Reporting on Michael Oren: Scooped or duped? http://blogs.jta.org/ENTRY_PERMALINK_HERE/reporting-on-michael-oren/ Did Ha’aretz have it right or wrong when the newspaper reported that Israeli ambassador Michael Oren said this was the worst U.S.-Israeli crisis in 35 years? Is that the right question? en-us aeden@jta.org Copyright 2010 2010-03-17T;13:27:00-05:00 Comment by Peter Bishop pbb@ifshj.org The main question: why the Obama administration decided to keep this controversy after Prime Minister Netanyahu and Vice President Biden had appeared to have worked things out is clear to me.  The press did not seem to be satisfied.  There were reports attacking Biden’s wife for a recent trip.  I think Hillary Clinton felt a need to try to help the situation.  I don’t think this is the main question.  The main question is: how can we get back to working to advance peace in the Middle East instead of fighting among ourselves?  Complaining about the details of attempts to be conciliatory do not help.  Identifying true issues between us about how to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East can help. The main question: why the Obama administration decided to keep this controversy after Prime Minister Netanyahu and Vice President Biden had appeared to have worked things out is clear to me.  The press did not seem to be satisfied.  There were reports attacking Biden’s wife for a recent trip.  I think Hillary Clinton felt a need to try to help the situation.  I don’t think this is the main question.  The main question is: how can we get back to working to advance peace in the Middle East instead of fighting among ourselves?  Complaining about the details of attempts to be conciliatory do not help.  Identifying true issues between us about how to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East can help.

]]> 2012-05-23T;03:01:00-05:00 Comment by David Sternlight david@sternlight.com Although I don’t wish to speculate on Ravid’s journalistic integrity, since my mind-reading abilities are no better than the next man’s, I can see a logical answer for the extreme behavior of Secretary Clinton. The President is clearly trying to look for his lost keys where the light is better, not where the keys are lost. Since the Palestinians have been repeatedly intransigent, he is, and has been trying to pressure Israel to sacrifice its national interest in hopes the Palestinians will accept yet more concessions and come to the table. That failed strategy has been tried by many US Presidents, and reflects a fundamental lack of understanding of the basic problem separating the sides: the Palestinians don’t want peace, they want the destruction of Israel. And they continue to say so in their charters despite repeated (let’s be frank) lies about the impending removal of such terms. Moreover, they continue incitement, which creates a climate allowing them to claim they can’t go against their people; a climate of the leadership’s own making. It’s time the President got off his attempt to throw Israel under the bus in aid of his kowtowing to Arab princes. Since a recent poll shows that Americans side 8:1 with Israel against the Palestinians, the current Administration’s strategy is simply unAmerican and violates the will of the people, despite massive attempts to change that national will by ex-President Carter, Stephen Walt and his “realist” friends, and Saudi funding of US universities and think tanks. As for Secretary Clinton herself, her recent statements on the matter have, in my opinion, shot her political future in the foot. Although I don’t wish to speculate on Ravid’s journalistic integrity, since my mind-reading abilities are no better than the next man’s, I can see a logical answer for the extreme behavior of Secretary Clinton. The President is clearly trying to look for his lost keys where the light is better, not where the keys are lost. Since the Palestinians have been repeatedly intransigent, he is, and has been trying to pressure Israel to sacrifice its national interest in hopes the Palestinians will accept yet more concessions and come to the table.

That failed strategy has been tried by many US Presidents, and reflects a fundamental lack of understanding of the basic problem separating the sides: the Palestinians don’t want peace, they want the destruction of Israel. And they continue to say so in their charters despite repeated (let’s be frank) lies about the impending removal of such terms. Moreover, they continue incitement, which creates a climate allowing them to claim they can’t go against their people; a climate of the leadership’s own making.

It’s time the President got off his attempt to throw Israel under the bus in aid of his kowtowing to Arab princes. Since a recent poll shows that Americans side 8:1 with Israel against the Palestinians, the current Administration’s strategy is simply unAmerican and violates the will of the people, despite massive attempts to change that national will by ex-President Carter, Stephen Walt and his “realist” friends, and Saudi funding of US universities and think tanks.

As for Secretary Clinton herself, her recent statements on the matter have, in my opinion, shot her political future in the foot.

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