Posted on 06/06/2014 7:46:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
PM’s hostility to president is ‘endangering Israel’s security,’ claims Labor’s Isaac Herzog, in rare confirmation of long-rumored strained ties between ‘Bibi’ and ‘Barack’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “loathes” Barack Obama, and his hostile attitude to the US president constitutes a danger to Israel’s well-being, the head of the Israeli opposition charged on Friday night, in a highly unusual acknowledgement of the long-rumored strained personal ties between the two leaders.
In a bitter verbal assault on the prime minister, Labor party chairman Isaac Herzog slammed Netanyahu for failing to listen to the international community, failing to present peace proposals of his own for an accord with the Palestinians, and failing to work properly with Obama.
It was “a tragedy” that Netanyahu had not presented a peace plan, and was instead “dragged” into responding to other proposals, said Herzog. “The second tragedy, that endangers the security of Israel, is his loathing and hostility for Barack Obama,” Herzog went on, describing this as “one of Netanyahu’s gravest failures.
Herzog, who was minister of welfare under Netanyahu from 2009-2011, was speaking in an interview on Channel 2 news in the aftermath of this week’s formation of a new Hamas-backed Palestinian unity government. Netanyahu had called on the international community to stand up against what he described as a government backed by a terrorist organization, but instead the US led the world in making clear that it would work with the new Palestinian government, and the EU, the UN and much of the rest of the international community quickly followed suit.
Netanyahu and Obama have long been perceived as having a strained relationship, with policy differences emerging over how to stop Iran’s nuclear program, and the prime minister’s expansion of settlements, among other issues. Obama gave an interview which indicated criticism of some of Netanyahu’s key policies just as the prime minister was flying to meet him at the White House in March, and Netanyahu was seen by some in the US as having sought to bolster Mitt Romney’s prospects in the 2012 presidential elections.
But formally Israeli and American leaders have generally insisted that the two work together professionally. Obama took pains to speak of “my friend Bibi,” using the prime minister’s nickname, when he visited Israel last year, and Netanyahu reciprocated by calling him “my friend Barack.” For a figure as prominent as Herzog to use Israel’s most-watched news program to declare that the prime minister loathes the US president was unprecedented.
Sources close to Netanyahu have claimed that Secretary of State John Kerry had promised the prime minister that the US would not work with the new Palestinian government, and had thus breached understandings with Israel. Herzog charged that Netanyahu “does not listen” to the international community, and they don’t listen to him. Under Netanyahu, Israel was now “completely isolated,” he said.
As opposition leader, Herzog receives regular briefings on diplomatic and security issues from Netanyahu and other leading figures. He has been urging relatively dovish members of the governing coalition — notably the Hatnua party led by Tzipi Livni and the centrist Yesh Atid of Yair Lapid — to leave the government and back him. Herzog said Israel needed to negotiate with the Palestinians on the principle of a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 lines, with land swaps and “arrangements” to resolve the contested fate of Jerusalem.
When it was suggested to him that Netanyahu was prepared to go along with such ideas, Herzog retorted, “His mistake is that he’s not put a proposal on the table.
In comments earlier in the week, Herzog had blamed the US and EU recognition of the Hamas-backed Palestinian unity government on the “complete collapse of Israeli foreign policy” under Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman. “Netanyahu and Liberman failed to understand the international arena,” he said.
“Netanyahu speaks [but] the world doesn’t listen,” said Herzog Wednesday, adding that the prime minister’s failure to lead a diplomatic process “let Hamas into the West Bank through the front door.”
Herzog warned that if Netanyahu did not act on the diplomatic front, “Israel will lose the support of the international community and the ability to preserve [Israel] as a Jewish and democratic state.”
The opposition leader called on the prime minister to come up with a clear plan to avoid Israel becoming a binational state with a Jewish minority.
“The man who describes himself as strong against Hamas is revealed as being strong at nothing but talking, Herzog wrote in a Facebook post.
Israel has castigated the US over its position, arguing that by maintaining ties with a government supported by a terror group, the US was indicating to PA President Mahmoud Abbas that it was okay to “form a government with a terrorist group.”
“I’m deeply troubled by the announcement that the United States will work with the Palestinian government backed by Hamas,” Netanyahu said Wednesday, noting that the Islamist group has murdered “countless innocent civilians.”
