Word: netanyahu
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...Aviv Netanyahu's Change of Heart For the first time since assuming office in April, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed the prospect of establishing a demilitarized Palestinian state. Netanyahu's departure from his hawkish stance against statehood was welcomed as a "positive movement" by President Obama, who has pressured Israel to resume peace efforts. But senior Palestinian officials vehemently rejected Netanyahu's statements; negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Prime Minister's intransigence on crucial sticking points--like his insistence on demilitarization and refusal to consider the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the West Bank--"closed the door to permanent...
...reason for canceling Thursday's scheduled meeting in Paris between Benjamin Netanyahu and George Mitchell was simple: there was nothing for the Israeli Prime Minister and President Obama's Middle East peace envoy to discuss. The U.S. has demanded a complete freeze in Israeli settlement construction in territories conquered in 1967, making it a litmus test of Israel's bona fides in pursuing the two-state solution, which the Obama Administration has prioritized. Netanyahu, who faces more public pressure from Washington than any Israeli leader in nearly two decades, says he wants peace talks and recently declared his qualified support...
...along, Netanyahu has insisted that a different Middle East crisis, Iran's nuclear program, should be the focus of his relations with Washington. And though the Obama Administration resisted that argument, Netanyahu may now be getting help from an unexpected quarter: the Iranian regime, whose violent crackdown on peaceful protests against election-rigging have created a more pressing foreign-policy crisis for the Obama Administration. (See pictures of President Obama in Saudi Arabia...
Finding a comfort zone with a U.S. Administration determined to move quickly toward implementing a two-state solution has been difficult for a hawkish Israeli leader who is, at best, a reluctant traveler on that road. When Netanyahu visited Washington in May, he discovered he'd been outflanked by Obama, who had managed to get many of Israel's key congressional supporters on board with the White House push against settlements. U.S. officials were widely quoted as telling the Israelis that moving forward on a settlement freeze and peace with the Palestinians was a critical step toward mustering the Arab...
...forced its way back to the top of the White House agenda, as a result of Tehran's violent crackdown on its own citizens protesting claims of election fraud. The domestic political pressure on the Administration to take a tougher stand against Iran's regime may actually help Netanyahu resist pressure for a settlement freeze. After all, the President may find it difficult, in Washington, to muster pressure on Israel over settlements at a moment when he's being berated for speaking too softly on Tehran's crackdown. Members of Congress are now proposing new sanctions legislation and even demanding...