So what will PM Netanyahu actually say in Washington?

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
Weekly Commentary
26 August '10

It is difficult to predict what positions Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will actually take next week at President Obama's photo op.

On the one hand, Netanyahu knows only too well that all the journalists and others who are encouraging him to betray his constituents will also betray him at the very first opportunity.

Sure, they might praise him in the first report of the betrayal, but a day later some will already join in mocking him for his "flip-flop".

After all, there is pretty much nothing that Benyamin Netanyahu could do today that would serve as penitence for the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin. And as odd as this may sound to an outsider, this group genuinely sees Netanyahu as the man responsible for Rabin's death. And to make matters worse Netanyahu had the gall to defeat Shimon Peres at the polls after the murder. This when it was thought that in the aftermath of the assassination, the national camp would find itself exiled to the political wilderness for at least a generation.

And it's annoying that his English is so good.

Netanyahu knows this.

On the other hand, what with the hard line positions of the Palestinians, there is a great temptation to try to "have one's cake and eat it too" by offering concessions that are welcomed by Washington but rejected by the Palestinians.

But even if we are absolutely certain that the Palestinians will reject the concessions, we could readily find ourselves being pushed to make the concessions as an "open deposit" independent of its intended context.

After all, that's pretty much what happened with Netanyahu's settlement construction freeze concession.

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