Craig Crawford
CQ Politics (Blog)
April 20, 2009 - 12:00am
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/the-emanuelnetanyahu-smackdown.html


Imagine Rahm Emanuel and Benjamin Netanyahu in Monday Night Raw, WWE's weekly wrestler smackdown. Emanuel is laying down the law for Israel, making it clear that President Barack Obama wants West Bank territory returned to the Palestinians in exchange for U.S. help in dealing with Iran.

Israeli tough guy Netanyahu pushed back. The White House responded by announcing that the President will be out of town for the Prime Minister's trip to Washington next month.

Emanuel, whose middle name is Israel, has many ties to the country. Jewish leaders expected him to be a great friend when he became Obama's chief of staff.

But it appears that Emanuel is leading the way in taking a hard line against Netanyahu, who is a devoted hawk in Israeli politics. The battle between these two resolute characters should be quite a show.




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