Would Bibi Baby Lie?

The Rethuglican neocon- Israeli Likudnik axis has influenced Middle East policy for a decade or more. When the neocons' candidate, Preznit Chimpy, was put in office by the Supreme Court in 2000, as key Bushit Assministration officials (Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Bolton, among the better known) they had an open field to implement their aggressive policies of military confrontation. The Likud's fortunes went up and down during the last decade, but now, with the Likud's Bibi Netanyahu in power in Israel, the question of peace with the Palestinians is in doubt. While Netanyahu maintains a public face of cooperation with the U.S., there's growing doubt that he will ever agree to an independent Palestinian state, much less stopping illegal Israeli settlement construction on the West Bank.

Having the Obama Administration as a counterweight to the Likud's hostility to a peace agreement is perhaps the only bright spot, but expect the neocons here to fire up the smear machine against Obama once Netanyahu drops his public face and goes for broke on the West Bank settlements issue.