Israeli analyst voices concerns about Obama
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U.S. president-elect Barack Obama may be too anxious to resolve the Palestinian problem and not sufficiently eager to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear arsenal, an Israeli analyst warned last week.
Yossi Klein Halevi, left, a senior fellow affiliated with the right-wing Shalem Center in Jerusalem and the Israel correspondent for the New Republic, made these observations at Holy Blossom Temple in delivering the second Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman lecture of the season.
Saying he was playing the role of an “Israeli curmudgeon,” Klein Halevi voiced three concerns about Obama’s possible reaction to three issues of crucial importance to Israel:
•How will he relate to the growing de-legitimization of Israel?
• How will he deal with the Palestinian question?
•How will he respond to Iran’s quest for nuclear arms?
To allay fears that Israel’s existence is expendable, Klein Halevi said, Obama should, as soon as possible, express support for Israel and strengthen the United States’ relationship with it.
As well, Obama should say that Israelis are “an indigenous people” who have come home” and are not colonial interlopers who have pushed Palestinians off their land.
On the Palestinian issue, he urged Obama, whom he described as “the most untested” American leader in years, to understand why there is still no peace between Israel and the Palestinians after 15 years of on-again, off-again negotiations.
Blaming the Palestinian side for the impasse, Klein Halevi said Palestinians have yet to accept the intrinsic right of the Jewish people to define themselves as a sovereign nation in Israel.
He charged that Palestinian lea-ders are using the contentious issue of the “right of return” to undermine Israel’s Jewish character and destroy the Jewish state.
He added that the Palestinians have yet to waive their demand that Palestinian refugee should be permitted to return to their former homes in what is now Isr