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Netanyahu misreads Obama on settlements

At his address to the AIPAC conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored the warning by US President Barack Obama that the continued settlement policy would isolate Israel even further.
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they sit down to meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington March 3, 2014.   REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst    (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3G01E
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The Israeli right is overjoyed at the opportunity to gloat over the weakness of US President Barack Obama. The Yesha Council, the settlement umbrella organization, says that instead of dabbling with a handful of houses built by Jews in their historical homeland and trying to intimidate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama would be better demonstrating resolve vis-a-vis Russian President Vladimir Putin, and get him out of the Crimean Peninsula.

This insignificant "triumph" blinds their eyes from viewing the Russian-Ukrainian conflict as yet another warning signal, of what is likely to happen to a binational state whose peoples cannot free themselves from baggage of the past.

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