From interview to the Jewish Press
Jewish Press: Has the one-sided international reaction to the flotilla episode united Israelis? Do you think it has energized Netanyahu and the right and subdued the peace camp?
Gil Hoffman(Jpost): I wish that were the case, but it hasn't turned out that way. Whenever there's sorrow or any kind of outside threat, Israelis unite in a beautiful kind of way. It happened during both wars over the last few years, it happened against Obama, and the same thing happened with the flotilla. It just didn't last very long.
Can you comment on the events that led up to the Ramat Shlomo construction controversy?
Natan Sharansky had a talk a few days before Netanyahu got elected. It became an issue in the campaign about whether Netanyahu would get along with the president of the United States. Netanyahu's opponents said no, he won't get along. Sharansky said they will get along. It was a bad prediction. But at the time he made another prediction - that what causes problems between countries is surprises, not disputes over policies. One country cannot surprise the other. That's proven to be a good prediction.
Obama got upset because he was surprised by Ramat Shlomo. Netanyahu also was surprised by Ramat Shlomo. When he first heard about the building project, Netanyahu's reaction was, "Where is Ramat Shlomo?" He didn't know if it was over the green line or not. Most people in Jerusalem didn't know, and the newspapers didn't know either. They kept on calling it East Jerusalem, when it's in north-central Jerusalem between two hareidi neighborhoods.
Still, it was a surprise for Obama, and Obama doesn't like surprises. Well, Netanyahu also got a surprise when Obama, in their first meeting, insisted on stopping all construction over the green line. Strangely enough it was a good surprise for Netanyahu. By breaking the commitments Israel had gotten from both Clinton and Bush, Obama liberated Netanyahu from having to abide by the offer [former prime minister Ehud] Olmert had made. But what was worse was when Obama started breaking his own promises. They had agreed the freeze would be for only ten months and wouldn't include Jerusalem. That was how Netanyahu succeeded in selling it to the people of Israel.
Can members of Netanyahu's right-wing bloc in the Likud party prevent him from making future concessions?
Netanyahu is a superman in his party. There's no one in his party to stop him. Likud is the most right-wing party in the coalition; it is also the most left-wing party in the coalition. All the satellite parties are virtually irrelevant. They are led by lame duck politicians, all of them who have no political future, so Netanyahu is completely unrestrained politically. Nothing is standing in his way in internal Israeli politics. The only real pressure he's under comes from the White House and the world
The world is crazy and Netanyahu is under a lot of pressure. The pressure is just going to grow, and Obama has to justify his Nobel peace prize. Even our closest allies are putting pressure on Israel.
Is there anything that can be done to offset that pressure?
Keep up the outcry. It's been effective and helpful and it needs to be constant, because the fight has just begun. There's a battle between the president of United States and the prime minister of Israel; there's a battle between the president of the United States and the people of Israel. There's no battle between the people of Israel and the people of the United States. According to polls, the American people show record highs in support of the people of Israel, and it's despite the president of the United States. That's something that gives me confidence that American Jews can help Israel withstand pressure from Obama.
The Obama administration's reaction to the flotilla episode, and most notably its pressure on Israel to accept an international inquiry, proves there will still continue to be friction between Israel and Obama despite recent efforts by his administration to fix the problems he caused earlier on. Israeli politicians, the people close to Netanyahu, cannot say it on the record, but they want American Jews to be protesting in the streets. They've seen that it has been effective so far, and they are appreciative of it and they desperately want it to continue.
Jewish Press: Has the one-sided international reaction to the flotilla episode united Israelis? Do you think it has energized Netanyahu and the right and subdued the peace camp?
Gil Hoffman(Jpost): I wish that were the case, but it hasn't turned out that way. Whenever there's sorrow or any kind of outside threat, Israelis unite in a beautiful kind of way. It happened during both wars over the last few years, it happened against Obama, and the same thing happened with the flotilla. It just didn't last very long.
Can you comment on the events that led up to the Ramat Shlomo construction controversy?
Natan Sharansky had a talk a few days before Netanyahu got elected. It became an issue in the campaign about whether Netanyahu would get along with the president of the United States. Netanyahu's opponents said no, he won't get along. Sharansky said they will get along. It was a bad prediction. But at the time he made another prediction - that what causes problems between countries is surprises, not disputes over policies. One country cannot surprise the other. That's proven to be a good prediction.
Obama got upset because he was surprised by Ramat Shlomo. Netanyahu also was surprised by Ramat Shlomo. When he first heard about the building project, Netanyahu's reaction was, "Where is Ramat Shlomo?" He didn't know if it was over the green line or not. Most people in Jerusalem didn't know, and the newspapers didn't know either. They kept on calling it East Jerusalem, when it's in north-central Jerusalem between two hareidi neighborhoods.
Still, it was a surprise for Obama, and Obama doesn't like surprises. Well, Netanyahu also got a surprise when Obama, in their first meeting, insisted on stopping all construction over the green line. Strangely enough it was a good surprise for Netanyahu. By breaking the commitments Israel had gotten from both Clinton and Bush, Obama liberated Netanyahu from having to abide by the offer [former prime minister Ehud] Olmert had made. But what was worse was when Obama started breaking his own promises. They had agreed the freeze would be for only ten months and wouldn't include Jerusalem. That was how Netanyahu succeeded in selling it to the people of Israel.
Can members of Netanyahu's right-wing bloc in the Likud party prevent him from making future concessions?
Netanyahu is a superman in his party. There's no one in his party to stop him. Likud is the most right-wing party in the coalition; it is also the most left-wing party in the coalition. All the satellite parties are virtually irrelevant. They are led by lame duck politicians, all of them who have no political future, so Netanyahu is completely unrestrained politically. Nothing is standing in his way in internal Israeli politics. The only real pressure he's under comes from the White House and the world
The world is crazy and Netanyahu is under a lot of pressure. The pressure is just going to grow, and Obama has to justify his Nobel peace prize. Even our closest allies are putting pressure on Israel.
Is there anything that can be done to offset that pressure?
Keep up the outcry. It's been effective and helpful and it needs to be constant, because the fight has just begun. There's a battle between the president of United States and the prime minister of Israel; there's a battle between the president of the United States and the people of Israel. There's no battle between the people of Israel and the people of the United States. According to polls, the American people show record highs in support of the people of Israel, and it's despite the president of the United States. That's something that gives me confidence that American Jews can help Israel withstand pressure from Obama.
The Obama administration's reaction to the flotilla episode, and most notably its pressure on Israel to accept an international inquiry, proves there will still continue to be friction between Israel and Obama despite recent efforts by his administration to fix the problems he caused earlier on. Israeli politicians, the people close to Netanyahu, cannot say it on the record, but they want American Jews to be protesting in the streets. They've seen that it has been effective so far, and they are appreciative of it and they desperately want it to continue.