The Israeli political parties are involving two U.S. figures in their election debates, says David Weinberg, Director, CIC Israel Office: new U.S. President Barak Obama and – less predictably – former Mideast negotiator Dennis Ross.
Working with Obama: Kadima has let loose with a broad-based attack on the Likud, arguing that Netanyahu as prime minister would find it difficult to work with Obama, at best; and lead Israel into direct confrontation with Washington, at worst.
Likud dismisses these allegations, stating that Netanyahu knows the leaders of the U.S. administration well, speaks with them on a regular basis, and has cooperated well with Washington in the past and will do so in the future.
Nevertheless, it is hard to shake the feeling that the Kadima charge is accurate. Presidential envoy George Mitchell is on his way here already this week, and is expected to press Israel on the issues of settlements and “‘collective punishment” against the Palestinians. He’ll want unauthorized outposts removed, housing starts in the settlements frozen, border crossings with Gaza opened, and more. Then, he’ll want to reignite a diplomatic process with Israeli concessions on settlements, Jerusalem, etc.
Livni of Kadima said again this week that she is anxious to go in this direction and “would make a priority to dismantle West Bank settlements in order to reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority.” All Netanyahu will say is that he won’t establish any new settlements.
Conservative analysts admit that, at first, some friction between the Obama administration and a Netanyahu government is inevitable. But they say that Obama and Mitchell will quickly realize that little progress truly can be made with the Palestinians caught up in their own Fatah-Hamas civil war. As well, Obama will learn to appreciate Netanyahu’s economic development plan for the Palestinian areas – what is being called a “bottom-up” approach to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
Some Likud officials even say that they hope Kadima will keep up these attacks because they believe it will help win support among the public. “Kadima’s criticism makes it look like Netanyahu will be able to maintain Israel’s interests better than her,” a Likud official said. “I hope they spend a lot of time on this line because the Israeli public thinks Netanyahu will handle the U.S. much better than Livni.”
Hanging on Dennis Ross: Former Mideast peace process chief Dennis Ross has not yet been appointed to any formal talks in the Obama administration, but he already is being dragged into the Israeli election campaign. Both Kadima and Likud are featuring quotes from Ross in their campaigns to paint a picture of how Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu would – or would not – Â get along with Obama.
“Bibi rarely seemed to know how to act on his ideas – how to present them, to whom, and even when to do so,” Ross wrote about Netanyahu in a quote from his book, The Missing Peace, that has been distributed by Kadima. “Translating an idea into action seemed beyond his grasp. It was not lack of intelligence… it was the lack of judgment… but there was something more: Often he would come up with ideas simply to get himself out of a jam.”
The Likud, by contrast, focuses on Ross quotes that are policy-oriented and not personal. They have distributed interviews with, and articles by Ross,  in which he regrets not insisting on reciprocity with the Palestinians as Netanyahu had advised him.
“Rather than trying to resolve issues like Jerusalem and refugees, we would have focused on expanding the scope of Palestinian independence from Israeli control, developing and investing in the Palestinian economy, and expanding the connections between the Israeli and Palestinian societies,” Ross wrote in The Wall Street Journal in June 2007 – sounding very much like Netanyahu’s current “economic peace” diplomatic plan.
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