JERUSALEM LETTER:Customers at a friendly Jerusalem joint, the Pizza Obama, want the owner to change its name, writes ROB CRILLY
ISAAC AZENCOT thought he had the perfect name to unite his Muslim and Jewish customers in a mixed neighbourhood of Jerusalem.
Barack Obama was headed for a historic US election win, promising a new way of doing things and holding out the tantalising prospect of helping find peace in the Middle East when his little pizza parlour opened. But now customers at Pizza Obama are urging Azencot to change its name, as the American president’s popularity in Israel plummets.
Obama’s Middle East policy has stalled and both sides – Israelis and Palestinians – are disillusioned with his attempts at brokering a deal.
“I still think it’s a good name,” said Azencot, as he leant against a counter filled with fresh pizzas garnished with olives.
“I still believe in the idea of peace but my customers now, they don’t like it. I tell them these things take time but they ask me why I don’t change the name.”
Bottles of Israeli wine line one wall opposite the ferociously hot pizza oven. The Stars and Stripes hangs from the ceiling and pictures of the American president decorate the inside of his takeaway joint.
But Obama’s popularity has dipped fast in Israel since his inauguration last year.
An opinion poll in August found only 4 per cent of people thought he was pro-Israeli, a desperately poor rating for the president of Israel’s main ally.
Since then, his ratings have improved but many Israelis are deeply critical of what they see as meddling in domestic affairs.
Last year, Obama called for Israel to halt settlement building in the occupied West Bank. He later went one step further, publicly criticising the Israeli government for announcing plans to build hundreds of Jewish homes in mainly Arab East Jerusalem.
His attack on the plan for 900 homes in Gilo, a suburb of Jerusalem built beyond the 1967 Green Line, for harming the chances of reaching a settlement, did not go down well with Pizza Obama’s Jewish customers.
“I don’t like him at all. He likes Muslims not us and tries to tell us what to do in Jerusalem, our own city,” said Idan Moshe as he bought a packet of cigarettes.
“Gilo is our place, it has nothing to do with him.”
All of which leaves George Mitchell, Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East, with an uphill task when he arrives in the region this week to kick-start peace talks.
Negotiations have stalled ever since Israel launched strikes on Gaza at the end of 2008.
Israel insists it is ready to resume negotiations, but the Palestinian leadership wants a complete halt to construction in the West Bank.
In November, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a partial 10-month freeze. Construction of some public buildings can continue. So too the controversial zoning of Jewish settlements in mainly Arab East Jerusalem.
That is not good enough for the Palestinians, who believe Obama has not pushed Israel hard enough.
At the little barber shop down the hill from Pizza Obama, where the neat houses of the Jewish side give way to the jumbled homes of the Arab village of Silwan, there is not much regard for the American president.
“Obama gave his big speech in Cairo saying he wanted the settlements to halt,” said a young customer as the clippers buzzed around the back of his head. “Then Hillary Clinton welcomed the 10-month halt, even though they keep building in East Jerusalem. How can you divide up the pie when one side keeps taking bites?”
East Jerusalem is a critical issue for Arabs, who want to see it as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
The issue is not negotiable for Israel. While Netanyahu has long signalled his willingness to forgo the West Bank in the interests of peace, he is adamant that he will not give up the city many Jews believe to be their indivisible, eternal capital and home to their most holy site.
A year after Obama’s inauguration, the high hopes for a swift breakthrough have largely evaporated.
In fact, it may not be quite what he had in mind, but Obama has at least united Israelis and Palestinians in something – their distrust of the American leader.
“Politics can change,” said Azencot, puffing on a Marlborough Light as he switched to philosophical mode in his takeaway.
“The problem is when you add religion. Then the people think they cannot compromise. Me, I still believe in peace. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day for sure.”