Netanyahu's gushing over Obama meeting convinces no one
Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's effort to present his meeting with President Barack Obama as successful, he achieved little, and the Obama administration was considerably less enthusiastic about it.
Three main questions remain unresolved in the interminable soap opera that is the relationship between Israel and the United States and President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
- What will the United States finally agree to give Israel in the mythical “compensation package” to help its recalcitrant ally cope with the dismal days it expects following the nuclear agreement with Iran?
- Will Obama eventually acquiesce to the pleas and pressures placed on him by the people in his immediate surroundings (including Secretary of State John Kerry)? Will he release the framework agreement for a permanent solution between Israel and the Palestinians that he presented to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on which he has not yet received a response? This could in a sense become the “Obama Parameters,” constituting a direct extension of the 2000 Clinton Parameters.
- Will there be a change in the United States’ veto policy in the United Nations on all matters concerning Israel? Will the Americans send France or New Zealand to submit their proposals for Palestinian statehood to the UN Security Council and then avoid casting a veto? Will the United States continue to back the campaign to label Israeli settlement products and to ostracize and boycott Israel that began in Europe and is inching ahead at a worrying pace?
