By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff
Two weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to Washington, on the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, matters are becoming clearer. Israeli-American relations are entering their most serious tailspin in a decade - the decade since Netanyahu's previous term as prime minister.
Bad news from Washington is plaguing the prime minister one piece after another. Immediately after the report that Obama was considering rescinding the United States' almost automatic support for Israel in the United Nations, Obama said the time had come to be honest with Israel. The United States' attitude to Israel so far, he said, had often damaged the interests of both countries. There's no doubt about it: Obama plans to teach Netanyahu about tough love.
The tensions are not just the outcome of the gaps between the right-wing Israeli government and the Democratic administration in the United States. It's also a question of timing. Obama came to the White House determined to generate profound change in a great many areas. Between his victory in November and his inauguration in January, he had time to plan the implementation of his programs.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, came out of Israel's February election without a clear mandate to lead, and his government was sworn in at the end of March. Looking back, it seems he was not quite ready for the shock that awaited him in Washington. It turned out that some of the good English-speakers around Netanyahu are wonderfully suited to fruitful dialogue with the Americans, as long as it's with the Bush administration. Honey, they switched the presidents.
What is Obama asking when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian track? It's still too early to tell if the leaks about his desire to achieve a regional peace agreement within two years are well-founded. The administration contains various views.
The State Department, of all places, which traditionally is less sympathetic to Israel than the White House, is more realistic. Special envoy George Mitchell sounded doubtful to his interlocutors (American Jews and and Israelis) about the chances for a two-state solution. It seems that inside the Beltway there is more enthusiasm for change than in the administration itself. Israeli visitors to the American capital are scolded for their exaggerated pessimism and are asked to stop being such killjoys. The New York Times is already publishing opinion pieces calling for Obama to meet Iran halfway and agree to "special relations" with Hezbollah and Hamas.
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HAARETZ:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090035.html
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