Obama to pressure Abu Bluff?
Could it be that the Obama administration is finally going to let up on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and start pressuring 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President U.S.-Israeli relations had once been marked by unwonted coolness under Netanyahu's premiership and the Obama presidency. But Western diplomats said Wednesday they detected signs that Washington was increasingly frustrated with Abbas.
One Western diplomat in the region, speaking privately, said that Abbas "as the weaker partner" was now the focus of U.S. efforts to stir the peace process back to life. "It's a dramatic shift from the way it started with Obama year ago," he said.
Mitchell raised Israeli hackles last week with remarks about curbing U.S. financial help for the Jewish state if peace efforts got bogged down. But the diplomat spoke of an "implicit threat" of cuts in U.S. aid to the West Bank if Abbas held out.
Signs of a shifting balance of power were clear in September when Obama softened his opposition to Israeli settlement policy and persuaded Abbas to meet him, with Netanyahu, in New York.
Israel Matzav: Obama to pressure Abu Bluff?
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