Posted on 03/10/2012 8:33:06 PM PST by Ooh-Ah
When the President of the United States repeatedly says hes got your back, and in precisely those words, what more can you ask for?
Yet as I read Obamas interview with Jeff Goldberg in The Atlantic, then his speech to the AIPAC convention, and finally reports of his meeting with Netanyahu, I felt increasingly uneasy. True, Obama went farther than he ever has in reassuring Israel of his commitment to stopping a nuclear Iran. He explicitly mentioned the military option. He upheld Israels right to defend itself. He articulated the reasons why a nuclear Iran would be disastrousfrom an accelerated nuclear arms race in the Middle East to the threat of a nuclear suitcase in the hands of terrorists. He affirmed, in other words, what we in Israel have been warning about for years.
Why, then, the unease? Because Obama wasnt speaking primarily to Iran but to Israel. Even when he seemed to be warning Tehran, he was really warning Jerusalem. His goal these last days hasnt been so much to deter them but us. The headlines got it right: Cool down the war talk. Give sanctionsand diplomacya chance.
If this were, say, two years ago, that would be a reasonable request. But it has taken Obama the better part of his first term to finally put in place serious sanctionsand at this late date, the sanctions may still not be strong enough to work. Speaking to AIPAC, Netanyahu implicitly responded to Obama: We gave diplomacy a chance for a decade, and sanctions for the last six years. If youre asking for more timewhen we are now looking at Iran achieving nuclear capacity in months rather than yearsthe sanctions had better be tougher.
Writing in The New York Times on Friday, Emanuele Ottolenghi of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies suggested one scenario for effective sanctions: a complete United Nations-imposed oil embargo enforced by a naval blockade, as well as total diplomatic isolation. And, he added, the West must unambiguously warn Iran that it is willing to inflict devastating harm.
Obamas main argument for why Israel and its American friends should trust him on Iran is because he has been Israels most dependable ally all along. Look at my record, hes argued. I believe Obama is a friendbut a problematic friend. True, security cooperation with Israel has been excellent, which is at least partly a result of George W. Bushs agreement with Israel to enhance military cooperation over this decade though Obama went farther than Bush in one crucial respect, providing Israel with bunker busters, which Bush withheld.
Still, in recalling his record, Obama omitted some crucial details. Israelis still recall with disbelief how Obama refused to honor Bushs written commitment to Ariel Sharonthat the U.S. would support settlement blocs being incorporated into Israel proper. And never has an American president treated an Israeli prime minister with such shabbiness as Obama has treated Netanyahu. Indeed one gets the impression that of all the worlds leaders, Obama most detests the prime minister of Israel.
Consider how Obama squandered Netanyahus ten-month settlement freeze. Rather than pressing the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table, Obama provoked an ugly public fight with Netanyahu over building in a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The message conveyed to the international public by that and other humiliations was that the special relationship was fraying.
Obamas resolve on Israel often comes too late, an attempt to compensate for his own clumsiness. Like his speech defending Israel to the U.N. General Assembly last September. It was a powerful speechI wrote about it enthusiastically in TNR at the time. But in retrospect the speech was irrelevant. Except for the Jews, no one seemed to be listening. In the Arab world the speech was dismissed as electioneering. The missed moment was as much a part of the story as the speech itself. That was the speech Obama should have delivered in Cairo in 2009, when he had the attention of the Muslim world. Instead, he squandered a historic opportunity to affirm Israels legitimacy, and by the time he did deliver the right speech, it was too late.
All too often that defines Obamas relationship to Israel. He finally says the right thing and it no longer matters. Because the context is wrong. Or the timing. Or because he seems to be addressing one audience while in fact addressing anotherlike seeming to talk tough to Iran while in fact trying to restrain Israel.
Nor does Obamas record in the Middle East more broadly reassure Israelis. Perhaps the worst moment of his presidency was turning his back on the Iranian anti-government demonstrators in 2009, who chanted Obama, are you with us or with the regime? Obamas silence was a historic missed opportunity. So is his current inaction on Syria, Irans most important ally. There appears to be no strategic coherence in his Middle East policy. Why, for example, help bring down Qaddafi, as odious as he was, after he had abandoned his nuclear program and his support of terrorismwhile allowing Assad a free hand?
Instead of the increasingly harsh warnings weve been hearing from Washington in recent weeks against a preemptive Israeli strike, we are now being overwhelmed with reassurance. In fact that has been the pattern in Obamas relationship to Israel all along: first abuse, then flowers.
Even with all the current goodwill, there was a nasty undertone to Obamas message. It was this: I believe in a peaceful resolution to the Iranian crisis, while you Israelis are pushing for war.