“All those who genuinely seek peace must reject President Abbas’s embrace of Hamas, and most especially, I think the United States must make it absolutely clear to the Palestinian president that his pact with Hamas, a terrorist organization that seeks Israel’s liquidation, is simply unacceptable,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Kerry defended a US decision to work with the new Palestinian unity government, despite Israeli criticism, emphasizing that the new Palestinian leadership did not include any Hamas ministers.
Speaking to reporters in Beirut, Kerry said Abbas “made clear that this new technocratic government is committed to the principles of non violence, negotiations, recognizing the state of Israel, acceptance of the previous agreements and the Quartet principles.”
“Based on what we know now about the composition of this technocratic government, which has no minister affiliated to Hamas and is committed to the principles that I describe, we will work with it as we need to, as appropriate.”
While on an unscheduled visit to Beirut, Kerry said: “I want to make it very clear we are going to be watching it (the government) very closely, as we have said from day one, to absolutely ensure that it upholds each of those things it has talked about, that it doesn’t cross the line.”
The new Palestinian cabinet was sworn in Monday, after a surprise reconciliation deal reached in April between Hamas and the PLO.
This is the important point. BiBi can "loathe" Obama...and we can understand why....but BiBi should have kept this a better secret.
Everyone knew Obama was not a proponent of Israel, but I believe Obama could have been placated by a Netanyahu "charm offensive".
But instead of a charm offensive Netanyahu chose a lecture offensive. During their first meeting in the oval office Netanyahu used the media to publically lecture (humiliate) Obama about the importance of not returning to the 1967 borders.
Obama looked PISSED. Everyone saw it ... but Netanyahu continued.
Many on this site applauded Netanyahu's public lecture and Obama's recoil. But I cringed. Not because what Netanyahu was saying was wrong....but because he was publically humiliating the President of the United States...a humiliation that this particular president would not forget.
A strategic blunder by Netanyahu set in stone the relationship between these two men. The only reason to care is that the nation state of Israel will pay the price for this.
Big strategic mistake, Bibi. A big mistake.
So do I[loathe Obama] So tell BiBi not to feel like the Lone Ranger.
... Take a number, pal ...
Indeed.
What support?
I wish I knew how to post a picture. I’d go with Jon McLane looking out the smashed window
And in agreement with well over 50 percent of American voters, at this point in history.
Obama's character was there for everyone to see. He demands submission, or he is, as you say "pissed". He is also anti-Israel.
Bibi represents the people of Israel. He cannot submit to Obama's anti-Israeli policy. He must strongly represent his nation, as most of his predecessors have.
Putin needed to make the same decision about Obama years ago. He too made the right strategic decision.
The only way a "charm offensive" works with Obama is if you are a fellow traveller, i.e. an Islamic socialist.
I would hate to see the outcome for the State of Israel from your approach.
What’s not to loath.....
So does half of America and most of the rest of the world.
Does that make him an honorary American?
very good analysis.
Note that Herzog was part of Netanyahu’s government not very long ago. The Socialist Establishment in Israel still dominates the bureaucracy, including Mossad. They are not as rational as one might think.
He’s got lots of company..
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “loathes” Barack Obama,”!
Pretty much sums up how I feel about the poser fag.
I feel the exact same way! I don’t even hate Clinton. I don’t hate Carter. I disagree with some of what they did but I don’t feel my blood boiling when I see them like I do with Obama. In fact, I have never felt hate for anyway like I do for Obama. And I feel the same way about anyone who defends or praises him. I think they are lying or just idiots or both. Cannot stand to talk to anyone who defends him.
I wish we would divide into two separate countries. That is the only answer.
Bibi doesn’t need to worry. God won’t allow anything to happen to Israel that he doesn’t have planned. One of God’s most powerful angels watches that place constantly.
It never pays to charm or otherwise suck up to evil men, it never works out.
The same needs to happen with Western Canada, perhaps we can work this all out.
Give us Bibi for a year and we'll give you Obama for a year.
There ya have it! Israel wouldn't exist after the end of the year.
It's pretty obvious the feeling is mutual.
Anyone with a sense of decency should loathe him.
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