Saturday, May 21, 2011

Israel Reconfigured and Reconsidered

Israel Reconfigured and Reconsidered

“Obama Is No Friend of Israel” blared the headline on SayAnything.com with variations on other blogs and in the print media in the wake of the president’s announcement that he was effectively screwing the Jewish nation. His “final solution” for Israel’s border wars, though he dare not use that term, would make everyone in the area happy and peaceful and ready to play together in perpetual peace and harmony.

Confirmed and reinforced in his tense Friday sit-down with Israel’s furious, diplomatically-assertive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama’s scheme is to have Israel return to its pre-6 Day War, 1967 borders, tantamount in this age of sophisticated rocketry in the bloody hands of Hamas to asking Israel to commit national suicide.

That said, two questions: One, why is it such a surprise to so many that Israel is not at the top of Obama’s buddy list and, two, why should he be? The answers to both queries are complex with the first less so than the second.

It’s either incredibly naive or amazingly stupid to be surprised that the president cares not a whit about the nation of Israel. Whether he would prefer it to be totally submerged in the Mediterranean as Arab states wish is debatable but his affinity for those states and all things and people Islamic is not. An excellent rule of thumb to gauge Obama is to note carefully what he says and then to compare and contrast those statements with what he does, has done, and refuses to do.

They’re remarkably different.

Obama tows the line with what he says, mouthing platitudes and the conventional pap about how much America loves Israel, how important an ally it is, how our support is unwavering, etc. etc. At the same time, he adamantly refuses to acknowledge a worldwide war against Islamic terrorism, he bows to Saudi potentates, he inexplicably instructs NASA to focus not on space but on building Arab self-esteem. Is pushing for a Palestinian state such a stretch? . . .
(Read more about Question Two, Why Should Obama or America about Israel? at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4516 (Hint: We should not.)

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