Capitol Hill, Obama Skeptical About Netanyahu’s ‘Commitment’ to Peace

UPDATED

After his defiant speech against U.S. policy at dinner with 7,000 AIPAC delegates and hundreds of members of Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu paid a number of friendly calls on Capitol Hill, chatting, posing for photos, and no doubt hoping that staffers hadn’t seen the headlines in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper revealing that his government has approved another East Jerusalem settlement – this one sponsored by the notorious U.S. casino millionaire Irving Moscowitz.

Or the televised press conference by UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband, citing “compelling evidence” in his decision to expel a Mossad agent for the Israeli spy agency’s cloning of 12 British citizens’ passports that allegedly were used in January by the team that assassinated a Hamas operative in Dubai.

On the Hill, there were lots of smiles, such as in this photo with House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that unintentionally highlights the extreme tan of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH.) Wondering what the olive-skinned Netanyahu, who lives just a few miles from Mediterranean beaches, thinks of Boehner’s “Ohio” tan?

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with House Leaders John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi. Boehner's complexion is several shades darker even than the Mediterranean-skinned Netanyahu.

PM Netanyahu also had a two-hour private (no photo ops, no announcements) meeting with President Barack Obama, who probably didn’t smile at all, especially as Netanyahu had spent the entire day describing Obama’s settlement-halting Middle East strategy to the press and politicians as an “illogical and unreasonable demand.”

UPDATE: The Jerusalem-based Ma’an News Agency is reporting that the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Inyan Merkazi says Obama threatened to withhold the U.S.’s veto power at the United Nations Security council if Netanyahu did not halt settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Ma’an’s website, citing the Hebrew paper, says Obama said something like, “We will let you face the international outcry alone.” More about this here.

Despite the smiles and greetings – such as Pelosi’s “we stand by Israel” comment during Netanyahu’s visit on the Hill, there was snarking behind the rightist PM’s back. Even the conservative Jerusalem Post, normally a mouthpiece for his government, found Democratic staff members “unmoved” by the PM’s explanations – via flow charts and maps – about how he couldn’t possibly have known that 1,600 settlement houses would be approved in occupied East Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit on March 9. One of those staffers  told the JPost:

“It’s a straw man,” he said. “It’s trying to repeat a trick that worked once… by making it a question about Jerusalem rather than negotiations.”
He added, “The point is, do you take the negotiations seriously or not?”
On Capitol Hill right now, he said, “there are people that have questions” about Netanyahu’s commitment to the peace process.

Another Democratic staffer told Politico’s Laura Rozen that Netanyahu badmouthed the moderates on the Palestinian side in meeting with Jewish members of Congress:

Netanyahu complained that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is “not a partner, [he] won’t come to the table,” another Democratic Hill staffer summarized. Abbas “puts conditions on everything, he won’t come to the table, … he won’t do direct talks.”

I wonder what others think about this point made by Spencer Ackerman over at Firedoglake about Netanyahu’s unwillingness to compromise being “counterproductive” for Israel. During the PM’s AIPAC speech, Ackerman notes:

Not once did Netanyahu speak about the preservation of Israeli democracy. It’s not necessarily that he doesn’t want peace. It’s that he really wants peace on his terms, which is what others call “victory.” And that will encourage the Palestinians to seek the same thing — which in their case will eventually be a binational state. Doing nothing will inexorably mean the Palestinians get their way.

I tend to think the Palestinian people have the same desires as the Israeli people – not a binational state, but their own country, with secure borders and without fear of a foreign military invading or bombing.

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