OBAMA'S LETTER, NETANYAHU'S REJECTION AND THE MEDIA'S NON-RESPONSE

MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media

"Obama needs a short renewal of the freeze, and the semblance of continuing Israeli and Palestinian participation in the 'peace process', until the US Congressional elections in November."

semblance |ˈsembləns|nounthe outward appearance or apparent form of something, esp. when the reality is different :she tried to force her thoughts back into some semblance of order.• archaic resemblance; similarity : it bears some semblance to the thing I have in mind.

Obama’s Cave-In To Israel
So, Obama needs it to look as though the peace talks are going somewhere, when in reality the talks have already broken off, to wag in front US voters as his foreign policy "win" before the November elections?

What a cynical, calculated ploy, and what a slap in the face of American voters who understand the timing on these negotiations, even when there was no chance Netanyahu would yield any concessions, was simply to make Obama look good at least on a foreign policy issue (he can forget about his party running on his domestic policy failures, that's for certain!)

Following Israel's capture of the West Bank in 1967, along with other
territories including East Jerusalem, Israel has built and expanded Jewish
settlements on occupied Palestinian land. The settlers enjoy the benefits of
a separate, and far superior, civilian infrastructure to nearby Palestinian
communities, and they are protected at great expense by the Israeli
military. Under international law, the settlements are illegal. But despite
private agreements with the US to rein in growth, Israel has continued the
non-stop expansion of its illegal settlements. While the public stance of
the United States is that it does not recognise "the international
legitimacy" of the settlements, Washington has in practice provided
decades-long support for Israeli policy.