Can’t say I didn’t warn you. The pressure tactics the Obama administration applied to Honduras — such as the refusal to meet with high government officials — now are being applied to Israel:
[I]n Jerusalem, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu called his inner cabinet into its second session on the crisis that same night. The seven ministers were asked to review the situation after President Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton turned down their initial proposals for easing the upset and laid down three pre-conditions for restoring normal relations with Jerusalem:
1. The Netanyahu government must extend the 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction to include East Jerusalem;
2. When the moratorium runs out in September, it must be renewed for the duration of peace negotiations with the Palestinians;
3. Israeli must make more concessions to the Palestinian Authority and its chairman Mahmoud Abbas.The Israeli government was informed that until those conditions were met,its ministers would not be received in Washington by high-level American officials – a virtual boycott, which downgrades the normal diplomatic, strategic and security exchanges between the two administrations to the level of senators and the special Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
As Robert Kagan pointed out in the Washington Post, there is something perverse about the Obama administration’s foreign policy, which treats enemies like friends and friends like enemies.
The administration, which insists it cannot impose its will on others or dictate what others should do, does precisely that — but only with allies.
As the administration is upgrading its ties with Syria — which serves and has served for years as the transit point for terrorists who kill American soldiers — the administration also is floating the pernicious story line that Israeli policies put American soldiers in danger.
My prediction: The “threat to American soldiers” tactic will be used as the excuse to force Israel to change its security and political policies, and maybe even its government, as we ignore the real threat to American soldiers coming from Syria and Iran, and their terrorist proxies.
The American people stood with Honduras in the face of morally and politically bankrupt Obama administration policies.
Given recent polling, which shows that Israel has a higher favorability rating among Americans than Obama, I am hopeful that the American people will stand with Israel in the face of Obama’s misguided Middle East policies.
And as to Hillary Clinton, I say: Ever wonder why Obama gives you the job of beating up our allies?
Update: There is truth to viewing the Obama policy as one of strategic realignment away from Israel long advocated by the traditional Arabists in the State Department and current left-wing academics who populate and influence the current administration, resulting in A Middle East Without American Influence?:
The new catch phrase in the Middle East is strategic realignment. Broadly speaking, this means that the balance of power is shifting from the U.S.-backed regional order to the axis of resistance. Some commentators, like Robert Malley, have argued alongside the Syrians that the Obama administration should drop its old allies—the sick horse—for new friends among the axis of resistance. From a certain perspective, it appears that the White House has done just that, albeit unintentionally.
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Related Posts:
Chicago Comes to Honduras
I Hope Obama Fails In Honduras
Obama Throws Venezuelans Under The Bus
He Who Cannot Stop Talking, Is Silent On Iran
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