Yoo-hoo, Helen Thomas ping list! FReepmail me if you'd like to be added.
Posted on 05/21/2009 2:55:13 PM PDT by seanmerc
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got together officially this week for the first time, but their talks failed to win agreement on how to solve perennial Middle East problems.
They managed to agree on a common concern that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
In meeting with the hawkish Netanyahu, Obama agreed that a nuclear-armed Iran was unacceptable. He warned that the diplomatic talks he was initiating to halt Iran’s program would not continue forever, and he roughly set a one-year deadline for the dialogue.
The president also said he wouldn’t foreclose "a range of steps" if Iran did not cooperate. His statement was interpreted to mean that all options were on the table -- including military strikes.
Is Obama toughening his dovish campaign foreign policy?
Obama failed to get Netanyahu to agree to the creation of a Palestinian state. The president did, however, throw the Israeli leader the usual bone by referring to the "special relationship" between the U.S. and Israel. The president also said "when it comes to my policies towards Israel and the Middle East . . . Israel’s security is paramount."
He didn’t mention anything about the Palestinians’ security.
Although each leader worked at being nice during Netanyahu’s White House visit, there are concrete differences between the U.S. president and the Israeli hardliner.
Netanyahu went beyond the customary demand that Palestinians recognize the existence of Israel -- a weary refrain since the late Yasser Arafat recognized Israel, paving the way for negotiations dating back to the Carter era.
Now Netanyahu has added a new wrinkle. He says Israel has to be recognized as a "Jewish state," a term that carries an enormous meaning and leaves the Arabs in Israel at a disadvantage.
Under Israel’s occupation for three decades, the Palestinians have been suppressed by the Israeli military and forced to pass through Israeli checkpoints. Thousands of Palestinian refugees have been living in camps for years.
It is interesting that Netanyahu said he wanted "to make it clear that we do not want to govern the Palestinians" but he did not mention a separate Palestinian state, which Western leaders see as the only solution to the continuing strife in the region.
Obama is continuing his search for peace in the Middle East by meeting a parade of so-called moderate Arab leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak; Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdallah. Obama then travels to Egypt next month to deliver a speech billed as a major address to the Muslim world.
In a new twist, there is speculation that the U.S. and Israel are seeking an alliance against Iran with those countries. Under this theory, the U.S. would line up against Syria, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, all of which have ties with Iran. Divide and conquer.
American presidents have played a big role in the Middle East since the creation of Israel and not always in an even-handed way -- if such an approach were possible.
Meanwhile, Obama has picked up the cudgels.
"The Palestinians are going to have to do a better job of providing the kinds of security that Israelis would need to achieve a two-state solution," he said. "The other Arab states have to be more supportive and be bolder in seeking potential normalization with Israel," he added.
Obama also said "Israel is going to have to take some difficult steps as well." He made it clear that Israel must stop constructing settlements in the West Bank in order to move ahead with negotiations.
Obama is already immersed in two wars bequeathed by the Bush administration. He should not pull America into another war in the Middle East.
Yoo-hoo, Helen Thomas ping list! FReepmail me if you'd like to be added.
SHE MIGHT HAVE BEEN A GOOD LOOKING WOMAN, ABOUT 105 YEARS AGO...!
Never say ‘plunge’ and Helen Thomas in the same sentence. :)
Isn’t she dead yet?
I doubt it.
[GRAPHIC IMAGES]
That is an entirely insufficient warning.
Nope.
She was ugly when she was young.
What warning could adequately prepare you for that?
BTW - that “look” on her face is not the grimace of someone about to be punched in the kisser, it’s actually...
wait for it...
... a “smile”.
Well, yes. Doesn’t she look it? I think she died 20 years ago but nobody told her.
I’d ask for photographic proof, but I’m not sure cameras had been invented back then.
... and she doesn’t have the sense to lay down.
That (or a raging case of flatulence) would explain why nobody wants to sit near her in the White House briefing room.
“What warning could adequately prepare you for that?”
Something like...
“Obama Plunges Into The Mideast Powder Keg” [Prepare to want to have your eyes burned out and have sulfuric acid poured in their empty sockets.]”
Maybe to a goat-herder in Lebanon, where I believe her family is from (No relation to Danny Thomas as far as I know).
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