Goldberg: Obama visit to 'create the space to combat Israeli policy'

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Goldberg to Haaretz: Obama using visit to 'create the space to combat Israeli policy'

The full text of the interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, a staff writer for The Atlantic and a political insider, tells Haaretz: 'The president is a faithful representative of those American liberals who love Israel but don't quite understand the path Israel is taking.'

By Ari Shavit | Mar.20, 2013 | 11:29 AM

Jeffrey Goldberg, a highly influential American journalist with close ties to President Barack Obama, told Haaretz he believes Obama will use his visit this week to prepare Israeli public opinion for a renewed challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy toward the Palestinians.

"In his own way he will do his best to tell you: I love you. I get what you are and I admire what you've done. Obama will thereby create the space that will enable him to combat Israeli policy that seems wrong to him and in his estimation jeopardizes Israel's future and also hurts the United States," Goldberg said. "The Obama of the first term did not come to Israel and demanded a settlement freeze. The Obama of the second term is coming to Israel so he could be in the position to demand a settlement freeze in the future."

A staff writer for The Atlantic, Goldberg, who immigrated to Israel as a young adult and served in the Israel Defense Forces, is seen in Washington as an unparalleled authority when it comes to the relations between the United States, its president, the Jews and the Jewish state. A moment before he boarded a plane this week to Israel, Goldberg explained to Haaretz why Barack Obama is coming here on Wednesday and what may be the ramifications of the visit.

Jeff Goldberg, you know President Obama well. From his standpoint, why Israel? Why now?

"The president got very tired of the recurrent criticism over not having gone to Israel during his first term. He was fed up with hearing the false allegation that he doesn't like Israel, or is indifferent toward Israel, or even hostile to Israel.

Therefore, when his staff discussed the presidential travel plans for 2013, the president himself was the one who put Israel at the top of the list. [Mitt] Romney said that his first presidential trip would be to Israel. Obama is making good on Romney's campaign promise.

"He is thereby also correcting the mistaken impression that was created in the Cairo speech when he tied the justification for Israel's existence to the Holocaust. He is going to visit the Shrine of the Book and see the Dead Sea Scrolls to acknowledge the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. He will pay a visit to Herzl's grave to acknowledge that Herzl was right and that Zionism is a just cause. He will tell Israelis that he identifies with their basic story."

The big question is whether Obama is really coming to make love to us or to make war.

"First love and then war. President Obama listened carefully to the things President Clinton told him. I believe he now understands that the Israelis are a damaged, lonely and neurotic people who face genuine threats to their existence, so they need love badly. Obama won't embrace you the way that Clinton embraced you because he isn't Clinton and he doesn't embrace anyone. But in his own way he will do his best to tell you: I love you. I get what you are and I admire what you've done. Obama will thereby create the space that will enable him to combat Israeli policy that seems wrong to him and in his estimation jeopardizes Israel's future and also hurts the United States.

"The Obama of the first term did not come to Israel, and he demanded a settlement freeze. The Obama of the second term is coming to Israel so he could be in the position to demand a settlement freeze in the future."

Will we hear that demand in his own voice? In his speech in Jerusalem will he speak against the occupation and the settlements?

"I believe that in the speech at the Jerusalem International Convention Center, President Obama will try to do two things. On the one hand, he will tell the Israelis and Jews that he feels close to them and their tradition and to what they have accomplished in the country. The Passover story is a very meaningful story for the president. He is the first to celebrate the Passover seder at the White House each and every year. Therefore it is likely he will speak about the exodus from slavery to liberty, both as a universal story that speaks to all those oppressed in the world (among them the African-Americans) and as the particular story of a particular people that liberated itself by returning to its Promised Land.

But nevertheless Obama will want to say to young Israelis that they must ask themselves where they are headed. Does what is taking place in the West Bank serve the State of Israel or jeopardize its Jewish and democratic character? It is still unclear just how direct the president's statement is going to be. But the rare opportunity of a speech in Jerusalem and the context of deep sympathy for Israel will enable the president to raise the settlements question. I think there is a good chance that his statement will be fairly blunt. It may be a lot blunter than what Netanyahu would like it to be."

Basically you are saying that Obama is coming to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace. He has not despaired of this matter and he has not given up and he really will try to push for peace.

"Not only that, of course. But remember, Secretary of State John Kerry is an ambitious man. He understands that you don't get the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace in Nagorno-Karabakh, but rather for making peace between Israel and Palestine. He also believes that the next four years are the years of the last chance to reach a two-state solution. He thinks that he can and also must end the conflict.

"In my view, Obama is more pessimistic than Kerry. He's been burned before, he doesn't believe that Netanyahu is really interested in a compromise and he also has some doubts about the Palestinians. But Obama will give Kerry the mandate to try. In this sense, the president is advancing for a future trip by the secretary of state. Obama's trip to Israel may be viewed as an epilogue to his first term and as the prologue to John Kerry's future peace initiative."

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http://www.haaretz.com/news/obama-visits-israel/goldberg-to-haaretz-obama-using-visit-to-create-the-space-to-combat-israeli-policy.premium-1.510688#

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Good, that is the position Obama should take and I hope that he does.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The last hour's news conference with Barack and Bibi was a demonstration of how little difference there is between the two administrations, including a new ten year military assistance program. You would think there is no way Obama could possibly meet with the Palestinian Authority tomorrow, and make a complete reversal in policy, in less than 24 hours, but Obama will.