IPS piece on Obama-Netanyahu tussle over priorities


Posted by Helena Cobban
September 18, 2009 8:30 PM EST | Link
Filed in Israel-2009 , Palestine 2009 , US foreign policy

With all the fast-moving developments of the past couple of weeks, I felt it was time to draw out the main theme behind them.... I tried to do that in my IPS piece today. It's here-- also archived here.

As I thought about it and read it, I came to the conclusion there's good news and bad news... as reflected in the concluding two paras of the piece:

    Washington cannot get its way in international bodies as easily now as it has for most of the past 20 years. So the probability of it being able to assemble a tough coalition against Iran is anyway receding. [That's the good news.]

    But that fact does not bring serious U.S. efforts in the peace process any closer. Indeed, by making a strong anti-Iran coalition look unachievable under any circumstances, it may even lessen the motivation of some in Washington to push hard on Israeli-Palestinian peace diplomacy. [That's the bad news.]

Of course, as Washington's general ability to wield power in the world community continues to recede, its ability to single-handedly defend Israel from having to be accountable to anyone else, including the whole rest of the world community, will also recede. The next five years should be interesting ones.



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