Netanyahu Wins on Points

Contrary to conclusions drawn in the U.S. media, the first official meeting between President Barack Obama and the new Israeli Prime Minister ended with a victory for Benjamin Netanyahu. And that’s almost good news for Palestinians because the meeting showed that Obama, unlike his predecessor George W. Bush, was at least determined to try an approach to peace in the Near East that wasn’t predicated on defending Greater Israel’s unadorned occupation policies as Netanyahu tried to do.

Had this been a boxing match, then the Israeli clearly won on points. Rarely had the United States ever appeared more helpless facing what it itself had called the key issues to the problem. Netanyahu casually swept Obama’s insistence on a two-state solution off the table. Obama only mildly objected in the most cautious terms to Israel’s announced intention to continue expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, something that makes peace negotiations impossible.

Above all, however, Obama raised no objection at all to Netanyahu’s demand that Israel be recognized as a (purely) Jewish state, something that would mean a kind of apartheid for Palestinians residing inside Israel. Obama literally raised no objection to that at all. Netanyahu will surely consider that a tacit OK for his plans to colonize Palestinian lands and turn them into another Bantustan.