You don’t need to be an expert in Israeli politics to understand that Israeli voters don’t like it when their leaders fight with an American president.
That’s nothing new, and it’s not new in the age of Obama.
That’s the context in which you need to understand Obama making it known, on the eve of the Israeli election, that he intends to continue the contentious relationship with Bibi Netanyahu.
The message was delivered via Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama: ‘Israel Doesn’t Know What Its Own Best Interests Are’. There’s so much wrong in Goldberg’s narrative it’s hard to know where to begin, but note the message is one of Israel as the problem, Obama as the victim, and future loss of American support including in the U.N. as the remedy:
Shortly after the United Nations General Assembly voted in late November to upgrade the status of the Palestinians, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it would advance plans to establish a settlement in an area of the West Bank known as E-1, and that it would build 3,000 additional housing units in east Jerusalem and the West Bank….
When informed about the Israeli decision, Obama, who has a famously contentious relationship with the prime minister, didn’t even bother getting angry. He told several people that this sort of behavior on Netanyahu’s part is what he has come to expect, and he suggested that he has become inured to what he sees as self-defeating policies of his Israeli counterpart.
In the weeks after the UN vote, Obama said privately and repeatedly, “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.” With each new settlement announcement, in Obama’s view, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation….
And if Israel, a small state in an inhospitable region, becomes more of a pariah — one that alienates even the affections of the U.S., its last steadfast friend — it won’t survive. Iran poses a short-term threat to Israel’s survival; Israel’s own behavior poses a long-term one.
The dysfunctional relationship between Netanyahu and Obama is poised to enter a new phase. Next week, Israeli voters will probably return Netanyahu to power, this time at the head of a coalition even more intractably right-wing than the one he currently leads….
But it is in terms of American diplomatic protection — among the Europeans and especially at the UN — that Israel may one day soon notice a significant shift.
Arguing that the “E-1” issue is a canard is besides the point. Going on about non-stop anti-Semitic incitement (including by the new Muslim Brotherhood President of Egypt) and the likelihood of Iran turning the West Bank into Gaza all falls on deaf ears.
Israel is the problem in the eyes of the Obama administration, the United Nations, and much of the media. That message of Israel as the primary problem is carried forward even by pro-Israel writers such as Goldberg.
In the face of a near-global desire to see Israel eliminated, a rise of Islamism all around it, and an intractable hater of the Jews as President of Egypt (Roger Cohen must be so proud), Israel wanting to build in tiny areas meant to secure its future is deemed the main impediment to a “just and lasting peace.” The latest Morsi statement revealed:
“Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them. They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue.”
Obama’s problem with Israel is that Israel doesn’t accept a return to the indefensible pre-1967 borders. Obama signaled that policy difference long ago, and it is part of the solution he seeks to impose on Israel, as David Horovitz of the Times of Israel points out:
Broadly speaking, Obama’s course is set. He has nobody and nothing but his own worldview to answer to. And he reckons it has served him pretty well thus far. This week’s suggestions that Obama is convinced he understands far better than Netanyahu where Israel’s interests lie are nothing new; he has always been convinced he understands far better than Netanyahu where Israel’s interests lie — and that few of them are to be found beyond the pre-1967 lines.
The truth is It’s never been about the 1967 borders.
View Goldberg’s “scoop” in the context of Obama sending a message to Israeli voters. The nomination of Chuck Hagel was another message to Israel.
Whether there is a cause and effect is hard to say, but Netanyahu’s coalition is slipping in the latest polling:
Polls released Friday, the last date permitted by election law for publishing pre-election surveys, give the right wing-Orthodox bloc just 63 seats, the narrowest lead it’s held throughout the entire campaign season.
According to both Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz, the joint Likud-Beytenu list is predicted to win 32 seats, 10 fewer than the two parties hold in the current Knesset and the lowest the list has polled since announcing the union in October.
Given the stretch by which writers such as Goldberg suggest that Netanyahu interfered in the U.S. election, I wonder if Obama will be called out in kind.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Gobsmacking.
Way to go, American Jews who supported this “president”!
Our world will be MORE dangerous as a result, and Israel LESS survivable.
