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Commentary
5934
“Crusader Clinton Heading Our Way”
by Jerusalem Watchman - Stan Goodenough   
March 30th, 2009

As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sets out for the Middle East this week (she arrives in Israel Monday evening) two influential newspapers in Israel ran telling reports transparently crafted to cause a confrontation between the Obama administration’s top diplomat and Israeli Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu.

The hope on the Israeli left is that the “Ice Woman” will stare down the incoming Israeli leader, pushing him to a place where he will be forced to either acquiesce to, or outright reject, the demand to create a Palestinian state in the land of the Jews.

If he falls into the trap, and greenlights this state, Barack Obama will hold “Bibi” to his word.

If he sticks to his guns and resists the effort, relations with America could slide.

Like their counterparts in the west, Israel’s journalists are overwhelmingly leftist, and in the vanguard of those pushing “land-for-peace.”

Pulling no punches, Ha’aretz - mouthpiece of the “intellectual elites” - ran as top headline on its English-language website the provocative prediction: “US and Israel on collision course as Clinton reiterates vow to create Palestinian state ahead of Israel visit.”

Unlike Clinton, who in a Voice of America interview Friday declared her resolve to emphasize Washington’s commitment to the “two-state solution,” Netanyahu was vacillating.

The Likud leader was being “ambiguous,” complained Ha’aretz, and would not “confirm or deny a belief in the two-state solution.”

Ynetnews, the web presence of Israel’s largest circulation daily, Yedi’ot Ahronot, was somewhat clumsier:

“Clinton is scheduled to meet with … Netanyahu, who is expected to assure her that he will comply with the obligations agreed to by his predecessors,” it asserted, adding that “nevertheless, Netanyahu is unlikely to state he will strive to advance the two-state solution.”

What’s the story here?

While the ins and outs appear complex, the issue itself is not.

Simply - but damningly - put, world leaders will not rest until an Islamic Arab state called Palestine has arisen on the ruins of the Jewish hope to return home.

Nurtured by millions for thousands of years, it was for the realization of this hope that tears flooded the Exile, and prayers without number rose to God’s throne.

Now, professing friendship at every turn, Crusader Clinton is coming to dash the dream.

Preparing the way before her are self-despising journalists who dismiss their countrymen’s faith in their calling as at best a politically-untenable fantasy, at worst a shameful blot on their national past.

Netanyahu, who is being urged by many to withstand these pressures, is trying to walk a fine line. He is certainly able to make a strong case against the viability of two-states-for-two-peoples (sic). Example after example are available for him to prove that surrendering territory to Arabs cannot and will not secure peace for the Jews.

Naturally enough, he does not want to embark on his second term in office already at loggerheads with the new most powerful man in the world. He has been there before. He knows, too, the value of the American Alliance Asset that Israel values and has long sought to protect.

Times have moved on since Clinton’s husband occupied the White House. The new president is an entirely different kettle of fish. And he has a whole administration, together with a well-weighted Capitol Hill, to back his engagement in the Middle East.

As Hillary comes barreling in, Bibi is likely hoping for all the prayers he can get.

May there be many.

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