Annie Robbins (Mondoweiss)
Netanyahu wants to put off dealing with the Palestinian issue till the world deals with Iran, maybe even by starting another war. But U.S. officials have another kind of “linkage” in mind: Israel has to stop expansion in the West Bank because it’s causing all sorts of problems. John Kerry and Chuck Hagel have both made statements to that effect. This strategic disagreement underlies the tensions between the countries over talking with Iran; with a Netanyahu aide saying he feels an American knife “imbedding his back”
"The “ferocity of Netanyahu’s rage” was surely compounded by Kerry’s warning about settlement expansion, and a third intifada if Israel continues to colonize Palestinian territory, and the secretary of state’s impatience with those, e.g. Israel, using “fear tactics” to stop the P5+1 Iran negotiations. Abe Foxman said Kerry’s criticism was outrageous; “It is chutzpah to lecture Israel about the risks of peace and war.” To heed Kerry would mean that Netanyahu would succumb to Obama’s priorities over those of his own– an ongoing competition that’s marked the relationship between the officials since day one."
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