Obama’s Israel Ambush Backfires

If President Obama and his administration thought they were in a position to force Israel to make more concessions, they were wrong.

March 19, 2010 - by Moshe Dann
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President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s attack on Israel is failing spectacularly.

Most Israelis — especially those in the center and left — have rallied around Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. Judging by the media — especially television talk shows — Netanyahu’s popularity has soared following the rebuke from Hillary Clinton. Even those who usually berate him have come to his defense. American Jewish leaders and Congress are also pushing back against Clinton’s hysteria and Obama’s stern reprimands.

After all, the issue of sovereignty in Jerusalem, and therefore who sets the rules, is hardly something that Israelis are prepared to consider. Everyone has understood this for forty years. Since Camp David, in 1978, every American president has accepted that Jerusalem is a final status issue. So why would the Obama administration bring it up now?

To then call Jewish neighborhoods — in Jerusalem — “settlements,” to dispute the right of Israel to renovate a synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, to scold Israel for wanting to enforce building codes and demolish illegal Arab buildings built in an historic, archeological park, is beyond appalling. To use Hillary’s word, it’s “humiliating.” And to paraphrase her again, it is a deliberate attempt to humiliate the Jewish people.

Obama’s ambush seems to have been a trap waiting to be enacted. The question everyone is asking: why? Let’s look at the administration’s strategy regarding five policy areas:

Iran: Obama’s policy of using sanctions to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear capability has failed. Israel represents the only military option. Pushing Israel around on minor issues may prevent a surprise attack on Iran.

Afghanistan and Pakistan: Vice President Joe Biden foolishly suggested that Israel’s difficulties with the Palestinians were affecting America’s struggles to the east.

Jerusalem and settlements: Obama and his administration have made it clear that they do not accept an Israeli presence in areas which it acquired in the Six Day War (1967). This is not a new position, nor is it different from that of most countries in the world. But most have refrained from making this an issue, especially because Arab terrorism is still a problem.

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40 Comments to “Obama’s Israel Ambush Backfires”

  1. 1. Terry, Eilat - Israel

    In the meantime, there are many reports that the US has placed an arms embargo on Israel, that for the past year, Israeli requests to purchase military equipment, including bunker buster bombs, have been refused while requests from Arab states amounting to over $10 billion have all been approved. I have no doubt that Obama is setting the stage for a major regional war through incompetence & ideological bias against Israel.

  2. 2. Spinoneone

    Given that Obama sat in the church of the Reverend Wright for 20 years, how can anyone possibly be surprised at Obama’s view of Israel, the Jews, and Zionism? Obama’s education is a mystery to all of us since nothing he ever did at any university has ever been divulged. Judging by what we are seeing now, one may reasonably assume that he never took a course in world history nor studied the Islamic conquest of everything from India to Morocco between 632 and 732. We know for a fact that, as a boy in Indonesia, he studied the Qu’ran and learned at least a part of it by heart. The Arabs probably have a tacit green light from Washington for another war, if they get to it before November 2012.

  3. 3. Pragmatist

    Why all the soul searching about WHY the Obamination is doing this he is a MOHAMMEDAN end of story.

  4. 4. Lauren

    And one more thing – America is full of believing Christians who care about the sanctity of Christian Jerusalem and (rightly) believe that leaving the city under the control of the democratic state of Israel will guarantee protection and preservation to the holy sites of all religions in Jerusalem… whereas handing control over to a gang of violent Islamists, well that could well result in something very different. Witness the ancient synagogues and holy sites of Judaism in places like Egypt and Iran…

  5. 5. Supreme Allied Commander

    Obama is a friend to NO ONE. American or Israeli.

    is he a muslim ? well he was born to a muslim father so yes he is. He could have renounced Islam but I have not seen where he has. So he is most probably still a muslim. That would explain why he is constantly lying to the infidels.

