One would not guess, judging from yesterday’s press conference, that Gaza lies in ruins with the Israelis continuing to block the delivery of essentials. … USAID, which is the lead American agency working with the NGOs to supply relief, is so intimidated by Israel’s watchdogs in Congress that it won’t simply approve delivery of the sheeting. – MJ Rosenberg
First, Secretary Hillary Clinton announced aid to Pakistan, as 2 million refugees flee the Pakistan war against Taliban terrorism. But something really cool has been added so you can join in:
Now, Americans can use technology to help, as well. Using your cell phones, Americans can text the word “swat” — to the number 20222 and make a $5 contribution that will help the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees provide tents, clothing, food, and medicine to hundreds of thousands of affected people. And before I came over here, we did that in the State Department. So we are making some of the first donations to this fund.
The most important international news is the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, which ended up with their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran (Ve-LU-pi-lay PRAH-bah-ka-ran), being killed. Reader “spincitysd” (here’s his blog), has been covering this development “In the News,” with a terrific diary that helps explain it all. Also see Huffington Post. The Tamil Tigers have been utilizing horrific terrorism tactics for decades to enact a separation from Sri Lanka so they could form an independent state. Where they could then harass the Sri Lankan government with more terrorism, war and carnage. As others have reported, the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran makes it less likely that the rebels can regroup, or if they try it will be harder to get it done. An historic moment for Sri Landa.
Middle East Pulse has the best round up of the uncomfortable presser on view yesterday, as Obama and Netanyahu sat for their obligatory meet the press teaser.
Nahum Barnea in Yediot Acharonoth: The visits paid by Israeli premiers to the Oval Office are usually like class reunions: everybody knows one another and likes one another. And even if the fondness is forced, contingent, it isn’t hard to do it for the media. After all, we’re all one big happy family. Not last night. Obama and Netanyahu were as grim looking and formal as politicians can be. (read on)
Ben Caspit in Ma’ariv: What happened there? Everything. There were those close to Netanyahu who promised him in recent weeks that Obama would not embarrass him in his first visit to Washington and would try to make light of their differences. Obama never heard that promise. He deluged Netanyahu with “two states” at least three times, he spoke about the road map, and even “Annapolis,” thanks to Avigdor Lieberman, got mentioned twice. He spoke about freezing settlements, of past commitments of the sides and the need to treat them seriously, about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, about everything. There wasn’t a single blister that Obama didn’t step on, and it didn’t seem to bother him. He left no stone unturned with Netanyahu sitting by his side and listening attentively. (read on)
But read the rest of their roundup, because it’s good.
The Obama meet with Netanyahu unfortunately produced a jaw dropping assessment in The New York Times that had me scratching my head. I looked around to see if I was having a nightmare or if anyone else saw what I read into the piece. I’m not alone, with David Bromwich over at HuffPo seeing the same delusion, compliments of Sheryl Gay Stolberg, who makes the entire story about Iran. As Bromwich also points out, what Stolberg writes about and what Obama actually said are two very different things, with headline writers going all Iran: Obama Tells Netanyahu He Has an Iran Timetable. This is not in any way what President Obama said. Obama:
My expectation would be that if we can begin discussions soon, shortly after the Iranian elections, we should have a fairly good sense by the end of the year as to whether they are moving in the right direction and whether the parties involved are making progress and that there’s a good faith effort to resolve differences. That doesn’t mean every issue would be resolved by that point, but it does mean that we’ll probably be able to gauge and do a reassessment by the end of the year of this approach.
Stolberg’s entire premise seems to ride on Obama channeling George W. Bush.
Mr. Obama wants time for his diplomatic overtures to work. Israel is rattled by those overtures and concerned that the president will not be as unwavering a supporter of Israel as was his predecessor, George W. Bush.
God help us.
Stolberg also buried the lede.
“Settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s a difficult issue. I recognize that. But it’s an important one, and it has to be addressed.”
So if you want reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian issue you’re not going to get a fair assessment from the New York Times. Though if you read Jeffrey Goldberg’s op-ed Sunday you’d already know that by now.
Juan Cole sees Netanyahu the loser, but he’s an ardent pro Palestinian expert, someone who rightly has called Israel out when it’s deserved.
The Obama-Netanyahu talks were clearly a train wreck for Israel’s far rightwing Likud Party. The talks went on nearly twice as long as scheduled, suggesting a lot of bumps in the road. The two seemed to me stiff in their body language afterward, and they clearly did not agree on virtually anything important. Both finessed the disagreement by appealing to vague generalities and invoking the long term. Obama wants to negotiate with Iran regarding its civilian nuclear enrichment research program, but stressed that his patience is not infinite. Netanyahu, of course, wants military action against Iran on a short timetable.
Netanyahu’s hysteria about Iran is a piece of misdirection intended to sidestep the issue of Israel’s own nuclear arsenal. Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, and allows regular inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, even if the latter is not completely satisfied with Iran’s transparency. Israel just thumbed its nose at the NPT. Israel would only have the moral high ground in demanding that Iran cease enrichment research if it gave up its own some 150 warheads.
…and in Britain, we’ve got their speaker of the House of Commons resigning. Seriously, read why at the link. The first speaker to be forced out since 1695.
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