Netanyahu the Look Out

The product of one of the more disingenuous photo ops circling now, we see Netanyahu taking to the desert with a pair of binoculars, the picture of an “outward looking” leader surrounded by empty expanse.

The function of the photo, however, is a bait-and-switch, given how Bibi, behind the smoke screen of token military resistance, has been tacitly encouraging settlers to erect or expand as many illegal West Bank settlements as possible before negotiations with Obama shut off the tap. (Of course, if that even happens is another story.)

Perhaps the black-clad security dude standing between Bibi and the white shirts, and this romantic landscape (and also seeming to keep his eye on us) is a red flag that the photo is less than innocent. Otherwise, however, what the image really documents — the party surveying the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge crossing to Jordan, the West Bank behind their backs — is Netanyahu “looking the other way.”

(image: Jim Hollander/Pool – Reuters. caption: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd L) looks through binoculars on a ridge overlooking the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge crossing between the West Bank and Jordan July 28, 2009. U.S. envoy George Mitchell and Netanyahu could not agree on a Jewish settlement freeze in talks on Tuesday but said negotiations were advancing)