US President
Barack Obama
tomorrow:
Summary of Editorials from the Hebrew Press
Four newspapers discuss various issues related to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Barack Obama tomorrow:
Yediot Aharonot hopes that Prime Minister Netanyahu understands that, after eight years of the Bush administration, there has been a major shift in Washington and that he has prepared accordingly.
Ma’ariv believes that it will be crucial that Prime Minister Netanyahu „win Obama’s confidence, not preach, not teach, not lecture and not pester,” during their private meeting in the Oval Office. The author hopes that the Prime Minister will be wise enough to understand – like his predecessors did – that „The way to deal with the peace process with the Palestinians is not to say no all the time but to say yes all the time and let the Palestinians torpedo the progress themselves,” and adds that „This didn’t bring peace; rather, it brought an intimate strategic relationship with America.” The paper asserts that „This relationship is more important to the State of Israel than anything else.”
Yisrael Hayom avers that „Senior Obama administration officials have already made it clear that payment for against the Iranian nuclear initiative will be in the form of diplomatic merchandise from the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations,” and says that it will be no mean feat for Prime Minister Netanyahu „to sever the link between the two issues.” The author suggests that the Prime Minister will play up the facts that „Since the 1993 Oslo Agreement, the Palestinians have refused to accept upon themselves any commitment whatsoever in exchange for Israeli concessions,” and that while they may recognize „two states,” they have steadfastly refused to accept „two peoples.”
Haaretz calls on PM Netanyahu to „Say ‘yes’ to Obama”, stating that „The prime minister must choose between continuing the policy of intransigence, settlements and footdragging, and taking part in the new world order. Netanyahu must respond to the public’s expectations, and not insist on positions that would harm Israel, with the excuse that most of the voters supported the right wing.”
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The Jerusalem Post discusses the sequence of events leading up to the approval of the budget last week, and remarks that „If anything positive emerged from last week’s budget turmoil, it was that Netanyahu circumvented the Treasury’s politicized bureaucracy.” The editor adds that „The next budget director’s imperative will be to rehabilitate his division’s image and reestablish a proper framework of relations between it and the government it serves.”
