ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist&reg;.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#149; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#149; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#149; <a href="teflon.html">THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#149; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">REACTIONS</a> &#149; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> Israel&#39;s Tightrope</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright May 6, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style1">&nbsp;</span></span><span class="style1">W</span>hen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes to Washington to meet President Barack Obama for the first time May 16, he ll encounter a new public relations facade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Under former President George W. Bush, Israel could do no wrong, leaving the Arab world, especially the Palestinians, alienated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush watched Palestinians dancing in the streets of Ramallah and Gaza after Sept. 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>His primary peace partner, the late Yasser Arafat, had a long his history of terrorism, something Bush couldn t stomach after Sept. 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will try, with a straight face, to convince the Arab world the U.S. plans get tough with Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>In reality, only the public statements and outside appearances attempt to reassure the Arab community that the U.S. intends play impartial peace broker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Domestic and Foreign press misreads U.S. strategy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Foreign and domestic journalists already see a change in U.S. foreign policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They ve misread U.S. intentions, signaling to foreign leaders, that the U.S. will press Netanyahu to make painful concessions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>White House and State Department officials know that there can be no negotiated settlement between Israel and Palestine until the Palestinians resolve their divided state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> A house divided against itself cannot stand, said President Abraham Lincoln June 15, 1858 winning the Illinois Republican U.S. senate nomination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Palestinians cannot enter into negotiations with Israel on a future state until they resolve their division, begun when Hamas won parliamentary elections Jan 27, 2006.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hamas seized Gaza by force June 14, 2007, splitting Palestinians ton two separate entities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Since then, Hamas has refused to cede power back to Palestinian Authority leader and U.S. ally Mahmoud Abbas.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Speaking on the same page as Obama and Clinton, National Security Advisor James Jones told a NATO foreign minister in a classified memo that Obama plans to get  forceful with Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The new administration will convince Israel to compromise on the Palestinian question, read the memo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> We will not push Israel under the wheels of a bus, but we will be more forceful toward Israel than we have been under Bush, conveying the PR message designed to placate Europeans and Arabs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Speaking in Washington to the American Israel Public Affairs Committed [AIPAC], Vice President Joe Biden softened his tone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Israel has to work for a two-state solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>You re not going to like my saying this, but not build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement . . . and access to equal opportunity, said Biden, echoing the White House message.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>When Netanyahu comes to town, all the tough talk will go out the window.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>White House officials know the good-cop/bad-cop diplomatic game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Biden knows that there can be no negotiations until Abbas convinces Gaza s Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh that he must join the Palestinian Authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>U.S. officials have no intention of negotiating with Hamas, a recognized terror group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hamas has never validated any U.N. resolution accepting Israel s right to exist or, for that matter, signed onto any U.S.-brokered peace deal with Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Netanyahu knows he can t negotiate only with Abbas, who controls about 1.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Haniyeh, who takes his orders from Damascus-exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, is sworn to Israel&#39;s destruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mashaal and Haniyeh, who control 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, show no interest in compromise.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Grandstanding with Netanyahu won t help U.S. or European Union officials resolve the current split between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>All the tough talk about Israeli concessions, including Biden s demand for Israel to halt and dismantle settlements in the West Bank, doesn t change the basic fact that the U.S. can t broker a workable peace deal with half the Palestinian people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama will find himself mesmerized by the charismatic MIT graduate Netanyahu, more American, in certain ways, than Israeli.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Before diverting attention to a Mideast peace deal, the White House would be well-advised to spend time dealing with the Iranian question, restraining Netanyahu from unilaterally resolving Iran s nuclear issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> U.S. efforts would be best spent helping Abbas and Haniyeh resolve their differences before pressuring Netanyahu to make concessions.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Mideaast peace-watchers would be well-advised to follow the good-cop/bad-cop diplomacy before leaping to conclusions about changes to U.S. foreign policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama s brain-trust won t let Republicans steal the Israeli issue to rehabilitate a beleaguered Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>AIPAC knows they had no better friend in the White House than Bush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sen. John McCain tried his darndest to pull Jewish votes away from Obama, promising to continue the Bush policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While the administration would like the world to believe things are different now, it was no accident that Barack picked former Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) as his chief of staff, who served in Israel s civil defense forces during he 1991 Persian Gulf War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> When politicians on both sides of the aisle go to AIPAC, they posture for political support, especially House members required to face reelection every two years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama may talk tough but his loyalties are clear.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;<u><b>About the Author</b></u></p> <p><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He&#39;s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.<u><br> </p> <p></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>