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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly contemplating making a deal with the Obama administration in an effort to encourage a more forceful American response to the Iranian regime.
According to The Jerusalem Post Thursday, Netanyahu may agree to some form of implementation of the so-called Arab peace plan in exchange for an American pledge to more robustly oppose Tehran's nuclear program.
This Arab plan calls for Israel to withdraw from all land it has controlled since the Six Day War - including Judea, Samaria, the Dead Sea/Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights - and the granting of blanket rights for all "Palestinian" "refugees" to "return home."
In exchange for this abandonment of historical and biblical Jewish lands and the opening of the doors to an Arab deluge - acts which will mean national suicide - the Arab states say seductively, they will establish full, normal relations with what will be left of Israel.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has signaled Washington and Europe of the new Israeli government's intention to revise the repeatedly-failed land-for-peace approach to the Israeli-"Palestinian" conflict.
Netanyahu is expected to face enormous pressure to change this stance when he visits Washington on May 18.
It is already in play: President Barack Obama and his state department have repeatedly if diplomatically rejected any Israeli questioning of the viability of the "two-state-solution."
Pundits expect that Netanyahu will be accorded a frosty reception at the White House and that Obama's gloves will come off. Administration officials answering journalists' questions in this way, "assured" them that the president was looking forward to hosting the Israeli.
In part because of the widespread media speculation, Netanyahu's policy review team is understood to be brainstorming ways to avoid any form of clash that could harden Obama's heart towards Israel.
But concerned critics warn that any indication by Netanyahu of a willingness to soften his stand on land-for-peace could backfire; Obama could wield it as proof that Israel is not really ready to reject this policy as bankrupt, and insist that Israel continue to embrace it whether or not the US change the way it deals with Iran.
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SOURCE: Jerusalem Post: Bibi considering land-for-Iran - Jerusalem NewswireUS snubs Israel over Iran talks deadline - PRESS TVU.S. wants Iran talks soon - Los Angeles Times
