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Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

Archive | June, 2010

19-year-old Turkish American Among Flotilla Dead

By on 03 June 2010

An official from the Turkish Islamic charity that spearheaded the campaign to bust the blockade on Gaza identified the U.S. citizen as 19-year-old Furkan Dogan, originally from the central Turkish town of Kayseri. Dogan, who held a U.S. passport, had four bullet wounds to the head and one to the chest, Omer Yagmur of the Foundation of Humanitarian Relief (IHH), told Anatolia. – American Reportedly Among Those Killed in Gaza Flotilla Raid

There was no reasoning with the Netanyahu government. Pres. Obama, Sect. Clinton and the administration “emphasized caution and restraint,” but Israel ignored our pleas.

The Obama administration said Wednesday that it had warned Israel’s government repeatedly to use “caution and restraint” with half a dozen aid boats bound for the Gaza Strip before Israeli commandos raided the flotilla this week in an operation that killed nine people.

“We communicated with Israel through multiple channels many times regarding the flotilla,” P.J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement issued in response to a question from The Washington Post. “We emphasized caution and restraint given the anticipated presence of civilians, including American citizens.” [...]

Israel went in looking for a fight.

The blockade of Gaza needs to be ended, but at the very least there has to be another way found to deal with ships trying to run the blockade. The politics of it is killing Israeli credibility. Andrea Mitchell reported last night on what she found inside Gaza, which was the same thing that’s been acknowledged by everyone seeing the plight of the Palestinian people. What the Israeli government is doing to the Palestinians is inhumane. Mitchell’s reporting made Chris Matthews very uncomfortable.

Former Amb. Peck was on Keith Olbermann last night. The interview speaks for itself, as well as the unmitigated stupidity of the Israelis in escalating this into a violent skirmish.

An interesting anecdote to this story comes through an anonymous “anchorman” who invokes “1930’s style anti-Semitism” on Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller. It’s the juvenile anti-Semitic charge that always comes from the usual suspects when Americans find the Israeli government in the wrong. The “anchorman” screed was posted yesterday, before Olbermann’s interview with Peck last night. “Anchorman” is upset because of the earned Israeli critiques now being dispensed, but also outraged because of an interview with Amb. Peck on his network, because of his politics. Name that “anchorman” and the network. One note, “anchorman” is not very bright and all emotions. It’s like he willfully ignores that Hamas was duly elected. Thank George W. Bush for that one. As for “anchorman’s” network, maybe it’s Fox? Ms. Van Susteren had an interview with Peck on Monday night (video). However, Peck was also interviewed on MSNBC on Monday as well.

Hardly matters, because the traditional media and cable news don’t play truth and consequence where Israel is concerned. Most networks avoid the subject of the Middle East altogether unless violence breaks out. But make no mistake about it, “anchorman” is just one example of the squeeze play against honest reporting on the Middle East.

I’ve written many times that PM Netanyahu never had any interest or intention of pursuing peace with the Palestinians. There can be no doubt to that reality now. Otherwise, he would have made sure the IDF wouldn’t turn a tense situation into carnage that has the entire world community denouncing Israel. Their actions are as infuriating as the situation is tragically sad.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Politics as Usual, the Sequel

By on 03 June 2010

Colorado U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff confirmed Wednesday that Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff, had suggested three administration jobs that would be available to him if he dropped his plans to run against U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who had the support of the White House. – Andrew Romanoff: W.H. offered three jobs

Shocking! There’s politics going on in the White House. Too bad their efforts stink.

Whatever talent the Obama machine had during the primaries and general election of 2008 is nowhere in evidence lately. The vaunted organization, message machine and stealth that was once Obama’s biggest asset has collapsed in on itself. The trouble began back in 2009 with health care, when Pres. Obama let it spin so completely out of control that Sarah Palin’s “death panels” squeal beat the White House on messaging. It got worse when Obama allowed Ted Kennedy’s seat to go red, amidst losing Virginia, with a very bad candidate, then New Jersey. But the Senate races of Pennsylvania, with a kerfuffle surrounding Joe Sestak, with Arkansas and now Colorado, has proved that Obama can do his own election, but he and his team have proved incompetent on politics and the presidency. Their political message handling of the BP blowout was the crowning evidence.

