Obama and Israel
Bookworm on Mar 20 2010 at 2:52 pm | Filed under: Barack Obama, Israel
Caroline Glick spells out what Obama has done:
Obama’s ultimatum makes clear that mediating peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not a goal he is interested in achieving.
Obama’s new demands follow the months of American pressure that eventually coerced Netanyahu into announcing both his support for a Palestinian state and a 10-month ban on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria. No previous Israeli government had ever been asked to make the latter concession.
Netanyahu was led to believe that in return for these concessions Obama would begin behaving like the credible mediator his predecessors were. But instead of acting like his predecessors, Obama has behaved like the Palestinians. Rather than reward Netanyahu for taking a risk for peace, Obama has, in the model of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, pocketed Netanyahu’s concessions and escalated his demands. This is not the behavior of a mediator. This is the behavior of an adversary.
With the US president treating Israel like an enemy, the Palestinians have no reason to agree to sit down and negotiate. Indeed, they have no choice but to declare war.
And so, in the wake of Obama’s onslaught on Israel’s right to Jerusalem, Palestinian incitement against Israel and Jews has risen to levels not seen since the outbreak of the last terror war in September 2000. And just as night follows day, that incitement has led to violence. This week’s Arab riots from Jerusalem to Jaffa, and the renewed rocket offensive from Gaza are directly related to Obama’s malicious attacks on Israel.
And she posits why Obama has done it. Here are just two of her (not mutually exclusive) theories:
First, Obama’s assault on Israel is likely related to the failure of his Iran policy. Over the past week, senior administration officials including Gen. David Petraeus have made viciously defamatory attacks on Israel, insinuating that the construction of homes for Jews in Jerusalem is a primary cause for bad behavior on the part of Iran and its proxies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. By this line of thinking, if Israel simply returned to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines, Iran’s centrifuges would stop spinning, and Syria, al-Qaida, the Taliban, Hizbullah, Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards would all beat their swords into plowshares.
[snip]
The final explanation for Obama’s behavior is that he is using his manufactured crisis to justify adopting an overtly anti-Israel position vis-à-vis the Palestinians. On Thursday, The New York Times reported that administration officials are considering having Obama present his own “peace plan.” Given the administration’s denial of Israel’s right to Jerusalem, an “Obama plan,” would doubtless require Israel to withdraw to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines and expel some 700,000 Jews from their homes.
Likewise, the crisis Obama has manufactured with Israel could pave the way for him to recognize a Palestinian state if the Palestinians follow through on their threat to unilaterally declare statehood next year regardless of the status of negotiations with Israel. Such a US move could in turn lead to the deployment of US forces in Judea and Samaria to “protect” the unilaterally declared Palestinian state from Israel.
Lastly, Glick looks at Netanyahu’s increasingly narrow range of options. I think the second piece of advice is the most important:
Second, Netanyahu must remember that Obama’s hostility toward Israel is not shared by the majority of Americans. Netanyahu’s goal must be to strengthen and increase the majority of Americans who support Israel. To this end, Netanyahu must go to Washington next week and speak at the annual AIPAC conference as planned, despite the administration’s threat to boycott him.
Read the whole thing here.
I have nothing to add to this.
Hat tip: Sadie
Related posts:
- Obama versus Israel *UPDATED*
- Obama’s existential pressure on Israel
- Obama administration to blackmail Israel into behaving suicidally
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7 Responses to “Obama and Israel”
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Look at the Obama Administration’s actions, not the words.
“We are a friend to Israel”, Obama declares, his voice dripping with honey and sincerity. But every action indicates otherwise.
There has never been another administration so compelled to speak words that are directly refuted by their actions. Never. Among less polite circles, such persons are known as dirty lying scoundrels who can not be trusted. They will hug you with a smile (the smile is for the cameras) while they plant the knife firmly in your back.
With friends such as these, who would need enemies?
The Left keeps telling us that Obama Knows Best. How does a thug and criminal know best?
The rule with Barry Hussein O. seems to be that if you are a traditional ally of America, you get thrown under the bus or insulted, but if you are an enemy, you get warm fuzzies, sympathy or, in Iran’s case, a vigorous but regretful finger-shaking.
Not surprising, considering that, as far as I know, this is the first American President who doesn’t even like his own country or countrymen very much.
Greetings:
When I was in Catholic grammar school, I was a “year ahead” academically which resulted in me being one of the smaller guys in our class. I had difficult relationship with one of the other guys in my class who was a bit of a bully. He kind of punked me out a couple times so I went to my father for some advice and/or help. He asked me if I ever saw the guy actually fight to which I replied no. My father then said that maybe it was time for me “to take a run at him”.
I think that this is a parallel to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s situation. It seems to me that his choice is between being President Obama’s Middle East whipping boy or giving our President something surprising to think about.
Bibi Netanyahu is a man; and a man who has been tried in the fire….I’m guessing that he is going to know how to handle a schoolyard bully from Chicago….a boy who has never been punched in the face in his life, because he always had someone a bit bigger to protect him.
Pass the popcorn.
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1930′s all over again and … again, Kapos are among us ….
May as well be realistic and deal with it, one Kapo at the time.