Those who opposed sanctions in the past and now accuse Israel of war-mongering share at least some of the blame for the current crisis. Since 1993, when Yitzhak Rabin first defined the Iranian nuclear threat as the ultimate existential challenge facing Israel, successive Israeli governments, along with pro-Israel American Jews, have advocated sanctions as the way to avert a choice between preemptive strike and a nuclear Iran. It took five years before the Clinton administration accepted Israels assessment that the goal of Irans nuclear program was a bomb; and it took Europe a few years longer. And then it took nearly a decade before the international community adopted the Israeli position of real sanctions. Even at this late date, that remains the Israeli position: Only devastating sanctions can break the regimes determination to produce a bomb. When Obama complains that war talk has forced up oil prices, what are Israelis to conclude except that he will not push sanctions to the limit?
For me to trust Obama on Israels ultimate security threat, I need him to speak directly to Iran, not to American Jews and the Israeli public. I need to know that he is as committed to a military solution as he is to a diplomatic solution, if the first option fails. I need to know what his red line is for determining when diplomacy has exhausted itself. Most of all, I need to know whether he is prepared to live with Iranian nuclear capability, just short of developing a bomba position he hinted at in his AIPAC speech, when he repeatedly spoke of opposing Iranian nuclear weapons, rather than the capability to produce those weapons.
Mr. President, Im not reassured. On this one I need to watch my own back.
Yossi Klein Halevi is a contributing editor for The New Republic and a fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Obama has Israel’s back......and he is pointing an AK 47 at it......
Maybe he said, I’ll stab you in the back. Did anyone listen really, really carefully? Sometimes that phony accent-thing he does throws people off.
Hi Stephen,
nice to see you are out again....
food for thought from a previous posting...
Bush and Cheney were aware.
I think the problem was that the muslim world had already mobilized to demonize them and already had Obama in position to take the office. Demonization/confusion/shake Americas foundations... and it WAS overwhelming. Globally. The muslim voice spoke.
When 9/11 occurred, I think Bush wanted to hammer Islam... but was read the riot act by them of the ramifications so he sought a different program, surround Iran, the root. Not a bad compromise.
Now, Iran enjoys the cover of their man in OUR White House and those pre thought efforts are seemingly off the table..
Now we have the exact converse, Obama using America to further Islam. Look at his MB and the north Africa Caliphate. Moamar Ghadaffi? What crap!
And yes, they are encapsulating Israel.
Once Israel goes, so does western man and in the meanwhile Obama is doing everything to screw the hub, America.
We are under attack by our own White House!
Even when he seemed to be warning Tehran, he was really warning Jerusalem. His goal these last days hasn't been so much to deter them but us. The headlines got it right: Cool down the war talk. Give sanctions -- and diplomacy -- a chance. If this were, say, two years ago, that would be a reasonable request.
“Once Israel goes, so does western man and in the meanwhile Obama is doing everything to screw the hub, America.
We are under attack by our own White House! “
That is precisely the way I see it.
Is it down to just you and me?
Sometimes it DOES seem like it : )
Thats okay. We’ll carry their load.
Obama is absolutely disastrous and so is Hillary regarding foreign policy.
With the Middle East in such turmoil... the last thing we need is an apologist and a spineless elitist.
This @#%$ got real. It needs to be dealt with.
All of Obama’s tough talk is political rhetoric. There is no way he will risk his reelection with a shooting war with a well armed Iran in the narrow confines of the Persian Gulf. Israel is on its own.
Fair enough
“he aint” no elitist.
Add in the Bell, the Farrakhans and his other racist MB pals
and stack it...
for the unknowing, uneducated ,blind, disbelieving, totally ignorant and ...
Obama is a Muslim wanabe or Wahabe.
As time goes on the evidence of this administration and Obamas sympathies are adding up.
If it looks like a duck quacks like a duck.
The term Al-Takeyya means:
Within Islam there are certain provisions under which lying and deceiving is not simply tolerated, but actually encouraged.
http://pc540.blogspot.com/2005/06/does-islam-teach-that-its-ok-to-lie-in.html
Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers; if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah, except by way of prevention that ye may guard yourselves from them. But Allah cautions you to remember Himself for the final goal is to Allah. - Quran - Surah 3:28
Obamas sympathies for Islam mounts
One of the prettiest sounds on earth is the Muslim call to prayer at sunset.
Barack Hussein Obama as quoted by Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times - March 6, 2007
http://jewagainstobama.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/obama-muslim-call-to-prayer-one-of-the-prettiest-sounds-on-earth/
http://caosblog.com/archives/7373
The FIRST thing Obama did as a newly elected Illinois State Senator was to attempt to declare a Muslim holiday. Obama sponsored Bill SR0110 in the 90th General Assembly to declare November 1, 1997 to be Islamic Community Center Day. It did not pass.