This will no doubt bring a torrent of hand wringing and whining, but there’s nothing new about this, except for die hard Obama fans who thought he was different. They just didn’t look closely at how he got elected to the Illinois Senate. All’s fair in love, war and politics.

From the White House Press Secretary’s office:

Andrew Romanoff applied for a position at USAID during the Presidential transition. He filed this application through the Transition on-line process. After the new administration took office, he followed up by phone with White House personnel.

Jim Messina called and emailed Romanoff last September to see if he was still interested in a position at USAID, or if, as had been reported, he was running for the US Senate. Months earlier, the President had endorsed Senator Michael Bennet for the Colorado seat, and Messina wanted to determine if it was possible to avoid a costly battle between two supporters.

But Romanoff said that he was committed to the Senate race and no longer interested in working for the Administration, and that ended the discussion. As Mr. Romanoff has stated, there was no offer of a job.

Obama’s White House political team is proving to be inept.

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Longing for an Honest Broker

By on 02 June 2010

Diplomacy takes a hit.

Meanwhile, Rep. Barney Frank calls for a probe of the raid, also saying “as a Jew” Israel’s action “makes me ashamed that there would be Jews that would engage in that kind of victimization of a minority.” What courage that took. It’s a remarkable statement.

So is the one made by Vice Pres. Joe Biden, playing pitbull for Israel.

“[The Israelis have] said, ‘Here you go. You’re in the Mediterranean. This ship — if you divert slightly north you can unload it and we’ll get the stuff into Gaza.’ So what’s the big deal here? What’s the big deal of insisting it go straight to Gaza? Well, it’s legitimate for Israel to say, ‘I don’t know what’s on that ship. These guys are dropping eight — 3,000 rockets on my people,’” Biden said.

Turkey is also not at all pleased with Pres. Obama’s response so far to the Israeli violence. But given Steny Hoyer’s adamant statement that the Administration and Congress “are determined to prevent condemnation of Israel at the UN Security Council,” I doubt if anything will change the status quo. You know, because it’s worked so well over the years.

Laura Rozen on the likelihood that the Iran sanctions vote will be pushed:

The Obama administration had been planning to bring a new Iran sanctions resolution to a vote at the UN Security Council on Thursday, but diplomatic sources said the vote is no longer likely to take place this week. …

… But Turkish officials made no secret of their fury at the Israeli raid on the Gaza aid flotilla that killed four Turkish citizens early Monday, and their irritation at the Americans for their muted reaction to the incident. Turkey is among the ten non-permanent members of the Security Council. [...]

“We would like them to issue a condemnation of the attack, and to show solidarity with the people who lost their lives,” Davutoglu said. “Israel is isolating themselves from all of their friends. … With each of these actions, [Israel] is saying they are above the law, and ‘we are not accountable,’” he continued.

[...] Sources close to Ankara said a meeting between Davutoglu and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday did not go very well. …

This gave Elliott Abrams a chance to unleash a stem winder of an article that spews venom towards Pres. Obama at every paragraph. Abrams is also upset that the Administration joined the Security Council’s condemnation of the “the acts leading to this tragedy,” which doesn’t mention Israel specifically, but keeps it broad to include all parties.

Abrams even goes so far as to fantasize the flotilla aggression as Israel’s “Blackhawk Down,” one of the most preposterous comparisons I can imagine making. That is until Abrams suggests that because of Obama it’s “open season” on Israel.

