A difference in philosophy, not in goal.

"Vice President Joe Biden called Tuesday for Israel to work toward a two-state solution with the Palestinians and to consider taking steps like freezing settlement activity to improve the climate for negotiations. " (Politico)

Both Obama and Netanyahu have the distinct goal of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, they just differ in their respective philosophies concerning how that goal should be reached. However, despite their differing philosophies, both have 'real world' roots to their philosophies; from President Obama's perspective, it is impractical and possibly dangerous (due to fears of retaliation against Israel or US troops in the Mid-east) for the US or its allies to attack Iran’s nuclear installations, and for Netanyahu, the existence of the Nation of Israel hangs in the balance against a rogue state whose race to obtain nuclear weapons while denying the Holocaust seem to be attempting to prepare the world for another Holocaust. Both of these philosophies seem to be fairly reasonable (to me).

In a very similar vein, Obama and Netanyahu also both want a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, but both once again have very different philosophies concerning how this solution is to be brought about, and under what circumstances it should be brought about.

However, it appears as if Biden, Gates and company (‘realists’) are adamant about living in a fantasy-land where once territory is returned to the Arabs, the Arabs will subsequently drop their weapons, renounce terror and their support of terror.

Let's be 'realists'-

-In 2000, then Prime Minister Ehud Barak pulled the remaining IDF units out of a small part of Southern Lebanon, effectively ending an occupation that spanned nearly two decades, following a campaign promise by Barak to do so a year earlier. Six years later, an ambush that resulted in the killings of eight IDF soldiers and the kidnappings of two IDF reservists took place, along with a massive Katyusha rocket barrage on Israel's northern border cities. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for these attacks. These attacks led to the 33-day long Second Lebanon War (2006).

It is interesting to note that since that 33-day long bloody conflict in Lebanon in 2006, no rockets have been fired by Hezbollah into Israel's northern territory. In this instance, it seems as if a bloody war made more of a lasting impression on the terrorists' and the nations' collective psyche than the unilateral Israeli pullout from occupied Arab territory did.

 

-In 2005, Ariel Sharone and his political party, Kadima, pulled the remaining IDF units and Jewish settlers out of occupied Gaza. Many Jewish Gazans had to be removed by force by the IDF. Since then, thousands of crude rockets filled with ball bearings and broken glass have been fired from Gaza at the southern border cities of Sderot, Beersheva, and Ashkelon. Hamas and other, smaller, terror groups operating in Gaza such as Islamic Jihad claimed and continue to claim responsibility for these unprovoked attacks on Israel's border cities in the Negev. There is a 15 second warning alarm that alerts these towns of rocket fire, which means that everyone, from toddler to senior citizen, must be within 15 seconds of a bomb shelter at all times. Sometimes, the alarm fails to go off. Even after the ceasefire following the recent IDF operation in Gaza dubbed 'Cast Lead,' Israel's southern border cities have continued to come under rocket fire, although in a somewhat sporadic fashion compared to before.

 May the US and Israel work together in the realm of reality to find a comprehensive peace that will be everlasting, not a temporary ceasefire that buys the terror groups' time to reload.

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