A.I.P.A.C. MEETS NEXT WEEK TO DETERMINE U.S. FOREIGN POLICY.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), America’s
pro-Zionist Israeli lobby group, will meet from Sunday 3 May through to
5 May to determine the Obama administration’s foreign policy for the
coming year. America’s foreign policy chief for the Middle East,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will be speaking to the
conference via satellite. Netanyahu will be flying in to Washington to
meet with Obama on 18 May to discuss the outcome of the AIPAC
conference .

While Netanyahu has made it quite clear that there will never be a
sovereign Palestinian state, he and President Obama are likely to be at
loggerheads over Obama’s demand that Netanyahu at least keep up an
appearance that Israel is willing to talk about peace – even if it
doesn’t involve actually talking about statehood for the Palestinians.

Besides the Palestinian question, heading up discussions is likely to
be Israel’s perennial Iran ‘problem’. Israel, who like to tell the
world that Iran is a problem because it is seeking nuclear weapons for
the sole purpose of bombing Israel out of existence, actually has a
problem with Iran only inasmuch that Iran is now the only country of
any influence that stands between Israel and its realisation of their
expansionist dreams of a Greater Israel that includes the West Bank,
the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and south Lebanon up to the Litani
River.

While discussions that are in full view of the world between Obama and
his Middle East policy chief Netanyahu, are likely to be cordial and
result in outcomes that are likely to seem mutually agreeable, behind
the scenes Netanyahu will be sounding out Obama on the likelihood of US
support if Israel made a preemptive unilateral strike against Iran and
or Iran’s allies, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.

President Obama needs to tread a careful path. On the one hand he needs
to show both his fellow Americans and the peoples of the world that he
is a President that can bring America back from the dark inglorious
days of the George W. Bush administration and he can only do this by
seemingly being tough with Israeli demands and giving the appearance of
not being so hardline on Iran. On the other hand, however, Obama cannot
upset the Israeli lobby too much and has already demonstrated his
support for Israel when he did nothing to stop the Israeli carnage in
the Gaza in December and January using President-elect protocols as an
excuse for saying nothing while hundreds died.

In public, Obama is unlikely to give any succour to the Israelis with
regard to attacking Iran with a view to regime change. Netanyahu’s only
option therefore, will be to manipulate a casus belli which will result
in Israel appearing to have no option other than to attack Iran and
then having done so, hope that Obama will see as fait accompli the
necessity to support Israel against Iran albeit with the appearance of
such support being given reluctantly.

The future of America’s Middle East foreign policy is likely to be
determined at this upcoming AIPAC conference.

Frightening, isn’t it.
http://lataan.blogspot.com/2009/05/aipac-meets-next-week-to-determine-us.html