US President Barak Obama believed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could have negotiated a two-state solution with the Palestinians, but he is “too fearful and politically paralyzed to do so,” journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in an article in The Atlantic published on Thursday.Goldberg’s article, titled “The Obama Doctrine,” explores the American president’s foreign relations policies since coming into office in 2009. The article is based, among other things, on an interview the senior journalist did with Obama.
The president, Goldberg writes, “has not had much patience for Netanyahu and other Middle Eastern leaders who question his understanding of the region.”In a meeting between Obama and Netanyahu at the White House in May 2011, Obama, Goldberg writes, felt Netanyahu was acting condescendingly when the Israeli prime minister launched into a lecture about the dangers of the Middle East. The president also thought Netanyahu was avoiding the topic at hand – peace negotiations with the Palestinians. READ MORE