  6. 6. Only know what I read

    Obama’s (and-diarrhea-of-the-mouth/constipation-of-the-brain Joe Biden’s) missteps in foreign policy will have catastrophic results at some point, not only for America, but Israel as well. There will come a day of reckoning. I am quite surprised, given Obama’s (mis)handling of Israeli policy so far, that there are any Jewish people remaining who call themselves Democrats. Spinoneone is onto something (gee, let’s see if we can piece this mystery together) – after hearing an anti-Semitic, anti-American viewpoint for 20+ years, surely some, if not all, of it must have sunk in and taken root. So far, the Obama administration has shown little or no willingness to keep Israel as an ally.

  7. 7. Toronto Girl

    I just hope that my fellow Jews wake up come the next election and change their vote. Unfortunately, the majority that voted for him are liberals first, Jews second and Israel is but a nuisance on the world scene.

  8. 8. Joe

    The facts are that Obama is an incompetent, that he is anti-Israeli and that he is anti-American. For 20 (TWENTY) years he listened to an anti-Semite and an anti-American rail against the two. Somehow, we have to get through the next 3 years until we can elect someone else and then try to undo the damage done to us by the Far Left in this country. Americans feel a great affinity for Israel, many of the Evangelicals probably love Israel more than the liberals Jews in this country.

  9. 9. Jim Rockford

    Once again, Obama shows that he is way in over his head. And as Mark Steyn pointed out “he’s surrounded himself by people who are not up to their jobs.” It is rarely pointed out that our Secretary of State is as poorly qualified as her boss. Obama, Biden, Clinton — how could America let itself be led by these incompetent boobs? It would be funny if it weren’t for the catastrophic damage they are doing.

  10. 10. Tom Tom

    One thing all the world is concerned about but is afraid to state.
    Is Obama the Biblical Antichrist? it would seem so. His favorite teacher Rev Wright from whom it seems obama gets his inspiration from the gates of Hell, hates Christians and Jews with a passion. Obama loves evil, hates good, loves Africa (his homeland) but hates blacks,Obama hates white people loves arabs, and islam.
    ” and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the (spirit) of the antichrist , whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already.”

  11. 11. stella barbut

    Why wait 3 years? If all the millions of Americans who are not Democrats would only join together and demand that Mr. Obama produce his birth certificate, baptismal cerificate, school records and everything that he is going to such extraordinary lengths to hide, will the courts be able to say millions of Americans ‘have no standing?’
    After almost a year the World Net Daily petition has not been able to collect 500,000 signatures. Why do Americans distance themselves from this subject? Are they afraid that they will be the laughing stock of the world if it comes out that they have been taken for the ride of their lives?

  12. 12. JL

    I don’t find it very credible that Obama somehow should be anti semetic. Jews overwhelmingly supported him in the election. Some of his closest asociates are jewish. He has complete support among jewish members of congress. All 30-something jewish members of congress, exept a for few, are all liberal democrats and they all strongly backs Obamas anti military lefty agenda. The only places you can find any kind critique of Obama from jews are on a handfull of conservative blogs. It’s not very credible that he should be anti semetic. It’s more likely that Israel has lost it’s backing among jewish americans. It would be odd endeed if 95% of jews in America were so stupid that they unknowingly supported a pro arab agenda in the middleeast. I don’t buy it. Jews are arguably the most knowledgable, well read, most succesful and highly educated demographic in the country. They know what’s going on and they would not be so self destructive as to give so utterly and complete support to an anti semite.

  13. 13. Jack in Silver Spring

    I hope the 70% of the American Jewish community that voted for St. Barak are just tickled today. Joe at @ #8 is absolutely right: St. Barak is anti-American and anti-Israeli. He seems to want to be a friend to our adversaries and an adversary to our friends.

  14. 14. Dane

    “Afghanistan and Pakistan: Vice President Joe Biden foolishly suggested that Israel’s difficulties with the Palestinians were affecting America’s struggles to the east.”

    You realize that this is something that came directly from General Petraeus’ testimony before Congress? It’s not a foolish suggestion, it’s a fact of life that really should be self-evident.

