–this post bumped/updated–
It just goes to show that tough love is hard to take. Even when the policy being instituted behind it will do our long standing allies in Israel a lot more good than what’s come before. Tell that to the JPost writer slumming over at NRO, who writes today about “the end of America’s strategic alliance with Israel?” Coming on the day that Pres. Obama is scheduled to visit Buchenwald, plus reiterate the importance that we never forget what happened on that ground, one has to wonder about the alternative universe the right lives in. Ms. Glick’s conclusion is that Netanyahu now has permission to wage war.
[...] The only silver lining for Israelis from the president’s speech in Cairo and his general positions on the Middle East is that Obama has overplayed his hand. Far from bending to his will, a large majority of Israelis perceives Obama as a hostile force and has rallied in support of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against the administration. This public support gives Netanyahu the maneuver room he needs to take the actions that Israel needs to take to defend against the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran and to assert its national rights and to defend itself against Palestinian terrorists and other Arab and non-Arab anti-Semites who wish it ill.
But not even that nonsense tops this nonsensical back and forth between Rep. Wexler and Greg Sargent. It revolves around this line from Obama’s speech: “America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and we will say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs.”
He was saying that “it is no longer acceptable to say in private, `Go Israelis, take on Hezbollah,’ or `Go Israelis, take on Iran,’” Wexler said. “He has called out all of the parties, including ourselves, to step up to the plate as adults and make difficult political decisions.”
But then Wexler had a fit of panic, evidently, imagining his Jewish support evaporate into the ether, that was bad enough for Sargent to title his post, in all caps, “POST UPDATED BELOW,” in which Wexler says just the opposite. In Wexler’s AIPAC mind meld world, Obama’s statement was actually singling out only the Arabs and Palestinians.
This is the kind of crap we get even when a Democratic president is willing to stand on a line to change the course of history.
For eight years before Obama came into office, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney did nothing but talk about their support for Israel. That’s all the Republicans do, talk. They never actually do anything to move the Middle East off the violence cycle. That’s because Republicans thrive on it, campaign on it, so they encourage it. There hasn’t been a new idea towards Israel coming from the right, besides James Baker (20 years ago), who was often criticized for being an Arabist. Nothing the last Administration did moved the equilibrium meter one iota.
Pres. Obama’s support for Israel is steadfast. He’s now got the thankless job of playing father to a stubborn child who refuses to do what’s good for her. Obama’s trying to save Israel from herself. I don’t know if anyone can save her from her “allies.”
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