White House Antagonism Toward Netanyahu Grows

[Purveyor]

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISMARCH 20, 2015

WASHINGTON — The White House is stepping up its antagonism toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite his victory in this week’s elections, signaling that it is in no rush to repair a historic rift between the United States and Israel.

The sharpened tone indicates that the Obama administration may be re-evaluating its relationship with its closest ally in the Middle East, having lost patience with Mr. Netanyahu in the closing days of an election campaign in which he spotlighted deep disagreements with President Obama over a Palestinian state and a nuclear deal with Iran.

“You reach a tipping point,” said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel and Egypt. “It’s the culmination of six and a half years of frustration, including some direct hits at the president’s prestige and the office of the presidency.”

The aggressiveness underlines a calculation by Mr. Obama that an international accord with Iran to rein in its nuclear program is within reach despite Mr. Netanyahu’s adamant opposition, and that there is little value in being more conciliatory toward him.

And, domestically, the administration is risking the alienation of a core Democratic constituency of Jewish voters, in part banking on the fact that many of them also are upset with Mr. Netanyahu.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/21/world/middleeast/white-house-antagonism-toward-netanyahu-grows.html?_r=0

[leveymg]

1. Meanwhile, from Hillary, no comment. She's still running away from Obama, lockstep with Bibi.

[DonViejo]

2. Oh, really?...

So, assuming I understand you correctly, former SoS Clinton tweeting

Hillary Clinton: No GOP 2016 Hopeful Should Sign Iran Letter

Hillary Clinton ✔ @HillaryClinton

GOP letter to Iranian clerics undermines American leadership. No one considering running for commander-in-chief should be signing on.

3:11 PM - 11 Mar 2015

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141037217

Is "no comment." And her saying, at her press conference:

"Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander in chief in the midst of high stakes international diplomacy," Clinton said Tuesday at a press conference at the United Nations. "Either answer does discredit to the letter's signatories."

-snip-

"The president and his team are in the midst of intense negotiations. Their goal is a diplomatic solution that would close off Iran's pathways to a nuclear bomb and give us unprecedented access and insight into Iran's nuclear program," Clinton said. "Now reasonable people can disagree about what exactly it will take to accomplish this objective and we all must judge any final agreement on its merits. But the recent letter from Republican senators was out of step with those traditions of American leadership."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hillary-clinton-iran-letter-tom-cotton

Is also a "no comment" Now, I have to ask, exactly what do you expect the former SoS to say about the negotiations her successor and her former boss are engaged in?

[leveymg]

5. Not a word in there about Bibi's meddling. Just a partyline 'GOP letter is bad and helps Iran.'

Go back and re-read her statement. It's basically no comment about Bibi. She's said nothing since on the subject of Bibi's storming of Washington to aid the GOP against the Obama Administration.

[ann---]

7. What does that have to do with

Hillary's love for Nuttyahoo? I will not vote for her because she is more friendly to that insane
menace than she is to Dems.

[regnaD kciN]

3. I'm thinking that, right now, HRC is really more in "Oh, sh...." mode

From what I've read, she really fell for Netanyahu's act, convinced that, if only there was peace and quiet for a time, he would make the moves to reestablish peace talks and start the process toward a genuine two-state solution, as he promised back in 2009. Even as late as last summer, she was apparently predicting to associates that he would soon make a dramatic announcement that would move the region toward a genuine resolution.

Well, he made a dramatic announcement, all right...and it was anything but what she was predicting.

I wouldn't be surprised if HRC is royally pissed-off at him in private right now, but she's really between a rock and a hard place. Those who were not hardline Likudniks already distrusted her because of her prior support of Netanyahu. If she breaks with him now, odds are, she will lose her support among the still-powerful, hardline-on-Israel faction of the Democratic party while not picking up much from those who already distust her for being a Likud apologist. On the other hand, if she stays the course in her allegiance to Netanyahu, she's probably going to alienate a far larger group of those who themselves are now swinging away from blind loyalty to Israel's government. Either way, she loses...which, to some of us, would seem like "just desserts" for her history of triangulation.

[TheNutcracker]

4. I think you're right...

[leveymg]

6. Actually, last August she used exactly the same words as Bibi to justify his no two-state stand.

She laid the groundwork for that war and then said that Israel had simply an innocent victim. She's also used exactly the same language as Netanyahu to justify cutting off the possibility of a two-state solution:

Netanyahu:


“There cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the Jordan River.”

- Press Conference, July 11, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/18/benjamin-netanyahu-palest_n_5598997.html


HRC: “If I were the prime minister of Israel, you’re damn right I would expect to have control over security,” Clinton said of the West Bank, citing the need to “protect Israel from the influx of Hamas or cross-border attacks from anywhere else.”Interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic, Aug 10 2014,
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/hillary-clinton-failure-to-help-syrian-rebels-led-to-the-rise-of-isis/375832/

[Fearless]

8. She will at anything to posture herself with the perceived majority.

[Demeter]

9. THAT and fifty cents will NOT get you a cup of coffee

let alone a significantly effective response out of the White House or Congress...