by Leo Rennert,American Thinker
Olmert sides with Netanyahu,rejects Obama’s position on Settlements
In a Washington Post op-ed intended to catch President Obama’s attention,former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urges the U.S. administration to stop obsessing about Jewish settlements and instead focus on Palestinian leader Mahmdoud Abbas’s obstructionism in rejecting any realistic two-state solution.
By lining up with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu against Obama’s misbegotten diplomacy,Olmert demolishes a central tenet of the president’s view of Israel’s approach to peacemaking. Obama has made no secret of the fact that he views Netanyahu’s Likud party as the main Israeli obstacle to the peace process. His administration calculated that,if Likud and Netanyahu could be marginalized —in Israel as well as among most American Jews —Obama would be able to get greater concessions from Israel to move toward a two-state solution.
Olmert’s article demolishes this scenario by making it clear that it’s not just Likud that opposes a total freeze on construction in existing settlements,but that this is a widely held view across the entire Israeli spectrum. Olmert’s Kadima party is just as much at odds with Obama on this as is the Likud.