re: #653 garhighway

It’s Ok for Israelis to not like Netanyahu.

It is not Ok for Democratic politicians in the US to criticize him: it means that they are “anti-Israel”.

So much about the Arab Israeli conflict is about structural issues - but even more is overcome by the personal character of the leaders.

The Palestinians do not have anyone willing to pull a Sadat and make the trip to Jerusalem to pursue peace - a real peace (even if it turns out to be cold). The rhetoric remains the same from Palestinian leaders, whether it was Arafat, or Abbas, or the Hamas/PIJ thugs.

Israel, for its part has gone from Rabin and Peres to Kadima’s Sharon - a former Likudnik who split to pursue a more moderate course, and ended up going for the Gaza disengagement to not only limit Israel’s contact with Palestinians that caused friction in Gaza, but was meant to improve Israel’s security situation.

Not only did the opposite occur, with the rocket war ensuing shortly after Israel put in place a more secure barrier between Gaza and Israel, but Sharon was felled by a stroke. That left the incompetent Ehud Olmert trying to carry on with similar policies and his weaknesses were exposed during the rocket war and the Hizbullah war.

The disengagement and the rocket war/Hizbullah war left Israelis realizing that they do not have partners in peace, despite Oslo obligations with the Palestinian Authority.

Netenyahu is from that mold - he doesn’t see the Palestinians as a partner in peace and isn’t afraid to say that to the consternation of diplomats who would willingly paper over that inescapable fact in pursuit of a deal.

Clinton had to deal with Netenyahu while he was President, and I don’t think the two ever really got along (which again goes to how diplomacy is as much about personal relationships between parties as it is about the actual conflict at hand).

But there is a further complication when dealing with US/Israel relations in that criticism is perceived as being so much more - up to and including a repudiation of Israel and its policies, when that shouldn’t be the case. Then, the spin takes over and the spin overtakes the reality - becoming its own new reality.