    It doesn’t mean we should change our policy with respect to Israel, but it’s not wrong.

  15. 15. Oscar the Grump

    The real Obama is about to emerge. Witness the Health Care Bill which about to be enacted without the constitutional vote necessary. It will be challenged in court. If he wins this, it will feed his heady grandeur much like the Rhineland takeover by Hitler fed his ego. Being above the law makes it possible to rule by personal decree and that will be the death of America as we know it. Will he open the flood gates of the USA to a torrent of new Moslem immigrants? I think he will. He will not be happy until America looks and feels like Eurostan. With such an ego and such anti-Semitic advisors as he has, how long will it be until he uses American armed forces to neutralize Israel? His advisors have already offered this scenario.

  16. 16. myth buster

    10. Obama ain’t smart enough to be the Antichrist. The Antichrist won’t be a bumbling idiot who misspeaks every time he goes ad lib. The Antichrist will be able to convince atheists to worship him; Obama has lost his luster.

    Nevertheless, never make the mistake that American Jews as a collective have any love lost for Israel. There shouldn’t even be any Jews in America, or any other place outside of Israel, 62 years after Israel was reborn. Their continued living in exile reeks of apostasy.

  17. 17. Professor Guvinoff

    In the US, Obama’s initiatives have raised a tsunami of public opposition without precedent. His view of the Israeli citizen is just as disconnected from reality as his view of the US citizen. No wonder he has alienated both!

    Presently, the Israeli left supports Benjamin Netanyahu. It already did before Obama undertook the systematic spoiling of the relationship. Now, the Prime Minister support is even wider, and Obama’s standing with the Israeli electorate is down to the low single digit level! This is not a good way to prepare for the plausible need of a joint effort against the tragic ambitions of Teheran’s regime. Can the damage be undone, and how? How did we manage to elect such an inadequate candidate?

  18. Political confusion. When our politicians are not forced by Constitutional limits to act properly, they don’t. The three things I think have made us the greatest nation in the world are the First Amendment, Second Amendment, and Article 1, section 2 http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A1Sec2 where we get to throw out the tax man EVERY two years. How are we molding civilization by sending hundreds of millions of dollars and American blood to regimes that refute those? The Gazans will never stand by us. I wouldn’t want the Egyptians behind me in any battle. The Pakistanis? Sure. Afgans? They dispute the First Amendment in black letter law yet we bleed for them.

  19. 19. steve

    Comments #12 (most Jews support Obama) and #14 (Israel is hurting the American military effort in Afghanistan and Iraq) need to be addressed.

    The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are about who controls Islam. Because Israel is universally hated, all sides find it useful to stoke the fires with it. But America is hated because most Islamists recognize the pull of American culture as the greatest threat to the Islamic way of life.

    Sadly, comment #12 has a point, the majority of American Jews will vote for Obama again regardless of what he does. That is because their most important principle is to fit in and be accepted by those they regard as dominant – which in the northeast, south florida and California – where most Jews live – are the liberal elite. Israel’s principle support today is from broad segments of the American public who may not know everything about the Middle East, but have a sense that those who hate Israel also hate them.

  20. 20. Real Deal

    All I can really say is that I hope the Israeli people know that not all Americans share the views of our Clueless Reader. That many Americans (most of whom aren’t Jews themselves) support Israel and her people.

  21. 21. Eric R.

    The strange thing is that Obama could probably get what he wants in the Middle East if he had the nerve to strike and take out Iran’s nuclear program. (There are questions if Israel can sustain an attack to do it. There is no question about American ability to do it.)

    Then, with that out of the way, he could turn to Netanyahu and say “You owe me. Big time.”

    Israel would (for awhile) be rid of the Iranian nuclear menace, (as would the Gulf States) and Obama could then call in his chits on the Israelis.

    However, Obama is too much of a leftist, a pacifist, and a wuss to do it.

  22. 22. oscar le grouche

    Every administration is in a position to force concessions on Israel. Three billion concessions a year. You’re an idiot.

