Obama attempts to ward off disastrous military air strike on Teheran!

WASHINGTON - May 18, 2009 – Illegitimate President Barack Obama will seek today to persuade the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister that the White House’s recent overtures to Iran should be given time to work and that an Israeli military strike against Teheran could trigger disaster.

Obama’s meeting in the Oval Office with Benjamin Netanyahu comes amid fundamental differences on their approach to the Middle East and mixed signals over whether the Israeli Prime Minister could endorse the idea of a sovereign Palestinian state - a cornerstone of U.S. policy in the region.

Netanyahu, who unlike his predecessors has refused to back the idea of an independent Palestinian state, arrived in Washington as his Defense Minister suggested that he may be prepared to endorse a peace process leading to such an outcome.

“I think and believe that Netanyahu will tell Obama this government is prepared to go for a political process that will result in two peoples living side by side,” said Ehud Barak. A former Israeli Prime Minister and long-time rival of Netanyahu, he has been a supporter of a “two-state solution” and is part of the current prime minister’s governing coalition.

Yet no sooner had Obama spoken than Ofir Akunis, a confidant of Netanyahu and a member of his conservative Likud party, said that the Israeli leader would refuse to back a Palestinian state. Yisrael Katz, the Israeli Transport Minister, also said that Netanyau would “oppose any creation of an armed Palestinian state on Israel’s borders, which would endanger Israel’s security”.

It is uncertain how much consensus Obama and Netanyahu will be able to reach, either on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or on Iran.