 I'm only quoting the parts of the article that deal with the imminent shift if US policy.
| The New York Times. America's newspaper of record. |
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration considers Israel's blockade of Gaza to be untenable and plans to press for another approach to ensure Israel's security while allowing more supplies into the impoverished Palestinian area, senior American officials said Wednesday.
| Clearly, President Obama is taking a new tack with regard to Israel. Or not. Functionally this is no different than what Hamas has been demanding... except for the ensuring Israel's security bit. |
The officials say that Israel's deadly attack on a flotilla trying to break the siege and the resulting international condemnation create a new opportunity to push for increased engagement with the Palestinian Authority and a less harsh policy toward Gaza. "There is no question that we need a new approach to Gaza," said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the policy shift is still in the early stages. He was reflecting a broadly held view in the upper reaches of the administration.
| "We need a new approach because the new approach the President brought in with him hasn't worked," the official continued. "We thought that by giving into the Palestinians and by insulting the Israelis we could further the peace process. Instead, those damned, stiff-necked Jews insist on defending themselves and their country." |
But the American officials said they believed that even Mr. Netanyahu understood that a new approach was needed.
Yet Mr. Netanyahu has resisted American pressure in the past. The Obama administration initially demanded a complete freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but had to accept a 10-month partial freeze. Pressure on Israel also carries domestic political risks for Mr. Obama, given the passion of its supporters in the United States.
| What is it about stupid joooo politicians who insist on their own understanding of events instead of accepting President Obama's clearly superior version of events and implications, one can hear the entire White House staff fuming among themselves. |
But the world powers have grown increasingly disillusioned with the blockade, saying that it has created far too much suffering in Gaza and serves as a symbol not only of Israel's treatment of Palestinians but of how the West is seen in relation to the Palestinians.
"Gaza has become the symbol in the Arab world of the Israeli treatment of Palestinians, and we have to change that," the senior American official said. "We need to remove the impulse for the flotillas. The Israelis also realize this is not sustainable."
| It would be, Mr. Anonymous Senior Official, were the U.S. to have Israel's back. |
At a meeting of the Quartet a year ago in Italy, for example, the group asserted that the current situation was not sustainable and called for the unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian aid within Gaza, as well as the reopening of crossing points.
But Obama administration officials made it clear that the deaths had given a new urgency to changing the policy.
Biden's remarks may have been part of a good cop/bad cop routine... |