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[OS] ISRAEL/US/PNA - Will Netanyahu's speech to Congress save his relationship with Obama or ruin it forever?

Released on 2012-10-18 17:00 GMT

Email-ID 3198596
Date 2011-05-24 09:57:11
Good editorial ahead of today's speech. [nick]

Will Netanyahu's speech to Congress save his relationship with Obama or
ruin it forever?

Published 02:32 24.05.11
Latest update 02:32 24.05.11

The speech, whose purpose is to curb international pressure on Israel,
gives Netanyahu a rare opportunity to reboot his leadership.
By Aluf Benn

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech Tuesday before the U.S.
Congress will be the formative event of his term, if not his entire
political career. A statement released by his bureau promises that the
speech will "garner major international attention," alluding to a

gives Netanyahu a rare opportunity to reboot his leadership. Just a few
months ago, he appeared to be directionless. Now, people are hanging on
his every word.

Netanyahu has taken advantage of the opportunity to veer to the right to
unify his coalition and marginalize opposition leader MK Tzipi Livni
(Kadima ). Instead of praising U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East
policy statement of last Thursday, Netanyahu attacked it. The maneuver
worked, at least for the meantime. Both right-wing Foreign Minister
Avigdor Lieberman and left-leaning Defense Minister Ehud Barak have
crowded into Netanyahu's tent.

Livni spoke archaically and vaguely, not daring to give the simple, clear
message: "Say yes to Obama."

Netanyahu continued in Washington the resolute position he presented to
the Knesset last week. To his mind, the Palestinians want to destroy
Israel, do not accept its right to exist and want to flood it with
millions of refugees. Israel's supporters, Obama among them, mean well but
are not sufficiently aware of the dangers. Netanyahu believes there is no
point to offering verbal concessions, such as agreement to the 1967 lines,
because the Palestinians will just make new demands.

Netanyahu believes the strong stand he took with Obama in their meeting
Friday softened up the president's position. Obama's speech to the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference on Sunday was more
convenient for Netanyahu. Obama corrected, as the Jewish organizations
requested, three points in his remarks: He clarified that there would be
no talks with Hamas until it recognizes Israel and his position on the
1967 lines with agreed-on border corrections, and he negated the right of
return of Palestinian refugees to Israel. He responded to the first two
points, and ignored the refugees.

Now it is Netanyahu's turn to soften up. He will try to package his
Knesset speech in wrapping that looks better in the United States and

Netanyahu has filled the days before his speech with public relations: a
photo-op fitness walk in the park with his wife Sara; another photo-op
with his advisers seated around a table; repeated statements about the
decreasing disagreements with the White House.

In a statement released to the press yesterday, Netanyahu noted that few
international leaders had enjoyed the privilege of appearing before the
two houses of Congress, among them Winston Churchill.

Churchill, who spoke to Congress in 1941, and President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, could not stand each other and were deeply divided over
colonialism. But they still cooperated in the war against Hitler.
Netanyahu wants the same model: strategic cooperation with the United
States in light of the great changes in the Middle East, and despite
Obama's and Netanyahu's mutual abhorrence and deep disagreement over the
occupation and the settlements, which Obama views as European colonialism.

The last such round ended with victory over Hitler and the dismantling of
the British Empire. Today's speech will either start the shared road of
Obama and Netanyahu toward understanding, or cause an irreparable clash.

Beirut, Lebanon
GMT +2