Israel: No policy change after Obama speech

AP, here

" Israel will not heed President Barack Obama's powerful appeal to halt all settlement activity on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state, officials said Friday, a position that looks sure to cause a policy clash with its most powerful ally.....

Most likely, Netanyahu will be forced to choose between going along with Obama's Mideast vision, and risk a crisis in his rightist governing coalition, or rejecting it, and risk alienating Israel's most important ally.

"Benjamin Netanyahu will have to come to a decision soon. It's either 'yes' to Obama or 'no' to Obama," wrote columnist Ben Caspit in the Israeli daily Maariv on Friday.....

Despite unease in Israel over Obama's overtures to the Muslim world, enthusiasm was also evident. In the liberal daily Haaretz, former lawmaker Yossi Sarid called Obama's speech "the most important of the decade."

Sarid imagined rushing to the phone to call Netanyahu, telling him: "This beautiful young man, Barack Hussein Obama, he's the man. He's the greatest. You don't have a chance in a face-off with him."