An english version of my post on US-Israel-talks next monday is online:
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will visit President Obama next week to present the “new approach” in Palestinian policy proposed by his coalition.
A central point of contention will be whether the Israeli government will embrace the two-state solution as previous Israeli governments have. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has publicly stated on several occasions that the Annapolis summit has failed. During his visit to Berlin last Thursday, Lieberman openly made fun of “the peace industry” that he says has failed to solve anything despite decades of bargaining.
Americans and Europeans have responded by increasing pressure on Israel to accept the two-state solution.
To this end, The U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution urging both sides to refrain from any actions that could undermine mutual trust. The Secretary General even said it was “high time that Israel changed its behavior.” American Ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, is pushing for “real results.” Israel hasn’t been subjected to this kind of pressure from its friends for years. The left-leaning newspaper „Haaretz“ wrote last Friday of fears that there would be a “breakdown in cooperation between Israel and the United States under Obama.”
A second central point of contention will be something called “linkage wars” in Israel – the debate over whether, and if so, then how – Iran’s developing nuclear threat should be linked to the question of a Palestinian state…
(Thanks to Ron Argentati. Read the whole thing here.)