Ehud Barak is in a funny position. Politically he is quite close to Obama, but he also represents the Israeli government and thus he quite opposes Obama too.

Tomorrow morning (US time), Barak will be meeting with US Envoy George "No more Jewish Births" Mitchell. The question on everyone's mind is what position will Barak take.

(He's bringing along Dan Meridor, the most far Left Likudnk in the bunch).

Whether the events of the past 2 days are coincidence or not (sure), Israel has made it very clear that they don't think much of Obama and Hillary's demands on the subject of settlement freezes and cessation, as well as the Obama administration's backtracking on previous understandings with Israel.

In the past 2 days Israel announced plans to expand new housing starts in Ma'aleh Adumim, Givat Ze'ev and Adam (though in part by moving the Migron residents into the expanded Adam village).

I don't think the message can be more explicit or "in your face" than that. (Much better than that Obama shoe picture).

Except perhaps when Netanyahu canceled his meeting with Mitchell and sent Barak to talk to him in his place.

So with Obama failing (politically an morally) on every troubled international arena he's playing in right now (Iran, Honduras, North Korea, Iraq, etc.), and going back on agreements and understandings with previous Israeli administrations (including one Netanyahu was a part of) Netanyahu has become emboldened to do more right things than wrong things (so far).

The Obama administration even seems to be taken aback by the ferocity of response by the average Israeli on the street who for the most part doesn't trust Obama and thinks his positions are anti-Israeli.


Altogether, with Israel putting forth such a united front, the State Department spokesman has started to hem and haw, talking about negotiations on the US positions and taking a "wait and see" attitude on the upcoming meeting.

Unfortunately rumor has it, that Barak may offer a 3 month freeze - whatever that actually means, as we are currently under a freeze, which has slowed down new construction significantly.

But the question still remains, who will Ehud Barak represent? His personal political viewpoint, or the governments? (And obviously just what is the government's position?)

And still it would be nice to see Obama do yet another flip flop and "clarification" of what he really meant. Just for the amusement factor.


(Why would Netanyahu offer a 3 month freeze and restart talks with the Palestinian enemy for nothing?

Because Obama has linked dealing with Iran to "Peace progress", and this will remove Obama's stated objections to dealing with Iran - which is existential threat number 1 to Israel right now.

And that will push Obama into a corner to either act, or prove that he is not a trustworthy ally, and then all cards are off the table.)