In Israel, we speak Republican
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/in-israel-we-speak-republican.premium-1.464972
In Israel, we speak Republican
This week, as the divisiveness among Israel’s top leaders was revealed in full, the squabbling between Prime Minister Netanyahu and the U.S. administration - which he hopes will not remain in the White House after November - also reached new levels.
By Yossi Verter | Sep.15, 2012 | 1:36 AM |
—-snip—-
Netanyahu is demanding that Washington set “red lines” for Iran, but he himself does not stop at red, as the saying goes. Even after the lengthy conversation he had with President Obama after midnight on Tuesday, Netanyahu does not intend to stop talking aloud about the need to set those red lines, a political source promised on Wednesday. True, the source said, this might not induce the Americans to embrace him, but this is the way Netanyahu thinks is correct. If the premier had not spoken out for years about the Iranian issue, the source maintains, there is no guarantee that a coalition would have been created due in part to this subject, or that sanctions would have been applied. There are also secret channels of communication, the source added, but they are not enough.
—-snip—-
A very senior Israeli figure who is in close touch with members of the U.S. administration relates in private conversations that in the eyes of the Democratic administration, Netanyahu is perceived as campaigning on behalf of Mitt Romney. Romney’s visit to Israel and the fundraising event held for him in Jerusalem under the aegis of the billionaire Sheldon Adelson - Netanyahu’s patron - left Obama and his staff under no illusions about the prime minister’s intentions.
To the president and his aides, the tongue-lashing he and Hillary Clinton took from Netanyahu, their depiction as ostensibly preferring Iran above Israel, the cooperation of the prime minister and his aides with Republican congressmen working against the White House, and the leak to the media by the Prime Minister’s Bureau that Obama refused to meet with Netanyahu - all this looks like crude, vulgar and unrestrained intervention in the U.S. election campaign.
“Things are happening that Netanyahu never dreamed would happen,” a source who is connected to the same senior Israeli figure said this week. “He was in a state of mind that said that he and Adelson were in control of the American political scene. He took pride in the fact that without him no sanctions would have been imposed. He hoped that his threats would scare Obama, on the eve of the elections. But he is finding that the administration is sticking to its guns. They are not getting stressed over there in America. They are not dancing to the tune of the prime minister of Israel. Bibi’s strategy is collapsing. What will happen if Obama is reelected and the next day says to Netanyahu: ‘You want to attack? By all means, attack.’ What will Netanyahu do then?”
——> Continued….