Agreed.
With so many existential problems facing America upon obama’s re-election, I find myself wondering why I should continue to expend energy and resources supporting israel when American Jews, overall, don’t.
This sort of goes to a bone of contention I’ve had with some here.
You do what is right because it is right. (See the period?)
I understand. Nevertheless, I don’t have unlimited time, energy, or resources, so I have to have some priorities. Thus, my original comment.
With so many existential problems facing America upon obama’s re-election, I find myself wondering why I should continue to expend energy and resources supporting israel when American Jews, overall, don’t.
Because Israel is an outpost of civilization.
In terms of stark realpolitik, if we help the wolves devour Israel, those wolves will eat us sooner.
(A leftist view is that Islamism is a “phase” en route to group-hugging multiculturalism and those wolves will morph into snugglebunnies, unless we ruin everything by hurting their feelings.)
A consideration opposite from realpolitik is that the Holocaust solidified the Jewish people’s moral claim to a homeland.
To paraphrase a Jewish friend who combined the moral and pragmatic cases, We barely made it to Israel from out of the ovens, and the Arabs tried to drive us into the sea. They made it all or nothing. We took the land, they lost it, and we’re keeping it. For a change, let somebody else do the moral hairsplitting.
I agree with my friend. An existential penalty is fair payback for an existential attack.
Bill Clinton had it right: Barack Obama has the instincts of a thug. I don’t think anybody in Israel picked this fight, and with BO, it’s fight or get rolled.
That’s why Bibi Netanyahu makes videos with messages directly to the American people.
Obama’s Islamofascist thuggery compared with Billary’s homegrown US style thuggery is like taking a knife to a gunfight…or like a fight between a Revolutionary War Frigate and a modern Battleship.
Still, progressivism is progressivism and Hillary joined the Obama thug adminstration to help spread the progressive toxicity globally.
Though I am pro-Israel, I just discovered my comments were deleted on the most recent Israel post here and on a recent thread at the Jerusalem Post.
Therefore, I am left wondering what was objectionable in what I wrote and no longer feel free to comment about this topic.
“In the weeks after the UN vote, Obama said privately and repeatedly, ‘Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.'”
I hate this condescending BS from liberals. Liberals do not know where veryone’s best interests lie. Individuals know what is in their own best interest.
1. This week’s suggestions that Obama is convinced he understands far better than Netanyahu where Israel’s interests lie are nothing new…
Obama: I Can Do Every Job Better Than Those I Hire to Do It.
2. If Obama gets Israel gravely wounded or worse, a pro-Israel liberal Jewish friend of mine will be emotionally devastated. What I’d be inclined to say to him in that event would probably end the friendship.
Say on. It might help your friend develop a sense of self preservation.
Polls say 50% of Americans approve of the job Obama is doing. It’s really not that he is so likable because he isn’t nor is it because of his brilliant policies because they are not. What Obama has going for him, besides the perks and power available to a sitting president, is the outright lies and cover-ups provided by the main stream media. Most people in the USA still use them as their main news source and even though they will acknowledge that they don’t trust them completely, they are totally unaware and unbelieving as to the extent of the deceptions and brain washing they are subjected to.
The same “tricks” are being used on the Israeli public by the Liberal Press and the fear of being totally isolated from the whole world could be devastating to Netanyahu’s re-election chances.
Unless we find a way to neutralize the Liberal Media and help people realize the extent of the danger we are really facing, Obama’s amazing string of political successes will continue to the detriment of freedom, life, and liberty everywhere.
As a Protestant Christan and strong defender of Israel I am greatly offended by the over-educated Jewish “elite” in this country who lack the moral fiber to stand up for Israel. These people are just like the German Jews in the 1930’s who thought Hitler was not “their” problem because they were good Germans also.
They were exterminated along with the other “German problems”.
