CNSNews.comIsraelis Wary About Obama As Netanyahu Calls for ‘Realistic’ Approach to Peace TalksTuesday, May 05, 2009By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses the AIPAC conference in Washington by video link from Jerusalem on Monday, May 4, 2009. (Photo: AIPAC)
(CNSNews.com) – Israelis like President Obama but are wary of his Mideast policies and believe his desire to improve relations with the Islamic world will come at Israel’s expense, according to a new opinion poll. Three months into the new administration in Washington, the future of U.S.-Israel ties, one of the world’s most closely-examined bilateral relationships over the past half-century, is back in the spotlight. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday night addressed the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference by satellite link, two weeks before he is due to meet with Obama at the White House. Speculation is rife in both countries that the new prime minister and new president are headed for an inevitable clash. Netanyahu wants to prioritize the threat posed by Iran, and has been stressing the importance of building up the Palestinian economy and institutions rather than focusing exclusively on negotiations aimed at reaching a political settlement. Obama is looking to engage Iran after 30 years of frozen ties, while pushing ahead with his predecessor’s so-called “two-state” policy – the establishment of an independent, viable Palestinian state alongside Israel. The two administrations also differ over how to achieve a peace agreement between Israel and Syria; Netanyahu while campaigning rejected the notion of surrendering the disputed Golan Heights in exchange for a peace deal with Damascus. In his brief address to AIPAC, Netanyahu focused on what he is calling a “triple track” approach to dealing with the Palestinian issue, focusing on security, economy and political negotiations. Security would be advanced through continued cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) and the Jordanians, he said, in reference to efforts led by U.S. Gen. Keith Dayton to train P.A. forces. “Peace will not come without security, so I want to be very clear – we shall never compromise on Israel’s security.” “The economic track means that we are prepared to move forward to remove as many obstacles as possible to the advancement of the Palestinian economy … not as a substitute for political negotiations, but as a booster. I want to see Palestinian youngsters know that they have a future. I don’t want them to be a hostages of cult of death, despair and hate. I want them to have jobs.” And on political talks, he said, “we are prepared to resume peace negotiations without any delay and without any preconditions – the sooner the better.” Netanyahu called the three-way approach “a realistic path to peace,” and said that, with the cooperation of Obama and P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas, “we can defy the skeptics, we can surprise the world.” On Iran, Netanyahu said that, for the first time, Israel and the Arab world saw a common danger: “'Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.” He told the conference that he respected Obama and looked forward to their meeting. “We plan to continue our common quest for prosperity and for peace.” In the new poll of Jewish Israelis across the political spectrum, 60 percent of respondents said they viewed Obama favorably – but their opinions of his policy towards Israel reflected a significant level of uncertainty. While 32 percent approved of his policy and 21 percent disapproved, 47 percent of respondents did not commit themselves one way or the other. Sixty-three percent believed that Obama’s attempts to improve the reputation of the U.S. in the Arab-Islamic worlds would come at Israel’s expense, against only 16 percent who said it would not. The poll, released Monday, was conducted for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA Center) at Tel Aviv’s Bar Ilan University and the Anti-Defamation League. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they viewed Obama’s attitude towards Israel as “friendly,” 33 percent as “neutral” and eight percent as “unfriendly.” By comparison, in a similar BESA-ADL poll in May 2007, 73 percent of respondents viewed President Bush as friendly towards Israel. On the subject of dealing with Iran, 51 percent of poll respondents said the U.S. should not negotiate with Tehran; 32 percent supported direct talks without preconditions. The AIPAC conference, which opened Sunday and runs through Tuesday, has seen concerns about Iran, the Palestinian issue, and U.S.-Israeli relations played out. In a rousing speech on Sunday, former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich slammed the notion of negotiating with Tehran, saying “we need to recognize that there are some regimes we will never be able to cut a deal with, because they are in fact evil.” The Georgia Republican also caused a stir with remarks on the conference sidelines, when he told The Jerusalem Post the idea of engaging Iran was a “fantasy” and called Obama’s Mideast policies “very dangerous for Israel.” The paper quoted Gingrich as saying that there was “almost an eagerness [within the administration] to take on the Israeli government to make a point with the Arab world.” The left-wing Jewish organization J Street in an action alert responding to Gingrich’s comments described them as “recycled Bush-Cheney views” and urged its supporters to “stand up for President Obama’s Middle East agenda.” ‘Days of capitulation and concessions are over’ Netanyahu advisor Ron Dermer told an AIPAC panel discussion that while half of Israel thought Netanyahu was “the obstacle to peace” when he was elected as prime minister in an earlier term, in 1996, the situation had changed significantly since then. “Today, Israelis do not believe that the problem is a lack of willingness to make concessions on their part,” he said. “What they see on the Palestinian side is that half the Palestinian body politic has been taken over by Hamas. The other half has little capacity to enforce anything … we still don’t see that they’re actively fighting against terrorism.” Dermer said the election result had indicated a “huge [rightward] shift in Israeli public opinion.” Netanyahu had been elected “to lead Israel down a different path. The days of continuing down the same path of weakness and capitulation and concessions, hoping that somehow the Palestinians would respond in kind, are over.” Dermer contrasted the new three-track approach to that of the previous government, which he said had focused at the 2007 Annapolis peace talks almost exclusively on the political negotiation track. Through security cooperation and economic development, a context could be created where political progress was possible, he said. “What’s happened up to now has been basically trying to build a pyramid from the top down.” Israel’s ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, is due to meet with Obama on Tuesday. The dovish former prime minister earlier told the AIPAC meeting that Netanyahu “wants to make history – and in our tradition, making history is making peace. I am sure that peace is his real and profound priority.”

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