Sol Salbe, of the Middle East News Service, translates a startling paragraph from Israeli paper Yediot Aharonot:
Yediot Acharonot is reporting this morning that the US Administration is talking in terms of Bushehr for Yitzhar – in other words the US will assist in dismantling the Iranian nuclear threat in return for the evacuation of West Bank settlements. Reports have reached Israel lately of a conversation between the White House of Chief of Staff, and Obama confidante, Rahm Emmanuel with a senior Jewish leader in Washington. Emmanuel is reported to have said: “Over the next four years there will be a permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of two states and we don’t particularly care who will be the Prime Minister.”
If this is truly the Obama dream, it’ll be a mighty effort to make it happen.
And that’s putting it mildly.