Haaretz: "Obama administration readying for confrontation with Netanyahu"

[MikeWB]

Haaretz: "Obama administration readying for confrontation with Netanyahu"

http://www.imemc.org/article/59844

Haaretz: "Obama administration readying for confrontation with Netanyahu"

Wednesday April 08, 2009 22:55 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported on Wednesday that the US administration of President Barack Obama is readying for the possibility of confrontation with the new Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over his policies that reject a two-state solution.

Obama met with Democratic congressmen to brief them on the Middle East peace process and the position of the Israeli government on the two-state solution.

Haaretz stated that Obama held in recent weeks a number of meetings with Democrats and told them that disagreements with the new Israeli government are likely to occur.

 Yet, officials at the U.S administration said that Obama is committed to ensuring Israel's security and does not intend to cut the military assistance agreement signed by former president George W. Bush.

 But the president also regards the two-state solution as a central issue in his Middle East polices, and intends to ask Netanyahu to be committed to the previous peace agreements.

Obama also intends to ask the Israeli Prime Minister to halt the construction and expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, and to evacuate all illegal settlement outposts in addition to providing the needed security and economic aid to the Palestinian Authority.

 Yet, Israeli political analysts said that despite the sharp difference between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu extreme coalition, it is unlikely that Washington will practice pressure on Israel.

In his most recent speech, Netanyahu said that Israel has no Palestinian peace partner, and added that Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, is too week.

With Avigdor Lieberman as Foreign Minister, and the type of extreme right wing government "formula" Netanyahu put together, a peace deal seems a far fetch.