|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/opinion/18iht-edmiller18.html
When Obama Meets with Netanyahu
(New York Times) Aaron David Miller - President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet on Friday. Unlike Obama, Netanyahu sees recent events in the Arab world as a glass half empty, not half full. Uncertainties abound: Mubarak is gone, Bashar al-Assad may be going, and Mahmoud Abbas has gotten into bed with Hamas. And the international community, now focused on other pariahs (Syria and Libya), has forgotten about what to Israel is the real threat (Iran). The recent unity deal allied Hamas with Fatah without an attendant recognition of Israel's right to exist or rejection of "armed struggle." Who could expect an Israeli leader to make concessions under those circumstances? The writer is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.