Sunday, March 21, 2010

Bibi has partially caved and is going to talk to the Palestinians about refugees and the status Jerusalem while the Palestinians will not even agree to sit in the same room as Israeli negotiators.  Also to "slow down" building in Jerusalem (though Arab neighborhoods in the capital won't be slowed down of course).

In 2002, the suicide bombings scared people a lot.  I'm more scared now.

In the space of a week, the Americans changed the status quo on Jerusalem for no obvious reason.

We don't know what is motivating Obama so there is ample reason to think that he might drop some more policy bombshells like:  allowing the Palestinians to forgo formal recognition of Israel,  demanding that Israel settle large numbers of Palestinians into its pre-67 borders.

We do know that Obama has no interest in the attempts at persuasion that characterized the Clinton era.  No appeals to Israeli citizens, "taking risks for peace", "peace of the brave" etc. etc.

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