The one who said my first visit as the president of America will be to Israel and the one who visited Israel before the presidential election to win American votes are both not heard in any media, any more. We wonder whether they are still in politics! The first one, Newt Gingrich, failed even to get the Republican party nomination and the other, Mitt Romney, who promised Israel of making Jerusalem an undivided capital of the Zionist state and who received Netanyahu’s backing during the election was trounced by Obama in a landslide victory. The election result explicitly showed that Israeli government is not only getting isolated among the American voters but internationally too, which was proved by Palestinian state being recognized by the world body and given observer status.
Obama’s Israeli visit may mark rebirth of ‘centrality’ of the Palestinian conflict but in short term, the early visit in his second term serves Netanyahu’s political purposes, who is now struggling to form a coalition. In the same vein, Obama’s decision to re-enter the Israeli-Palestinian fray signifies his determination to lead the effort to resolve a conflict he views as a key to America’s relationship with the Arab and Muslim world. — S.H. Moulana, Riyadh
Growing isolation
