Our friends in Israel are apparently concerned that Obama will pressure Bibi to curtail settlements. Demonstrating outside chez Bibi, Israelis declare:
“People tell us that it is impossible to stand up against American pressure; there is no bigger lie,” yelled out Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, which helped to organize the event. It was timed to coincide with US envoy George Mitchell’s visit to Israel.
Netanyahu’s government should be concerned with its election promises to support the settlements, rather than with its obligations to the US, Dayan said. This government has an obligation to return Israel to the Zionist path of settling the land, he said.
Prior to the rally Dayan told The Jerusalem Post he hoped “Netanyahu will learn lessons from those who preceded him.”
He added that “David Ben-Gurion founded Israel in spite of American pressure… Menachem Begin destroyed Osirak in spite of American opposition, and Yitzhak Shamir rejected American demands to stop construction.”
Demonstrators held signs that said, “Yes to Israeli Independence! No to American Demands!” Other signs read, “Israel will not fold.”
Holding aloft a banner bearing the legend “Stop Screwing Israel,” Zvi November of Ramat Eshkol in Jerusalem told the Post: “All of the land of Israel belongs to Am Yisrael… There are 22 Arab states comprising five and a quarter million square miles of land – they don’t need ours.”