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Obama Snubs Netanyahu Following Likud Victory

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Webster

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...with all due respect, Mr. President, if this is how you treat America's allies, God only knows what you must think of them at times....
Excerpt...
(The Guardian) The White House has made clear its dismay at Binyamin Netanyahu’s sweeping victory in the Israeli elections with a stinging rebuke of the “divisive rhetoric” used by the Israeli leader in the closing stages of the election.

President Obama has not called to congratulate Netanyahu, who is now attempting to build a coalition between rightwing parties and his own Likud, which won decisively in parliamentary elections on Tuesday. But the White House said it would be forced to re-evaluate its policy on the Middle East peace process after Netanyahu abandoned a prior commitment to an independent Palestinian state, apparently to shore up support among conservatives in Israel.

Obama’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, reaffirmed the president’s belief in the two-state solution, and strongly condemned Netanyahu’s decision to rally support with incendiary remarks about a high turnout among Israeli Arab voters. Netanyahu used a 28-second video on election day to warn that Israeli Arabs were being bussed to the polls “in droves”.

“The United States and this administration is deeply concerned about rhetoric that seeks to marginalise Arab Israeli citizens,” Earnest said. “It undermines the values and democratic ideals that have been important to our democracy and an important part of what binds the United States and Israel together.”

He added: “Rhetoric that seeks to marginalise one segment of their population is deeply concerning, it is divisive, and I can tell you that these are views the administration intends to communicate directly to the Israelis.”

Earnest said the president would call Netanyahu “in the coming days”, but played down suggestions that the delay was itself a rebuke. In two previous Israeli elections, Earnest said, Obama did not telephone Netanyahu until the PM was directed by the Israeli president to form a government.

Netanyahu’s eve-of-poll comments, in which he unequivocally ruled out the creation of an independent Palestinian state, backtracked on his previous commitment and undermined a cornerstone of White House Middle East policy. It scuppered hopes that had been brewing in the State Department that the talks could, once again, be resuscitated.

The remark also confirmed suspicions among Palestinians, and shared privately by some in the Obama administration, that Netanyahu was never committed to the negotiations in the first place.

The secretary of stat,e John Kerry, who has fought hard on the Middle East peace process, and was in Switzerland for the final stages of nuclear talks with Iran that Netanyahu has fought hard to scupper, pointedly refused to respond to questions about the Israeli election results.

State Department officials later said that Kerry called Netanyahu to congratulate him on the results. “It was a brief phone call,” said Jen Psaki, his chief spokesperson. “They did not discuss substantive issues.”

....Israel just became, IMO, a campaign issue in 2016.... :whistle:
 

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Welcome to Offtopix 👋, Visitor

Off Topix is a well-established general discussion forum that originally opened to the public in 2009! We provide a laid-back atmosphere, and our members are down to earth. We have a ton of content, and fresh stuff is constantly being added. We cover all sorts of topics, so there's bound to be something inside to pique your interest. We welcome anyone and everyone to register and become a member of our awesome community.

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