Haaretz: Don't turn Obama into an enemy

Haaretz

.....But the portrayal of Obama as hostile to Israel is baseless. Those familiar with the Arab world's sensitivities know it takes a great deal of courage to refer - in a speech in Cairo on conciliation with the Arab and Muslim world - to the Holocaust, the evil and lie of its denial, the Jewish people's persecution over the centuries, its right to a national home, and the "unbreakable" bond between Israel and the United States. Obama's vehement denunciation of terrorism against Israel, referring to suicide bombings and Qassam rockets aimed at Sderot's children, and the firm demand that Palestinians disassociate themselves from this terrorism, were clear and unequivocal.

Obama declared that the United States does not consider West Bank settlement expansion to be legitimate, and demanded its complete freeze. But the Israeli government is pulling the wool over our eyes when it speaks of "natural growth" - the only difference between the Bush and Obama administrations is that the latter won't accept Israel's winks, nudges and bluffs.

The disagreement between Washington and Jerusalem is not over adding a yard to a kindergarten or putting up a health clinic, but over land expropriation, paving roads and adding housing units to communities beyond the separation fence - settlements whose only purpose is to torpedo the chance for a peace agreement. The dispute is based mainly on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to recognize that the solution of two states for two peoples is an Israeli interest, an Israeli obligation and the expectation of the entire world, not to mention most Israelis.

Even before Obama aired his speech, representatives of the right began competing to condemn it most fiercely. The bar was set by Habayit Hayehudi chairman Daniel Hershkowitz, who compared the U.S. president to Pharaoh, and the former's demand to halt settlement growth to the latter's order in Exodus that "Every son who is born you shall cast into the river." The government must stop such malicious nonsense before it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.......