http://lobelog.com/the-us-israel-mou-obamas-legacy/#more-36345

The US-Israel MOU: Obama’s Legacy?

by Zaha Hassan
President Obama recently pushed through a measure to advance the cause of Israel-Palestine peace. It will likely be his most enduring legacy. And virtually everyone missed it.
Hidden between the dollar signs of the record-breaking memorandum of understanding (MOU) that gifted Israel a whopping $38 billion dollars in foreign military financing and missile defense over 10 years are terms that will greatly neutralize the power of the lobbyists that have controlled the conversation in Washington on Israel-Palestine to the detriment of a just peace. And the president did it in such a way that prevented those lobbyists and its beneficiary, Israel—as well as the campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton—from complaining about it.
The move was easy to miss given how the MOU appears to reward Israel for its bad acts. Let’s not forget all that has happened since Obama’s election. Three Israeli military bombardments against the captive population in Gaza killed thousands of civilians. Settlement-building in the occupied West Bank accelerated with announcements of new construction coming as US officials landed in the region for talks. In cahoots with the Republican leadership, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu snubbed protocol and audaciously delivered an address to Congress in an attempt to bury the president’s nuclear deal with Iran. And Israeli forces used US weapons to extra-judicially kill unarmed Palestinian youth, including 16-year-old Palestinian-American Mahmud Shalan.http://lobelog.com/the-us-israel-mou-obamas-legacy/#more-36345