Professor Avi Shlaim on President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu

Taking advantage of the Israeli Prime Ministers trip to the White House, Avi Shlaim penned a comment piece in The Independent (02 March, 2012) on the necessity of realigning American priorities regarding Israel.

Avi writes, “The challenge for Obama is to reign in his reckless junior ally and to reorder American priorities in the Middle East. The main threat to regional stability is not Iran but the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories... If Obama cannot stand up to Bibi Netanyahu in defence of vital American interests, who will he stand up to? His own credibility as the leader of the free world is on the line.”

The full article can be read here, and also here as a post on our Politics in Spires blog.

Avi's article has also drawn strong criticism from David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee and a Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College (Oxford), who wrote an article in the Huffington Post entitled 'Avi Shlaim's Anti-Israel Diatribe'. This article can be read here.