Obama to Netanyahu: Show us you're serious

[Middle East News Service comments: This sound like a story that we have read before (and on more than one occasion): A crisis between Israel and United States. The US is finally putting its foot down and reminding Israel just who is the superpower with the economic and political power. And we have also got used to the next part: Israel using the power of its friends in the Congress to overrule the US administration which quickly folds up. But like in the story of the boy who cried wolf there finally comes a time when the real wolf does appear, and the story changes direction. The indications are that this time it is a real crisis. Let me make it clear that I do not believe that it has much to do with Barrack Obama’s personality, skin colour, or political views. It is simply that the sum total of the Global Financial Crisis, Bush’s disastrous policies in Iraq and Afghanistan mean that the US needs to offer something to the Iran and Arab regimes. The Obama administration needs a success on the Palestinian front and Eli Yishai’s timing with the 1600-housing-units announcement has given them an opening. It has at least 20 years since the US sounded so tough. Of course one should not count the chickens till they are hatched but a story does need a watching brief. In the meantime I strongly urge you to get a feel for the changes by reading Aluf Benn’s article – Sol Salbe.]

A widely predicted crisis between Israel and the United States upon Benjamin Netanyahu taking office as prime minister finally erupted this weekend.

U.S. President Barack Obama did not hold back in condemning the humiliation caused to Joe Biden with the Israeli announcement of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem during what was supposed to be the vice president's friendly visit to Israel.

Instead of accepting Netanyahu's partial apology and letting bygones be bygones, Obama issued a stern warning to the Israeli prime minister and is now demanding that he take "specific actions" to show he is "committed" to the U.S.-Israel relationship and to the peace process itself.

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See the full article at: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1156251.html

[The independent Middle East News Service concentrates on providing alternative information chiefly from Israeli sources. It is sponsored by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the AJDS. These are expressed in its own statements]

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