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/legisnet90/summary/900SR0110.html
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/legisnet90/srgroups/sr/900SR0110LV.html
His biological father was a Muslim.
http://www.bing.com/reference/semhtml/?title=Barack_Obama%2C_Sr.&src=abop&qpvt=barack+obama+seniot&q=barack+obama+senior&fwd=1
Because his biological father was a Muslim the Islam world thinks he is a Muslim.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2010/08/obama_is_a_muslim_18_24_or.html?hpid=topnews
http://www.indonesiamatters.com/2952/barry-soetoro/
His stepfather was a Muslim.
http://www.indonesiamatters.com/2952/barry-soetoro/
As a child Barry was enrolled in school as a Muslim in Jakarta Indonesia. An Indonesian Madrasa.
Barack Hussein Obamas first and middle names are Arabic Muslim names.
Barack was the name for Mohammads horse. Husein, enough said.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700246419/Barack-Muhammads-horse.html
http://sanooaung.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/will-be-obama-with-us-muslims-as-the-meaning-of-his-name-in-persian-language/
Obama recited the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer, which includes a vow of fidelity to Islam, in flawless Arabic on a radio program. - Nikolos Kristoff, NYTs, 3-06-07 (***this one is a gottcha moment***)
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.3413/pub_detail.asp
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/11679
On that same program he said he thinks the call to prayer is one of the prettiest sounds on earth.
http://jewagainstobama.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/obama-muslim-call-to-prayer-one-of-the-prettiest-sounds-on-earth/
http://caosblog.com/archives/7373
Obama belonged to Rev. Wrights (a former Muslim) church for twenty years. Many congregants are Muslims.
http://infidelsarecool.com/2008/04/07/jeremiah-wright-former-muslim/
http://infidelsarecool.com/2008/03/20/rev-wright-got-his-masters-degree-in-islam-in-west-africa/
http://endtimes.yuku.com/forum/viewtopic/id/289
Obamas said that the U.S. is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/9959057/Barack_Hussein_Obama_US_one_of_the_largest_Muslim_countries_in_the_world/
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/06/obama_america_one_of_the_large_1.asp
Obama holds Muslim celebrations in the WH but canceled the National Day of Prayer.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1724544/obama_cancels_national_day_of_prayer.html?cat=9
http://www.exposeobama.com/
President Obamas religious adviser, Eboo Patel, once deemed the United States the ideal place for the renewal of Islam.
Obama does not give gifts on Christmas.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/12035.html
Obama doesnt celebrate his birthday.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/a-tough-birthday-for-obama/
Obama falsely attributes Muslim participation in the founding of America.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.7041/pub_detail.asp
Obama required that the cross be covered when he gave a speech at Notre Dame.
http://blog.acton.org/archives/9843-notre-dame-georgetown-and-president-obama.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/11/opinion/main5006203.shtml
http://dougpowers.com/2009/04/17/obamas-jesus-coverup/
Christian symbol covered up during Obamas Georgetown speech
http://myfaithspace.ning.com/profiles/blogs/obama-covers-christ-and-cross
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=46667
Obamas first major speech in office was a Muslim outreach speech in Cairo Egypt.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-Cairo-University-6-04-09/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8083171.stm
The American President told me in confidence that he is a Muslim, said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Nile TV.
http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/bombshell-egyptian-foreign-minister-ahmed-aboul-gheit-says-on-egyptian-tv-%e2%80%9cthe-american-president-told-me-in-confidence-that-he-is-still-a-muslim-%e2%80%9d/
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=166905
Obama gave strong support to the Cordoba House community center and mosque to be built at the Ground Zero site of Sep. 11, 2001 at a dinner celebrating the days end of the first day of Ramadan at the WH.
http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/president-obama-supports-ground-zero-mosque/19593492?ncid=webmail
Obama tasked NASA with a mission of Muslim outreach.
http://technology.newsplurk.com/2010/07/nasa-and-islam.html
Obama referred to his faith as my Muslim faith gaffe in an interview with George Stephanopolous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqIpdBOg6I
Pushes Islamic freedom of religion but not Jewish or Christian freedoms. Several weeks ago he told Israel NOT to build settlements in East Jerusalem. But OK to build that Mosque at Ground Zero.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7514285/Israel-spits-in-Obamas-eye-by-announcing-new-settlements-in-east-Jerusalem.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/24/barack-obama-israel-settlement-plan
” With the Middle East in such turmoil... the last thing we need is an apologist and a spineless elitist.”
Well......that’s the last thing we GOT!
Now, to get rid of him......
Give him some credit — he’s doing exactly what he said he would do, and brought in exactly the right personnel to get it done. ;’) Putting Hitlery in as SoS was a brilliant move to co-opt any near-future Sarah Palin candidacy.
I want a neo-Reagan...
...and if nothing is done... I think we will see the end times.
I have never seen all of these posted at the same time before. You should start a thread on this.
I am very much afraid you are right my FRiend. Now
What do we do about it?
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