Sound The Trumpet : Obama and Netanyahu Square Off

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“Obama and Netanyahu Square Off”
by Jerusalem Newswire - Stan Goodenough
May 29th, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United States President Barack Obama were seen to be heading nearer confrontation this week over the right of Jews to live and raise their families in the Land of Israel.

Tension is growing between the two governments after Israel refused to bow to emphatically-expressed American expectations that any and all forms of "settlement activity" be halted immediately.

Obama made this demand when meeting with Netanyahu at the White House on May 18.

"There is a clear understanding that we have to make progress on settlements; that settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward," Obama said, seated next to the Israeli during a press conference after their meeting.

Netanyahu made no such commitment, and upon returning to Israel let Washington know that "natural growth" - which means that normal human daily life - will continue inside the established communities.

A few days after the Obama-Netanyahu meeting, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya'alon stated publicly that this Israeli government will not comply with America's demands, adding that Israel will not let America "threaten us."

Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was not willing to let this pass. Speaking to reporters Wednesday she stated categorically that the US sees stopping settlements as key to a peace deal that would see a Palestinian state created on half of the historical Jewish homeland.

Obama "wants to see a stop to settlements - not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions," Clinton said.

"We think it is in the best interests [of the land-for-peace process] that settlement expansion cease. That is our position."

Clinton bluntly warned that the United States "intend[s] to press that point."

Instead of being cowed, the Netanyahu government insisted that housing construction in the internationally-condemned Jewish communities will continue.

"Normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue," said government spokesman Mark Regev Thursday. The fate of the settlements would be determined, not by American dictates, but in peace negotiations with the Palestinian Arabs.

Ha'aretz, an ultra-leftist Israeli daily news service that is fearful of anything rupturing relations between Jerusalem and Washington, warned that Netanyahu's position "could set the stage for a showdown with the US."

Obama was described later the same day as trying to "gingerly" advance Mideast peace.

After meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the PLO terrorist organization and the chairman of the terror-supporting Palestinian Authority (PA), the American recalled that he had pressed Netanyahu on the settlement matter just last week, reports the Associated Press, but that he wanted to give Israel a little more time, apparently before upping the pressure even more.

"I think it's important not to assume the worst, but to assume the best," Obama said.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13