Israelis see clearly the problems they face when the United States is calling for another international investigation and will not defend Israel. They understand that no one is going to investigate Turkey and its role, nor investigate the pro-terror groups on board those ships—not if the United States fails to insist on it. They realize that, thanks to the Obama policies, it is now open season on Israel in Europe and at the UN. They speak candidly (Israelis of the left, center, and right, not just Likud supporters) in private about all these problems, but they cannot speak openly about them, not when they may have the Obama administration to deal with for six and a half more years. They wonder most about whether their friends see their predicament, and will speak up for them even when they must—to retain a working relationship with the White House—remain silent or speak very carefully. So this crisis is not only a test for Israel, which faces difficult weeks ahead, and for the Obama administration, which in fact has already failed. It is a test for Israel’s supporters, facing the combined onslaught of the news media (from BBC coverage to New York Times editorials), scores of governments, UN bureaucrats, and a White House that views excessive solidarity with Israel as a diplomatic inconvenience. The United States abandoned Israel in the United Nations and in the NPT Conference in the course of one week. Israel’s friends in the United States should say so, say it was shameful, and gear up for a long fight.

This is the kind of drivel we get coming from the Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

MJ Rosenberg has it right when he says “the Israel-can-do-no-wrong crowd is on overdrive defending the operation.”

If only defending Israel was their only goal. They hope to use their propaganda to take Pres. Obama down as they do it.

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Is BP’s Blowout Hitting Obama and Democrats?

By on 02 June 2010

Did Pres. Obama’s slow uptake on the political side of BP’s blowout cost Democrats? Well, I’d say that the catastrophe confirms what people are feeling, which is that the federal government is incompetent and so is everyone in Washington who runs it.

Gallup has new numbers that aren’t good for Democrats. The interviews were conducted between May 24-30th, a time when the crescendo of criticism coming Pres. Obama’s way was deafening.


There is no doubt that the Obama administration had Com. Thad Allen mobilized early (to reiterate, I was on the first conference call that Saturday, May 1st).

The problem was that all anyone saw was BP’s floundering, the oil pouring into the ocean, with no federal effort in sight.

There was no Administration presence, single point person, or strong visuals or efforts from the feds, which Obama is charged to lead as president. It was all BP all the time for far too long. All of this while the criticism rose from every corner, including the outbursts from James Carville, Donna Brazile and many other loyal Democrats.

The shift from a more competitive race to a Republican lead occurred the same week President Barack Obama averaged a 46% job approval rating, his lowest weekly average to date. Two structural changes in the data help explain the shift. First, while the percentage of registered voters identifying as Republicans has been consistent over the past several weeks, during the last week there was a decline in the percentage of voters identifying as Democrats and an increase in independent identifiers. – Gallup

I’d say Obama can get the lead back, but one real problem in doing so is that all summer long we may see the BP blowout catastrophe manifest along the Florida coast and maybe spread further east, via visuals of oil on shore. It could be a very slow political bleed all summer unless someone comes up with an alternate plan.

Small tankers inside the Gulf to siphon off the oil has been said to be too cumbersome a response, given all the equipment on and below the water. However, if the oil continues to pump out of the BP well it’s going to make for horrific visuals for a very long time.

It seems pretty clear that the ones who may be made to pay are Democrats. Nate Silver agrees.

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Israeli General: ‘Everyone thinks we’re bananas’

By on 02 June 2010

–updated below–

“It’s one thing for people to think that you’re crazy, but it’s bad when they think you’re incompetent and crazy, and that’s the way we look.” – Israeli general, via Jeffrey Goldberg

Goldberg links to the same article in Haaretz that I did late yesterday.

Talking about Israeli reaction, Goldberg cites the political machine of the “freedom flotilla.” That’s what is so alarming and frustrating about the IDF’s reaction.

Facing a furious international dispute and widespread condemnation, Israel on Wednesday began expelling hundreds of activists seized from a flotilla of ships challenging its three-year blockade of Gaza. – Israel Begins to Expel Activists It Seized on Flotilla

It takes wiser leaders than are currently being coddled in Israel today to fight the Middle East political battles, instead of being sucked into a situation where Israel reacts exactly as their enemies hope.