James Douglass
Garden City, Kansas
Well, Jim, as a fellow Christian and firm defender of Israel, I reason it out like this: some Jews have a death wish. God promised He would leave a remnant. Therefore, it is quite unlikely that those with no sense of self-preservation will be amongst the remnant. So, what those Democrat lemmings do doesn’t bother me at all. Besides, one could argue quite convincingly, and win, that Christianity is just another sect of Judaism with this result: Wow! Israel has almost a billion defenders! The rest who won’t defend Israel will share in the fate of the Jewish Democrat lemmings. So, why be upset?
This author, Goldberg, seems to be willing delivering a threat to the Israeli people, Chicago style. We in the States see it readily, as it has become so common to us. Hopefully the voters in Israel see it, too.
Obama is working behindthescenes to get these small coaliton paries in Netanyahus govt to withdraw. Partic after the election with fewer seats in bibis coalition. then to get the max in embarassmnet ,right after theelection they leave and the Israel govt falls.
Then Israel can be served up on a platter by the lefties there and here. Imo, of course…
Just as the US Supreme court was hit with a din of criticism topped off by the killing of a federal judge, so too has Netanyahu been subjct to a din of criticism. I presume there is nothing in the mossad files on Obie tho
Hopefully, there are laws that would keep the left from doing to Netanyhu what they did to Sarah Palin in Alaska…a constant stream of accusations, a multitude of costly legal attacks…death by a thousand baseless lawsuits and innuendoes.
Any substantive unprovoked attack on Israel will bring war. While the Us has historically been Israel’s strongest ally, we are by no means its onl ally, and so, this war will bring military from outside the region, for at least the reason of securing the Middle East’s oil supplies to the west. In other words, a substantive unprovoked attack on Israel has the potential to start World War III, especially if the US comes to her defense.
Obama ought to support Israel based on our historic alliance and because it’s the right thing to do, but even if he refuses to accept these reasons, he ought to support Israel if only to prevent a substantial attack on Israel that could lead to a far larger war and a disruption of indispensible oil shipments from the area.
I do not think it coincidental that both Obama and the Palestinian Authority practice, as their respective political baseline, flat refusals to compromise on anything. There is no compromise with Israel the PA will accept; it is capitulate to PA demands or suffer the consequences.
Sounds familiar to the American conservative, doesn’t it?
“[Obama] has always been convinced he understands far better than Netanyahu where Israel’s interests lie”
And he’s always been convinced he understands far better than Americans where their interests lie.
Given the stretch by which writers such as Goldberg suggest that Netanyahu interfered in the U.S. election, I wonder if Obama will be called out in kind.
I don’t.
“And if Israel, a small state in an inhospitable region, becomes more of a pariah — one that alienates even the affections of the U.S., its last steadfast friend — it won’t survive.”
—What?? By “U.S.” is he referring to the arrogant, anti-Israel Obama administration, or the majority of millions of Americans who completely support Israel?
“… last steadfast friend…”?
He’s forgetting the Czech Republic. The leadership in the Czech Republic seems to have easily surpassed that of the U.S. as Israel’s most steadfast friend at this point.
So what if the Czech Republic is a tiny country. They’re right.
Baruk Hashem Israel is forever!
Bibi has studied so much of the Tanakh that he has become a true believer in the power of the G-d of Israel. If you read the history of Israel, you would see that Jews do not just believe in miracles, they depend upon them. The miracles of Israel are in your Bibles, yo.
Prophets of old have said that Israel would become a burdensome stone to all the nations. However, if you read Ezekiel (Bibi keeps repeating this publicly) you will see what happens to the enemies of Israel. Ever heard of Sodom and Gomorrah, the site was nuked before there were nukes and has never again existed. That is what will happen again to the enemies of Israel. Time to wean the Israelis off of Obama, cause he is not G-d.
Canada’s PM Harper has said the Canucks will stand with Israel no matter what.
On January 22, 2013 the U.S. will give 20 planes and 200 tanks( our finest most advanced weaponry) to the radical Islamists government of Morsi’s Egypt. What do you think that YHWH will think of that? What judgment will He mete out for that? Israel is safe under the wings of the Almighty(Psalms 91) but where will Americans be?
Let not your heart be troubled about those planes, my friend. The ones to whom they are sold are not fond of maintenance. The Almighty just needs to blow up a little wind, and the sand will take care of the rest.