Barry Rubin rips apart a Newsweek article “A Friend in Need: Barack gets tough on Bibi”
Barry Rubin: “Tough love: This derives from the late 1980s and early 1990s when the left side of the Israeli spectrum was pushing the land-for-peae and negotiate with the PLO arguments against their rivals on the right. A little U.S. pressure, they argued, would help get talks going.”
“A lot has happened since then, however, notably the 1992-2000 Oslo process. This proved to the vast majority of Israelis that the Palestinian leadership (and Syria, toom for that matter) wasn’t ready or interested in peace. Disillusioned, a lot of these people supported Ariel Sharon and the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, the results of which (Hamas takeover, rocket fire) made them even more disenchanted.”
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“Today the last thing Israelis need or want is pressure to make more concessions to the Palestinians. They’ve already made a lot; these didn’t lead anywhere goo. What Israel needs today is not ‘tough love’ but real support.”