:04  |  scallywag 07/07/09
  9.   2- The Palestinians have only one `scenario` Ms Durson !(2nd try) 15:13  |  Akram Zekaria 07/07/09
  10.   4~ Roo "Taba, is not Camp David" . 15:19  |  Akram Zekaria 07/07/09
  11.   Akram Zekaria 15:46  |  Roo 07/07/09
  12.   Know of ceramic artist, could be commissioned for ceramic plates 19:56  |  Smadar 07/07/09
  13.   11- Roo (2nd try). 21:24  |  Akram Zekaria 07/07/09
  14.   Kissinger, played Golda Meir and Israel lost 5000 men in the ... 03:20  |  JMK 08/07/09
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