In the guise of the familiar, "everyone knows that..." argument, liberal Democrat Robert Wexler, told The Jerusalem Post that Israel would lose nothing, and potentially gain everything, by agreeing to a temporary moratorium on construction in the settlements for a short period of time.
Congressman Robert Wexler, a close political ally of President Obama, in fact one of the first to come out in his support during the US election, went on to say that "A request for a moratorium or freeze in settlement activity that can be mutually agreed upon by the US and Israel in the next several weeks is a tiny, tiny gesture and down payment to make when you look at potentially what is on the other side of the equation."
Ignoring the fact that history has shown repeatedly that in tit-for-tat agreements where Israel takes tangible steps to obtain a stubbornly elusive peace, the Arabs have never - not once - responded by taking the amorphous steps required of them, Wexler explained his facile willingness for Israel to once again give up and give in with reassurances that "if the Arab world fails to deliver," Wexler said, "(Israel) can rightly say that all bets are off."
As Israelis are wont to say, "there's nothing as permanent as a temporary measure." In this case, the "temporary" freeze would certainly be pounced upon as a starting point for further negotiations, a reality that Wexler has been around long enough to understand.
With his boyish good looks and politicians wide smile, Wexler uses shrugging, belittling words to minimize the significance of the continuation of Olmert's bankrupt settlement freeze policy by an administration voted in to change exactly that policy.
In light of Sarcozy's recent attempt to meddle in internal government issues (the choice of foreign minister), Wexler's spin can be, perhaps, best identified by his comments, when asked if Obama is angling for a change in the Israeli government that "The president of the US does not have a view, or an opinion, or either a tactical or strategic posture on the government of Israel.The idea that the president, or anyone in any position of responsibility in Washington, is designing a process to undermine the policy or position or standing of the government of Israel is absurd."
Wexler is just another in the long line of those who are trying, albeit with a different strategy, to pressure PM Netanyahu to betray the platform on which he was elected.
