Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

I don’t know what Hillary Clinton has been drinking since she arrived in Israel for a visit with Bibi Netanyahu. But whatever it is it did the trick and she’s dutifully sung the praises of Israel’s rightist government:

Speaking at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, Clinton said Israel is putting significant limits on settlement activity.

“What the prime minister has offered in specifics on restraints on a policy of settlements … is unprecedented,” she said.

…Clinton made it clear that she wasn’t pleased with Israeli settlement construction but that it was no reason to hold up talks.

“There are always demands made in any negotiation that are not going to be fully realized,” she said.

Clinton also agreed with a statement by Netanyahu that Palestinians had never demanded a settlement freeze in the past as a condition for sitting down with Israel.

Hillary Clinton, ever since she was New York’s junior senator, was a faithful sister to whatever Israeli government was in power.  She even sang the praises of the Separation Wall and had herself pictured in front of it.  That’s one of the reason I could never support her presidential candidacy and that I worried when she became secretary of state.  Though I since have been convinced that Obama exercises enough control over administration policy and frowns on freelancing, Clinton’s performance today was disappointing.  Can the Obama administration really believe Bibi is doing anything remotely “unprecedented” when it comes to a settlement freeze?  Or is Hillary playing good cop to Obama’s bad?  One wonders though, even being a good cop, whether her praise has to be so effusive and divorced from political reality?

Not only does it appear that Clinton and perhaps the Obama administration have abandoned the attempt for a settlement freeze, it also appears Clinton has taken Bibi’s side in demanding Israel be allowed to complete 3,000 units currently under construction.  Yet another Clinton cave to Israel.

It’s rich that Israel is trying to claim that the Palestinian demand for a settlement freeze as a precondition for talks is somehow not cricket.  What does that say about Israel’s never before advanced demand that the Palestinians accept Israel’s demand to be recognized as a Jewish state?  At least the Palestinians are only asking for what every U.S. president has demanded of Israel for decades.  No U.S. president of Israeli PM has ever made the demand that Bibi has as a precondition for talks.