  23. 23. F. Ghadry

    That was a test run. The real thing is around the corner in the form of letting Syria and Iran build a nuclear device they can threaten US interests and allies with.

  24. 24. Chris in Toronto

    I sure hope F. Ghadry is wrong. Otherwise, things are worse than I thought. And I already think things are bleak.

  25. 25. Nachum

    The United States has diverted a shipment of bunker-busters designated for Israel. Officials said the U.S. military was ordered to divert a shipment of smart bunker-buster bombs from Israel to a military base in Diego Garcia. They said the shipment of 387 smart munitions had been slated to join pre-positioned U.S. military equipment in Israel Air Force bases. “This was a political decision,” an official said. In 2008, the United States approved an Israeli request for bunker-busters capable of destroying underground facilities, including Iranian nuclear weapons sites. Officials said delivery of the weapons was held up by the administration of President Barack Obama. (nachumlist.com)

  26. 26. Ole Sarge

    A child born of a muslim father is a muslim. A muslim can not renounce the muslim religion. If they do then they are subject to be killed by any muslim that runs across them.

  27. 27. tdiinva

    JL:

    Stalin was anti-Semitic and died before he had a chance to put into effect the plan to finish the job his buddy Hitler started yet two of the three survivors from his pre-revolutionary Georgian crowd were Jewish (Lazar Kaganovich and and a friend of mine’s maternal grandfather. Having Jewish friends and political associates does not mean that you are not an anti-Semite especially when your friends are “JINOs” (Jews in name only)

  28. 28. Lak-17a

    I think there is a growing realization that unqualified support for the zionist enterprize has put our country squarely in the terrorist cross hairs. Making israel’s enemies, who are legion, our enemies is crazy and is going to bankrupt us. If you don’t think people in the USA are finally waking up, just have a look at what folks are blogging. In the past, all you would see were a few anti israel comments which would be quickly removed by the moderator. My, how things have changed! Even Gen. Petraeus is recognizing how our relationship with the zionist state is getting our troops killed.

  29. 29. Max

    To Lak-17a number 28:
    I think it’s despicable that Petraeus blames his own failure to get victory on Israel and the Jews. In fact despicable is not even a strong enough word for it, I’m not sure what word is.
    Petraeus just hasn’t been good enough and now he has played the antisemitism card…

  30. 30. Avitar

    Mr. Obama is thee-eighths arab. He should know what happens when Arabs stage a surprize attack ofn Israel.

  31. 31. Terry, Eilat - Israel

    #28 Lak-17a.

    You’re a fool. And, that’s putting it mildly.
    Leaving aside the sheer injustice of Obama’s attack, just a pretext, a manufactured crisis, you have to be a total idiot to believe that Islamic fanatics hate the US only because of US support for Israel. Islam hates everything that is NOT Islam & that includes YOU.

  32. 32. Lak-17a

    To Max no. 29:
    I dearly hope that you and all other israelis and israel firsters continue to make exactly that argument,i. e. Petraeus is an anti semite. I am mightily reassured that the ADL is already headed down that path. America loves its military and loves a winner and you will get no further that the left did when they denounced Petraeus as ” General Betray Us,” in fact, it will be even more damaging for you since Petraeus’ reputation has improved dramatically since then. So keep it up: “Those that the gods would destroy, they first drive mad.”

  33. 33. tdiinva

    Lak-17a:

    Gen Petreaus has fallen for the lip service that Arabs/Muslims give to the Palestinian cause. The first thing that Iraqis did when they overthrew Saddam was to expel the Palestinians. Oppressive Muslim governments use the Palestinian population to divert their own population from their problems. Just look how the Saudis ran to get under the Israeli nuclear umbrella when it appeared that the Obama Administration would allow Iran to get the bomb. The truth is that the entire Muslim world does give a wit about the plight of the Palestinians, a fact reinforced by the lack of interest in actually helping these people advance in the world.

