Amjad Atallah
there’s a reason no one has ever accused Israeli leaders of being shy. When U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Sen. George Mitchell as his envoy on Middle East peace, he made a point of saying that a two-state solution was the best way to safeguard U.S. interests and secure Israel’s future. And yesterday in Jerusalem, as the new Israeli government took office, the new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, began making his counterpoints.
It seems the new Israeli administration — as evidenced both by its appointments and its policies — is ready to go head-to-head with the Obama team, and it isn’t trying to be subtle.
It’s no big news that the new foreign minister, former Moldovan Avigdor Lieberman, has controversial politics (except perhaps by the standards of the Milosovic regime in the 1990s), though they’ve caused little more than quiet grumblings in foreign capitals. But if there was any lingering hope that his race-centric views and militant posturing were simply campaign tactics, those hopes were dampened by his speech at the handover ceremony at the Foreign Ministry.
Excerpt reproduced with permission from Foreign Policy, www.foreignpolicy.com. Copyright 2009 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive LLC. Read the full article at [http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4790]