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Last update - 08:46 10/11/2009
ANALYSIS / Netanyahu is good for the (American) Jews
By Akiva Eldar
Tags: Israel news 

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the United Jewish Communities General Assembly was a dry run for the real showdown - meeting President Barack Obama - then he will live to regret this visit. Demanding that Palestinians "return to negotiations with no preconditions" might wring applause from a Jewish audience, but Obama has learned that it's merely code for "you can forget about my government freezing any settlements."

(Click here to read the full text of Netanyahu's speech at Jewish Federations of North America GA

The president surely knows what every traveler in the settlers' land knows - bulldozers are breaking ground for the new neighborhood in Beit Arye, apartment sales have started in Ariel's "university neighborhood" and construction on a new synagogue is to begin shortly in Eli.
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Talking about the security of little Israel, surrounded by enemies, is another winning card in the Jewish Diaspora. For Netanyahu, security is a belated condition for peace, but also a precondition for peace negotiations.

He built his career on the iron rule that before Israel begins talking to the Palestinians, the Palestinians must stop shooting. This rule is invalid in Obama's White House.

The U.S. president talks to anyone willing to talk to him. His Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, didn't condition his meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad on deporting Hamas' political bureau Khaled Meshal from Damascus.

Netanyahu made another pubic relations victory lap talking about the weapons that Iran shipped to Hezbollah. While the ship was sailing toward Beirut, Obama's people were shaking hands with envoys of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The importance of Netanyahu's Washington speech is in what it did not say. Unlike Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who listed the peace-agreement principles in his announcement that he will not seek reelection, as usual Netanyahu settled for general statements.

He is deliberately ignoring the understandings reached during the governments of his partner Ehud Barak and his predecessor Ehud Olmert. For Netanyahu, "no preconditions" means returning to the beginning.

It's hard to believe that he believes that Abbas, or any other Palestinian leader, would stay at the negotiating table for a single hour after hearing his proposals. Netanyahu called on the Palestinians to stop the negotiations over the negotiations. He has turned talking about solving the conflict into an inseparable part of managing the conflict.

Obama is not fazed by speeches. He knows peace in the Middle East is not achieved with speeches, especially those whose transparent aim is to lay responsibility on the Arabs and demand that the Americans roll up their sleeves.

When Netanyahu asks what the president intends to do to save Israel from the nuclear demon, Obama will likely answer: What do you intend to do to save Israel from the binational demon? The Americans understand that if Netanyahu doesn't offer Abbas concrete actions instead of hollow words, the entire Palestinian leadership will go home with him and reiterate the demand made by Martin Luther King Jr., Obama's hero: one man, one vote.

If this speech is all Netanyahu has to say to Obama, it remains for Obama to decide, and quickly, on the next step - whether to give the prime minister his peace plan, or the White House telephone number with the suggestion that he give him a call when he knows what he really wants.
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IN PICTURES / Did Prime Minster Netanyahu risk his life for a photo op?
  1.   depends on which american jews; doesn`t it? 05:40  |  eric 10/11/09
  2.   Yeah, but he`s a lousy messenger 06:12  |  dyinglikeflies 10/11/09
  3.   Really? 06:29  |  Mark Lincoln 10/11/09
  4.   Akiva Eldar and reality 06:35  |  Mark Lincoln 10/11/09
  5.   4 out of 100 Americans, and 3 outta 4 voted Obama... 07:19  |  BBSNews 10/11/09
  6.   surrounded 07:29  |  arieka 10/11/09
  7.   Make the Arabs stop building 07:39  |  James Meeker 10/11/09
  8.   American Jews and Israelis who live in reality 07:56  |  Josh 10/11/09
  9.   Netanyahu is the best. Go Bibi!!! 08:11  |  Alex 10/11/09
  10.   James Meeker - don`t be silly 08:39  |  stella westwell 10/11/09
  11.   James Meeker - either you are dense or lying to yourself. 08:44  |  Neutral 10/11/09
  12.   Bibi+Jews more concerned with good plan than binational state 08:54  |  Sam 10/11/09
  13.   Netanyahu 08:58  |  Ted 10/11/09
  14.   He is good for the Jews/Zionists/Western World 09:00  |  lily 10/11/09
  15.   The First Four Letters... 09:11  |  Yosemite 10/11/09
  16.   Yawn . . . 09:33  |  Chanya 10/11/09
  17.   That is not really a compliment for the IQ of American Jews...:) 09:38  |  Swiss (Dino) 10/11/09
  18.   so-called "neutral" 10:14  |  Ari 10/11/09
  19.   Bibi, Take Geneva & Go For It 10:59  |  Moshe Chertoff 10/11/09
  20.   Akiva, make that a throwing up card instead... 12:23  |  Dutch 10/11/09
  21.   negotiations 12:51  |  JimUSA 10/11/09
  22.   Bi-national states 14:06  |  Pedro Barrera 10/11/09
  23.   Tiresome 14:46  |  bob 10/11/09
  24.   ari 15:22  |  potobac 10/11/09
  25.   Bibi Is Not Good for Americans 15:43  |  Stephen 10/11/09
  26.   BiBI 16:51  |  Mariam Daoud 10/11/09
  27.   Is Obama good for Jews? 17:42  |  Mark Jeffery Koch 10/11/09
  28.   Mark Jeffery Koch-response 19:12  |  Stephen 10/11/09
  29.   NETANYAHU 19:20  |  Ceaser 10/11/09
  30.   # 28 Response 19:37  |  Mark Jeffery Koch 10/11/09
  31.   What do you want 19:48  |  Dan 10/11/09
  32.   Potobac, read Mark Twains description of Holyland 21:13  |  Rob 10/11/09
  33.   Mark Jeffery Koch -response 21:14  |  Stephen 10/11/09
  34.   # 2 Mark Jeffery Koch - the Bush tail is gone 21:52  |  David 10/11/09
  35.   W/out the US, Israel cannot exist. 23:12  |  i`m censored 10/11/09
  36.   Not Palestinian Land 01:19  |  Ken 11/11/09
  37.   nethanyahu is good....... 02:16  |  shimshon kinory 11/11/09
  38.   Natanyahu 04:01  |  Gershon Ron 11/11/09
  39.   Nuttinyahoo 05:09  |  barney 11/11/09
  40.   Netanyahu, who? 05:33  |  Rigoletto 11/11/09
  41.   And so is Cancer 06:16  |  Mark Lincoln 11/11/09
  42.   Depressive Deceptive Pathetic Shtetl Loser Platitudes of Weakness 07:36  |  JMK 11/11/09
  43.   wake up me eldar . peace process died in 2000 10:11  |  lebanese 11/11/09
  44.   Fortunatly Obama was voted in, to save Israel`s from themselves 10:35  |  Travelfreak2 11/11/09
  45.   Netanyahu is good to the fundamentalist rabbies 10:43  |  Travelfreak 11/11/09
  46.   Great! Maybe He`ll Go Live There 10:55  |  MB 11/11/09
  47.   cost of status quo 11:30  |  Hanna 11/11/09
  48.   rob 32 19:15  |  potobac 11/11/09
  49.   Don`t attempt to pigeonhole us 09:28  |  David 14/11/09
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