[ccebook.cn]The World in 2010

To some of his critics, Mr Netanyahu’s melodramatics are rooted in cynicism. Iran, they suspect, is his pretext
for putting off peacemaking with the Palestinians, while he haggles with America over “natural growth” in
Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Others have a different sense of the prime minister’s single-mindedness. “He is a man on a mission,” says a
senior Israeli politician. “His mission, in his own eyes, is to save Israel from the Iranian bomb. The peace
process is a distraction; it is not part of that mission.”
That could change if 2010 does indeed usher in an era of determination on the part of the major powers to
strip Iran of its nuclear-weapons potential. The popular press in Israel calls the linkage between war with Iran
and peace with Palestine “Yitzhar for Bushehr” (it rhymes better in Hebrew). The former is a Jewish settlement
planted in the heart of the West Bank. The latter is an Iranian nuclear-power plant.
The suggestion has always been that America could wring concessions from Israel on Palestine in return for a
“green light” for an Israeli strike on Iran. It was based on the assumption that the Security Council was
paralysed and that America had ruled out military action.
Now, Mr Netanyahu’s mission may be achieved by a concerted show of international will. In that event, Israel
will claim that its own threat of force stiffened that will. President Barack Obama, for his part, will have a
moment of opportunity to prise Israel, the Palestinian Authority and moderate Arab states—all potential
victims of a rampant Iran—out of their obstinate gridlock and into a swift-moving peace process.
David Landau: Israel correspondent, The Economist
Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.
-63-