Steve Clemons: Note to White House: Netanyahu is Obama's Khrushchev

[babylonsister]

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/22/note_to_white_house_netanyahu_is_obamas_khrushchev/?ref=fpblg

Note to White House: Netanyahu is Obama's Khrushchev
By Steve Clemons - July 22, 2009, 4:41PM

snip//

Obama needs to politely crush Netanyahu -- and do it with a smile, without losing his temper, just as Richard Wolffe -- in his new book Renegade: The Making of an American President -- describes Obama doing to political foes he politely vanquished.

If Obama doesn't find a way to knock Netanyahu down off his perch, then Bibi will define Obama rather than Obama leading and setting the key parameters for a new, forward looking, stable Middle East equilibrium.

Netanyahu doesn't want to play along with any form of negotiations process -- even a fake one of the sort that Elliot Abrams generated in the past. He wants nothing at all to work on the Israel-Palestine front -- and believes he can wield Congressional power via his levers in the American Jewish community to create painful costs for the White House that ultimately constrain the President's latitude.

Obama has no choice. If he acquiesces to Netanyahu, which the Israel P†rime Minister is counting on, then the game is over in the region -- and America will slide down a long, slippery slope of nations doubting America's global leverage and competence to accomplish objectives it sets out for itself.

If he creates costs, significant ones, for Netanyahu -- which I believe he must do to maintain a "no false choice" approach to the Middle East, then Obama has a chance to pull off some global re-ordering, but there will be domestic costs for him in Congress.

Khrushchev tried to define Kennedy -- and nearly succeeded.

Kennedy ended up making the right choices and scuttled Khrushchev, shutting down his antics and deflating his power.

Obama must do no less with Benjamin Netanyahu.

[aquart]

1. Ah. This assumes Obama is Kennedy, not Nixon.