Jerusalem Post: ""Pressure on Israel? Americans Don't Care"

In yesterday's Jerusalem Post, Shmuel Rosner, reports on a Pew poll which finds that Americans overwhelmingly suppport President Obama's push to stop settlements and get to serious negotiations.

Rosner writes: "There's a new survey report from Pew in which some interesting numbers on Israel and its neighbors are hidden. Thechapter on foreign affairs reveals, for example, that Obama is "striking the right balance" on peace processing. 'While 17% say he favors the Palestinians too much and 6% believe he favors Israel too much', 62% of Americans do not see any problem with the way the President handles the Israeli-Arab conflict."

From that Rosner infers that Americans do not oppose pressure on Israel.  That is no big surprise.  I doubt that Americans rule out the use of pressure in dealing with any country in the world to advance US interests and security, Israel included.  It would be surprising if Americans made an exception for Israel. (God knows, Israel and many other countries apply pressure on us).

Nonetheless, I'm glad Rosner reported on this poll and I hope the President sees it.  There is no indication that he is backing down in any way from his position on the West Bank, Gaza, settlements, etc.  Nor are there any signs that Congress is not fully supporting him.  On the contrary, the State Department statement yesterday that the ban on settlement expansion includes Jerusalem indicates a hardening of the US position.

But time is a wasting.  The world heard the Cairo speech and took its words on Palestine as a promise.  Without action, the good will Obama achieved with that speech will dissipate and he will be viewed as a more sophisticated George W. Bush.  He cannot allow that to happen.  Nor can we.