They love us when we're weak  Nadav Shragai  1-17-13 During the Oslo process, Israel felt warmth from the White House. Then rivers of blood began to flow here. If it had been up to U.S. President Barack Obama or even previous American presidents who were friendlier to Israel, Jerusalem would have been left sealed off and divided. If it had been up to the Americans, the United Nations would have controlled the Old City to this day; Israel would have been prevented from uniting Jerusalem; the alleyway at the Western Wall would still be as ridiculously narrow as it was during the British Mandate; the Golan Heights would have remained devoid of Jewish settlement; Israel would have been prevented from bombing the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981; and David Ben-Gurion would have withdrawn from his “occupation" of the Negev in 1948. If it were up to the U.S., it is very possible that the state of Hamastan would have extended not just throughout the south, but would have reached the gates of Kfar Saba, Netanya and Tel Aviv, and tens of thousands of Jews would have been expelled from their homes in Judea and Samaria in the same way they were expelled from Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. Not that many years ago — 19, to be precise — when the disastrous Oslo Accords were signed, the Israeli government and those at its helm were very much loved and admired in Washington. Israel, then, got accustomed to warmth and great popularity in the White House. Afterward, rivers of blood flowed through our streets — the fruits of the Oslo leaders' diplomacy — and those leaders became all the more popular. Bleeding, weak and popular. When Operation Defensive Shield began in 2002, our popularity again diminished. And when the suicide attacks started, our popularity rose again. Sometimes — and what can you do? — the prime minister of Israel must proudly suffer a lack of popularity and international disdain to defend the interests of his own nation, even if that nation will suffer sanctions, more sanctions and punishments. Even if Hatnuah party leader Tzipi Livni, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres think differently. Olmert, by the way — who now accuses Netanyahu of abandoning Israel’s relations with the U.S.— understood that he had to wrangle with Washington over the unification of Jerusalem when that was still a guiding principle for him. Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Shamir also endured arduous moments with Washington, but they were uncompromising when they thought that Israeli interests demanded it. Then Prime Minister Menachem Begin once clarified to the U.S. ambassador that "Israel is not an American banana republic." Maybe someone needs to answer Obama in the polite yet assertive manner in which Begin approached President Jimmy Carter, who was insistent on dividing Jerusalem. Begin said: "We shall never disagree; we may only agree to differ."