Defense Minister Barak's central messge to Obama through US Special Envoy George Mitchell in their NY meetings was the necessity to look at more the one narrow issue of building in Yesha - for natural growth or any other purpose.
For unknown and illogical reasons counter-productive to real progress in the Middle East, Obama has publicly put all his eggs in one basket - repressive measures in Yesha - to boost his status as an active participant in the future of the Middle East.
Barak encouraged Mitchell to look at other issues such as the easing of private Arab life in Yesha including steps taken to lessen the IDF presence in 4 major Arab cities and a commitment to register the Haifa and Ashdod seaports for public trading by 2011.
Barak returns to Israel with a US commitment to the $3.8 billion in loan guarantees through 2011 feared to be in danger as punishment for Israel not going along with President Obama's directive regarding Yesha and a postponement of the clash on the issue of building, at least until the Mitchell-Netanyahu meeting scheduled for 2 weeks time.
In meetings prior to Barak's departure for New York, at least three of the six in Netanyahu's cabinet charged with making policy decisions, Begin, Ayalon and Lieberman, nixed the idea of proposing a temporary freeze on building in Yesha. Their opposition rested in the temporary measure being used as a precedent to force a permanent freeze. It is unclear what view Dan Meridor and Binyamin Netanyahu, himself, took in the discussions.
