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Bibi's Bait-and-Switch

With today's speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could have had his Nixon-in-China moment. Instead, says Eric Alterman, he chose to ignore Obama's message from Cairo—and seal his political fate despite his conditional acceptance of a two-state solution.

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Baz Ratner, Pool / AP Photo
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Expectations could hardly have been higher for Bibi Netanyahu’s speech Sunday afternoon at Bar-Ilan University. Today was Netanyahu’s opportunity—his last opportunity—to be Israel’s de Gaulle in Algeria, its Nixon in China, or to take a more recent example, its de Klerk in Cape Town.

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