The West Bank

Progressive Thoughts On The Middle East
JULY 23, 2009 11:43AM

Israel: America can keep it's money.

Rate: 1 Flag

Haaretz is reporting that the Israeli Finance Minister is not just dismissive of the possibility that the US could withhold loan guarantees worth billions of dollars but doubts that the state of Israel even needs them.

"I don't see any limitations on the horizon. It's not time to be concerned about that" said the Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, "I don't see any need to use them in the near future.”

This comes as a response to the increased tension between the US and Israel over the latter’s plan to move ahead with an illegal settlement construction in the West Bank despite condemnation from President Obama.

Relating back to my post yesterday, I’m not sure if this is Israel calling Obama’s bluff on economic sanctions (not that he’s even suggested them… yet) or if this is a reflection of the relative influence Israel now has over the United States.  I’m sure the tough talk (tough in a teenager sort of way: “I don’t even need your stupid allowance Dad!”) has been mandated by Netanyahu and the chorus of “no other country can dictate Israeli policy” that we saw yesterday seems to suggest such a position. But it is interesting that Israel seems to be pushing this issue rather than simply continuing its settlement expansion while trying not to draw American ire. This is starting to look to me like a fight Netanyahu thinks he needs to start. Which in turn begs the question: Is this a fight he can win?

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politics, obama, netanyahu, israel, us foreign policy, the middle east

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i'm a little nervous about being on the same thread as ramesh, but i'll chance it:

sparta invaded the peloponnese, occupied it, and remained master for hundreds of years. everyday they worried about revolt of the people they enslaved, and finally military reverses left them weak enough for the helots finally to rise, and win. israel is in like case.

israeli youth are getting tired of being raised in an armed camp, corruption has rotted national pride, the world is less and less impressed by israel's myths.

netanyahu must be even busier than obama, and failure will be much more fatal than retiring to the obama library. not that he or they deserve any sympathy- this moral cess pool is all their own work.
al loomis
July 23, 2009 06:30 PM
they might deserve SAILBOATS!
Sailor Boy
July 23, 2009 08:40 PM
Ramesh: thanks for the comment though I disagree with the generalizations made in it. No doubt collective memory is a tie that binds diasporic Jewish communities together and to the state of Israel. That memory has been co-opted by Israel and used effectively as a shield against criticism of it policies. It's also a series of memories that at once make Jewish communities around the world more politically cohesive and active, but also a series of memories those same communities, and most of the world, recognize as a low point in human history .

Beyond this I do, however, expect "peace between Muslims and Jews".
TheWestBank
July 24, 2009 12:00 AM
al loomis: Thanks for the comment. Your points are quite valid though I think Israeli nationalism is incredibly resistant to erosion. I think we see this pretty clearly with the election of an ultra-nationalists/fascist/racist like Avigdor Lieberman coming at a period of little violence from the Palestinians. It’s not like Lieberman walked in on a platform of defeating those behind bus bombings. He rose amid a climate of anti-Arab nationalism that was less about the threat of violence from the Palestinian and more about the economic and political threat from the Israeli Arab shop keeper down the street.
Thanks again for the comment!
TheWestBank
July 24, 2009 09:50 AM