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Benjamin Netanyahu is clearly feeling lucky. As his skirmish with the Obama Administration over Israel's settlement activity in East Jerusalem entered its second week on Tuesday, the Israeli Prime Minister was pushing back against Washington's demands. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has put the onus on Israel to "demonstrate its commitment" to the peace process by reversing a plan to build new housing units in East Jerusalem (occupied by Israel since 1967); declaring its readiness to hold substantial negotiations with the Palestinians on all final-status issues (including Jerusalem, whose control by Israel Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted...
...Jerusalem standoff also carries a domestic political risk for the Obama Administration. A number of Republicans have already lashed out at the President over the issue - former Bush Administration Middle East policy chief Elliott Abrams wrote in the Washington Post that "the Obama Administration continues to drift away from traditional U.S. support for Israel. But time and elections will correct that problem; Israel has a higher approval rating these days than does President Obama." And the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to which all major leaders of both parties traditionally declare their unstinting support for Israel, expressed "serious concern...
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu had hoped that his apology for the poor timing of plans to expand Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem would have been enough to quell the resulting furor. Instead, the Obama Administration has opted to escalate the standoff into a major battle of political wills between Netanyahu and the White House - one in which neither side can easily back down despite the risks involved in hanging tough...
...with the Biden visit having highlighted differences over Jerusalem, the issue can't be easily fudged. Even if Netanyahu quietly undertakes to refrain from new construction in East Jerusalem, the move would not go unnoticed for long - and would prompt right-wing demonstrations and agitation. The right-wing settler movement is well entrenched in the government bureaucracy responsible for settlement construction, and precedent suggests they would find a way to continue building regardless even of any secret promises to the U.S. by Netanyahu. "Everything in East Jerusalem is under a magnifying glass and involves too many people and politics...
...Jerusalem is at odds with the U.S. goal of winning agreement on a two-state solution. While a broad array of Israelis are either totally against dividing Jerusalem or want to expand Israeli settlements ahead of any peace deal, no country in the world - including the U.S. - recognizes East Jerusalem as Israeli territory. (Even George W. Bush, America's most ardently pro-Israel President, refrained from moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.) This disagreement between friends wasn't a big deal as long as there was an Israeli government committed to achieving peace based...