Of course, everyone’s perspective is clouded by their own personal beliefs and it should also come as no surprise that the poll found Israelis and Palestinians view the President somewhat differently. Indeed, while 40 percent of Israelis believe Obama’s policies are instead supportive of the Palestinians, 64 percent of Palestinians feel Obama's policies support Israel.
But reading between the lines, it is a stunning turnaround for an American president to be viewed as anything but overwhelmingly pro-Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and our strongest ally in the region. The fact that a sizeable percent of the Palestinians do not find the U.S. President’s policies as pro-Israel is quite stunning evidence that things have changed in US-Middle East policies.
Many in the pro-Israel community allowed themselves to be comforted by the presence of Rahm Emanuel in the Obama White House. With his ties to Israel, it seemed that Israel would have a supportive voice in the president’s ear. Instead, it now looks as if Emanuel is window dressing, a symbol without any meaning behind it.
Obama has been quite clear in where he stands on Israel – and it is not by her side. As Allen Dershowitz wrote last week, “Many American supporters of Israel who voted for Barack Obama now suspect they may have been victims of a bait and switch.” The Obama administration has been particularly week in two areas: its apporach to Iran and its efforts to develop nuclear weapons and its apparent softening on negotiations with Hezbollah and Hamas.
A nuclear-armed Iran would be one of the greatest threats to Israel’s security. In the past, the Obama administration had suggested linking effort to negotiate an end to their nuclear program to discussions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Nothing should be a precursor to efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons – we cannot be weak on that issue.
Similarly the Obama administration’s counterterrorism expert, John Brennan, has recently suggested we engage in negotiations with Hezbollah and Hamas, stating that within these organizations are non-terrorist factions with which we can talk. Brennan said, of Hezbollah, in an interview on TheNation.com:
“Hezbollah started out as purely a terrorist organization back in the early ’80s and has evolved significantly over time. And now it has members of parliament, in the cabinet; there are lawyers, doctors, others who are part of the Hezbollah organization.
“However, within Hezbollah, there’s still a terrorist core. And hopefully those elements within the Shia community in Lebanon and within Hezbollah at large – they’re going to continue to look at that extremist terrorist core as being something that is anathema to what, in fact, they’re trying to accomplish in terms of their aspirations about being part of the political process in Lebanon. And so, quite frankly, I’m pleased to see that a lot of Hezbollah individuals are in fact renouncing that type of terrorism and violence and are trying to participate in the political process in a very legitimate fashion.”
He went on to say that Hamas was, also, an organization with both terrorist and political dimensions to them. What a careful way to dance around Hamas’ true nature and intentions.
It is pretty clear why Israelis would fear a lessening in support for their country from its heretofor biggest supporter. This is a dangerous direction for us to go in. If our friends cannot count on our support, can we count on having any friends in the future?
No comments:
Post a Comment