Bibi: Tom's frequent non-flier

Soccer Dad
14 November '10

In order to hit a number of targets he doesn't much like, Thomas Friedman came up with an analogy, I believe I can fly:

If you jump off the top of an 80-story building, for 79 floors you can think you're flying. It's the sudden stop at the end that tells you you're not.

His first frequent non-flier is Binyamin Netanyahu.

Where to begin? Well, first there's Israel's prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, who has been telling everyone how committed he is to peace with the Palestinians while refusing to halt settlement building as a prerequisite for negotiations. At a time when Israel already has 300,000 settlers in the West Bank, Bibi says he can't possibly take another pause in building to test whether the Palestinian government of President Mahmoud Abbas -- a man Israelis say is the best Palestinian security partner Israel has ever had -- can forge a safe two-state deal for Israel. The U.S. is now basically trying to bribe Bibi to reverse his position. Maybe he will, but it's unseemly to watch and doesn't bode well. Rather than take the initiative and say to Arabs and Palestinians, "You want a settlement freeze? Here it is, now let's see what you're ready to agree to," Netanyahu toys with President Obama, makes Israel look like it wants land more than peace and risks never forging a West Bank deal -- thereby permanently absorbing its 2.5 million Palestinians and eventually no longer having a Jewish majority. That's the sudden stop at the end -- unless the next war comes first. But, for now, Bibi seems to think he can fly.

President Obama forced a settlement freeze on Netanyahu. Though Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) never demanded one, he couldn't be less Palestinian that the American President and so a new demand was placed on Israel.

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