as the economist puts it: "THE Israeli right, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, the country’s ebullient prime minister, is celebrating the end of a settlement freeze that never began."
words from the president aren't enough. the demand for a freeze has to be backed up by some penalty-- like maybe deducting israel's expenditures on settlement construction from the american aid package to that country. it's both easy and to his political benefit for netanuahu to ignore the demands of the american president, especially considering how unpopular the freeze proposal is with the members of his coalition. if you want bibi to make hard decisions, he's got to see it's in his interest to do so. and that means being willing to penalize israel for non-compliance.
of course, the penalties won't happen. i don't think any american president can do much more than take a rhetorical hard line against israel right now. changing the aid package requires an act of congress and this congress won't touch israel's package. netanyahu knows that, which is why we can expect more nose thumbings until either congress or the israeli government changes.
ASIDE: i love the "cocks a snook" thing in the economist subheading. why can't our press write like that?
(via the arabist)
