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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Dennis Ross: US must move from distance to detente with Israel |
| 2015-10-29 |
| Dennis Ross is a former senior adviser to President Obama who served in the Clinton administration. Ross has a new book, "Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama". [IsraelTimes] Shifting to President Obama, you say in the book is that there has always been a debate within each president's administration about whether the US needs to distance itself from Israel to gain responsiveness from the Arab world. And you make the point that Obama made a very deliberate decision to take the approach of distance. When the president comes in, he thinks we have a major problem with Arabs and Muslims. And he sees that as a function of the Bush administration - an image, fairly or not, that Bush was at war with Islam. So one of the ways that he wants to show that he's going to have an outreach to the Muslim world is that he's going to give this speech in Cairo. So he wants to reach out and show that the US is not so close to the Israelis, which he thinks also feeds this perception. That's why there's an impulse to do some distancing from Israel, and that's why the settlement issue is seized in a way. Now, I had no problem with saying we should limit settlement activity. But the idea that there should be a complete settlement freeze, including natural growth, was a mistake. After 7 years on the job 0bean is still clueless. More at the link. |
| Posted by:Sven the pelter |
| #6 TV's Frank is the one that pushes the button, Ship. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2015-10-29 17:46 |
| #5 Yeah, let's judge the MFs on their national character. Press the Button Max! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2015-10-29 15:40 |
| #4 Bush was at war with Islam. If this was true, which I doubt, Bush would have been much better served to be up front about it. Personally I believe that a clear statement that the US esteems Israel as a democratic, industrious nation worthy of our support. The addition is that this does not mean that Arab countries are not therefore worthy. Countries need not all be addressed the same. They should be judged as per MLK on the content of their national character. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2015-10-29 08:26 |
| #3 |
| Posted by: Thineger Thinese5585 2015-10-29 07:15 |
| #2 ~ General Moshe Dayan |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-10-29 05:27 |
| #1 Publicly, Washington (of both flavors) is devoted to Constitution & friendship with Israel. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-10-29 02:55 |