From Carolyn Glick, who was never fooled by the Obama administration:
If the Palestinians follow through with their threat to renew their terror war against Israel it will be quite bad. This is so not because Israel will be unable to defend itself. Israel has the means to defend itself. It will be quite bad because, in light of the hostile treatment Israel is suffering at the hands of the Obama administration, and given the central role the U.S. under Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton is playing in arming and training the Palestinian army that will likely be attacking Israeli targets in Judea and Samaria, the U.S. may well side with the Arabs against Israel. The administration is already placing limitations on arms sales to Israel. In this event, Israel will have to move quickly to find other suppliers.
It is unlikely today that Arab states will go to war with Israel, although that could change quickly if Iran acquires nuclear weapons. In that event, the Iranians will be in a position to blackmail Arab states like Egypt and Jordan into abrogating their peace treaties with Israel and opening hostilities against it. Iran would accomplish this task by threatening to overthrow the Mubarak regime and the Hashemite Kingdom. It is this specter — along with the specter of nuclear attack and chronic terror violence conducted under Iran’s nuclear umbrella — that makes it essential for Israel to move quickly to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
LOPEZ: How nervous is Israel about Ahmadinejad’s “reelection”?
GLICK: In a round about sort of way, Ahmadinejad’s “reelection” empowers Israel to take the necessary action. By stealing the election, Ahmadinejad now stands in open opposition to the Iranian people. This decreases the likelihood that the public will rally around the regime in the event of an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear installations.
Ahmadinejad’s open hatred of the U.S. and his humiliation of the Obama administration will similarly make it more difficult politically for the administration to prevent Israel from striking Iran. If before the Iranian elections it was easy to see the administration signing on to U.N. Security Council sanctions against Israel in the event of an Israeli strike against Iran, or even shooting down Israeli aircraft en route to Iran, in their aftermath, such prospects seem more unlikely.
Emphasis mine. I wish that it were unthinkable, but it’s not.
Exactly what “hostile treatment” is Israel receiving at the hands of the Obama administration?
Jim means besides Obama going to Arab countries on a diplomatic tour of the area, that doesn’t include Israel, just after he demands Israel accept a 2 state solution. The other hostile treatment…
Jim,
You weren’t paying attention when the Cairo Speech was analyzed, were you?
Obamas gotten:
– terrorists talking about him being much less threatening then Bush
– Iran flaming about steping up their weapons programs and agressive plans – and really steping up their retoric and open support of extream possitions against the west,
– North Korea (who sold nuclear bomb manufacturing gear to Syria before Isreal shot it up) proclaiming their ramping up of their nuclear weapons program
I keep thinking of all the folks who were sure if Obama was friendly to enemies around the world (unlike “confrontational Bush), they would relax and be friendly.
Machiavelli said it is better to be feared then to be loved.
I didn’t realize that the US military is actively arming and training the Palestinians. If I was Bibi, I’d be setting a date for the move on Iran.
If I was Bibi, I’d be setting a date for the move on Iran.
I’m pretty sure he is.
A quick google on General Dayton tells me he’s been working in the West Bank since 2005, supposedly training Palestinian security forces. (His official title is “U.S. Security coordinator, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”) Somehow I doubt he’s going to lead his handful of battalions of light infantry into the teeth of Israeli artillery, tanks and air.
Can someone remind me why Israel has an obligation to ship food and provide jobs to a nation whose elected leaders cannot agree that Israel has a right to exist? Israel should finish that wall and just go for a 100% embargo until someone cries uncle.
So going to Muslim countries and giving a speech telling them that we aren’t their enemy is hostility to Israel, and just short of siding with Arab countries in an Arab-Israeli war? Talk about excitable!
The toughest thing that Obama has done with regard to Israel is to insist on an end to settlement growth. Growing settlements don’t make Israel safer, and they undermine any negotiations towards a two state solution.
I’ll believe that Obama is hostile to Israel when he cuts off all aid. That hasn’t happened, and isn’t going to.
I’ll believe that Obama is hostile to Israel when he cuts off all aid.
You have a pretty high bar. The Israelis, like Carolyn Glick, know better.
You have a pretty high bar.
So giving billions to Israel is consistent with hostility? Are we working from the same dictionary?
“So giving billions to Israel is consistent with hostility?”
And how many billions have we spent on the Arabs? We developed their oil fields. We gave them the intellectual knowledge and machinery to exploit resources that they were doing absolutely nothing with. We sacrificed our productive energy to their gov’t as a nationalist measure of good faith and good will. They piss on that good will and look for every opportunity to spit in our face when it proves advantageous to their own ends. We even continue to help manage those resources for the support of our own continual economic endeavors. We certainly can’t rely upon the Arabs to effectively cooperate because they continually show us their insistence on being barbarous brutes. Their mullahs and sheiks horde riches beyond belief all for themselves and let their people suffer in squalor. When the Arab people cry out that things are not fair and they no longer want to be oppressed they are carried away in the night, never to be seen again. Just another corpse to fill a spot in some nameless mass grave. The arab people’s only recourse is to blame the U.S for all this mess. That is their only out, the only thing to which they can safely pin their frustrations. We should just at the very least threaten to do more of the same that we did in Iraq. We have Afghanistan, we have Iraq, and Iran is in disarray caught in a classic pincher move. Move forces along the border, call for fair elections, and demand honest poll results. Talk soft, carry big stick, and all that.