Bubkas from Bibi

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech throws a couple of specks of kosher synthetic food freshener on what was always going to be a stale, dry, cold and limp dish he was serving up to his unexpected visitor, Barack Obama. No Palestinians were at the table although they were being offered some drudge-work in the kitchen once they’d passed the indefinite probationary labour test for the pre-breakfast 3AM shift. This was dressed up as economic reconciliation.
Samaria, Judea and other such religiously-based Israeli State ‘regions’ of ‘greater Israel’ deriving their entitlement from G-D were spoken of with all the pride of ownership. It did not seem to faze Bibi that he was talking about occupied territory, the subject of contestation for the scarcely acknowledged prospect of a Palestinian state. And what a state. One capable of taking millions of Palestinian refugees in addition to its over-crowded resident population. Naturally it would have no military resources because it would have no need for self-defence or security.
And all the settlements and checkpoints? The 300,000 Jewish settlers in the West bank and East Jerusalem?
Well, Jerusalem would remain undivided so there was no need to think about East Jerusalem. And the west Bank settlements. Well Bibi’s view was ‘live and let live’ except that the Gaza blockade was a bit embarrassing on this score. Best not to mention it. Any way the two-state kosher synthetic food freshener would be a taste-enhancer as well.
And the unexpected visitor wasn’t going to complain, when it was obvious how much trouble his host had gone to serve him up something presentable at such a late hour. As for indigestion, well that was his private affair and the symptoms wouldn’t become evident until the small hours when, if it became a serious problem he could blame those probationary Palestinian labourers on the early kitchen shift.
The Americans would understand, having had to put up their own walls down in Mexico to keep out the ‘wet-backs’ who found work in their own kitchens. It wouldn’t be the first case of food-poisoning from people not even on the books.
To finish the meal Bibi proposed a toast to old friends Jordan and Egypt, wished a speedy recovery to Iraq and then went bananas about Iran.
The lights were out by midnight.
Les Rosenblatt
18 June 2009.