Accusing Israel of indirectly killing American soldiers is the newest and most pernicious argument of the anti-Israeli left, traditional Arabists in government, and now, the Executive Branch of the United States government.
As detailed here before, the argument goes that because the people who kill American soldiers hate Israel, Israel is the cause of the killing.
As reported by the New York Times today, this argument now is rolling off the lips of Obama himself:
When Mr. Obama declared that resolving the long-running Middle East dispute was a “vital national security interest of the United States,” he was highlighting a change that has resulted from a lengthy debate among his top officials over how best to balance support for Israel against other American interests….
Mr. Obama said conflicts like the one in the Middle East ended up “costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure” — drawing an explicit link between the Israeli-Palestinian strife and the safety of American soldiers as they battle Islamic extremism and terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
There is no logic to such argument. The people who kill American soldiers also hate us, regardless of what Israel does or does not do.
The people who kill American soldiers, depending upon which group it is, also object to the presence of American soldiers in Muslim lands such as Saudi Arabia, to the occupation of Andalusia by Christians Spaniards, to the publishing of cartoons in Denmark, to the lack of Sharia law in Europe, and so on and so on.
Even if Israel retreated to the pre-1967 borders, thus leaving it exposed militarily, the people who hate Israel would not stop hating Israel.
What doesn’t Obama understand when Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, al-Qaeda and others demand the elimination of Israel, when Muslim clerics preach that Jews are the children of monkeys and pigs, when Palestinians in the West Bank celebrate suicide bombers and teach hatred of Jews in their classrooms?
It’s not about where the border is drawn. Only the elimination of Israel will suffice.
So where does appeasement of the haters lead us?
Achieving a “lasting peace” in the Middle East has been a long time goal of U.S. policy, and criticizing Israeli settlements is nothing new. To pursue such policies is not to be “anti-Israel.”
But we are at a whole new level when we seek to blame Israel for the deaths of American soldiers. It is a blood libel, plain and simple.
Our only true friend in the Middle East has become our enemy, the killer of American soldiers by its mere will to survive.
Finding demons is the stock-in-trade of this administration. I called them on it at the beginning of the Obama presidency, Barack Got Enemy.
Whether it is the “rich,” the insurance companies, the “lobbyists,” the “extremist” and “dangerous” Tea Parties, or whomever, there always is an enemy against whom a policy is directed.
Now that enemy is the sole democratic outpost in a sea of intolerance, dictatorships, and Islamic fundamentalism.
None of this is a surprise to those of us who were honest in the run-up to the 2008 election. I saw it coming, based on the people with whom Obama had surrounded himself, and his style of campaigning.
I do not believe that Obama wants to destroy Israel. I do believe that Obama wants to bring Israel down a few notches, end the historic special relationship as he did with Britain, and use Israel as a pawn in Obama’s vainglorious escapade to make people like us.
Some President you elected, American Jewish community.
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Related Posts:
The “Israel Endangers U.S. Troops” Meme Grows
Barack Got Enemy
It’s 3 a.m. and the Prime Minister of Israel is Calling
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