    But I tell you one thing, go ahead and abandon Israel and see where that gets the world. The Israelis will simply solve the problem themselves with their large nuclear arsenal. You anti-Semites seem to forget that little detail. Maybe most America Jews will meekly march into the gas chambers in the name of the progressive cause but Iaraeli Jews won’t be so accommodating.

  34. 34. jb

    The so-called Palestinian Arab has been a pox on the region ever since WWII’s Nazi holocaust created the mood, and world view, that approved of Jews having a piece of their traditional homeland, i.e., the land now known as Israel. The world powers at that time decided that 6+ million Jews marched into the German gas chambers was a big enough price to pay for the Jews. It salved the European guilt to place a conditional stamp of approval on Israeli recognition. That memory of what happened in 1948 is fading fast in Europe.

    Fast forward to present day: Sooner or later the Jews in Israel will have to make a painful decision about the people of Gaza; to wit, are they worth trying to bargain with at all? The Palestinian leadership has thwarted every peace initiative advanced so far, led by the likes of Arafat they have lied, cheated, manipulated, killed, terrorized, bombed, kidnapped, and basically refused to join the civilized world. What makes anyone think this hyena is going to change personalities now? I personally doubt it. The Palestinian Arab is still the same thuggish mob they have always been.

    I think the Israeli’s understand this far better than anyone in Washington DC…

  35. 35. John

    Israel needs to rid their nation of the losers called Palestinians who are just a band of gypsies that no other country wants. They were never a nation, and hopefully never will be. The vast majority of American Christian’s love Israel and pray for her well-being. Israel is God’s chosen nation and those that stand against her are in for real trouble when God begins to move His mighty hand against them. It won’t be pretty, trust me!!!

  36. 36. Only know what I read

    This is but another of Obama’s colossal miscalculations. Hmmm, where shall I begin: Scott Brown, Copenhagen X2, Gitmo, health care debate televised on C-span, Christy to name a few. Despite his massive narcissism and belief that he’s right and everyone who disagrees is wrong, we’re not all enamored and swept away by his purported charm and charisma.

    One term Presidency, here I come!

  37. 37. Fnord

    Its fascinating to you Israel-firsters almost, just almost daring to attack the general directly. Petraeus stated what any thinking military person is thinking: That the US alliance w Israel makes it hard for other US allies in the muslim world to follow. For Petreaus, UAE and Turkey are way way more important than Israel, because they are the logistical hubs of the war-effort. Thank goodness for the US military and their integrity.

  38. 38. Glenn

    Golly, gee, it’s just terrible the way that Joe Biden attacked the innocent Israelis by being in Israel, at the Israeli government’s invitation, when the religious nuts over at the Ministry of Fascist Expansion and Nut-Case Housing decided to announce housing for another 5,000 fanatics on someone else’s land. Shame on you, Joe!

    This is an attack on Israel? No, this is another example of Bibi Netanyahu’s neo-fascist government continuing to bite the hand that feeds it. Time to cut off the gravy train, I think. It’s about time an American politician had the balls to stand up to Israel.

  39. 39. Paul -Indiana

    #1. I wouldn’t call it incompetance. Unfortunately he seems to be pro-muslim as described in his book. He knows what damage he’s doing to Israel and to the USA.

  40. 40. robert

    Most have already mentioned the INCOMPETENT (and possibly anti-semitic) moves this administration has made over the last 12 months. His connections to radical Muslims, antisemites and Palestinian causes were KNOWN PRIOR TO his election. Yet, AIPAC supported his election through multiple organizations and failed to make this public as it should have been – what good is AIPAC if it remains silent in cases such as these???

    From placating Iran, to emboldening the “Palestinians” (see Hamas and other even more fanatic factions), from overtures to Syria and condemnation of Israel – the ONLY possible result is WAR in the Middle East.

    Is Israel ready ? Can Israel actually handle the Iranian threat on its own? It better be. Time is out … Iran is ready … the US and the world will not do anything to help.

    If it’s not obvious yet, look in your rearview mirror 12 months from now.

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