Unfortunately, Pres. Obama is also looking out of control in the exchange. I agree wholeheartedly with Steve Clemons, because Obama didn’t have any plan beyond threats about settlements. He was under the naive impression that laying down his word would be enough. It’s cost him dearly and put him on his heels:

…Obama’s equation for moving Middle East peace forward was just too quaint and simple. Even though Israel is completely dependent on American security guarantees and aid and is genuinely a client state of the United States, the pugnacious prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, flamboyantly rebuffed Obama’s call to stop settlements. Obama, with some twisting and modification of his position, has essentially forfeited the match to Netanyahu.

During the early part of the John F. Kennedy administration, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev beat Kennedy in similar challenges and began to doubt Kennedy’s resolve and strategic temperament – leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today, Netanyahu has become the Khrushchev of the Obama administration – and one wonders if a crisis lies ahead in which Obama will have to reassert his primacy lest the world think that Israel runs the United States and the Obama presidency. [...]

What Steve doesn’t go into, though he clearly knows, is that politically, with Rahm Emanuel having fits over courting Netanyahu, his chief of staff showed Obama’s hand in the second invitation to the White House. For political reasons, Emanuel believes Obama is desperate to get Mr. Netanyahu’s approval on camera for fear his Jewish support will disappear going forward.

The United States indeed does need “to reassert (our) primacy lest the world think that Israel runs the United States.” There’s just no evidence that anyone in either political party has the political will common sense and American resolve to do it.

UPDATE: Below is a readout of the press gaggle on Air Force One with Bill Burton on the subject of Israel.

MR. BURTON: Well, I’m not going to get into the specifics of the conversations that we’re having with Israel, but I will say it’s important to the President and to our country that we don’t see the same kind of events unfold like they did the last time. So we are talking to our partners and are hopeful that we won’t see a repeat.

Q Does he feel confident then that they’re on the same page, that there’s a shared sentiment that something like this shouldn’t happen again?

MR. BURTON: He feels confident that we’re having productive conversations with them.

Q And also the flotilla report, the inquiry that’s going on, the fact-finding effort, what’s the status of that? Do you know when that report might come back?

MR. BURTON: I don’t have a timeline on when that report will come out, but like we said yesterday, the President supports a credible investigation into what happened here.

Q On talking to your partners, has the President spoken to the Israeli leadership since he spoke to them on that day — I think Monday?

MR. BURTON: There’s, of course, conversations that happen at different levels in the government. I’m not sure as to whether or not the President himself has spoken to folks in Israel. I can check on that for you.

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Modern Marriage is Tough

By on 02 June 2010

–bumped–

“Their lives had gotten more and more separated.” – AP

Al and Tipper Gore are separating. I hope they get the peace to do it in private.

From Politico:

“We are announcing today that after a great deal of thought and discussion, we have decided to separate … This is very much a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration. We ask for respect for our privacy and that of our family, and we do not intend to comment further.”

As regulars around here know, back in the 1990s, I spent a lot of time interviewing people about relationships, dating and sex. So I must say I don’t find this particularly shocking in the scheme of modern life. This is doubly so given the busy, even frenetic lives of people as committed to work as Al and Tipper gore.

Marriage has been reinvented in the modern era, because of women’s independence from men, which was not how marriage began. The equality of the two partners is another difference in how marriage was originally imagined. This is a great thing for everyone, because if marriage hadn’t evolved, with men forced to change, there would no longer be marriages worth having.

“Growing old together” is not very sexy anymore. That’s a good thing, as the notion of aging has been turned on its head. The sexes are experiencing a rejuvenation in life. Mid-life men’s crises, wanting to feel young again by hooking up with someone youthful, often coincided with a time when women became disinterested in sex because of hormone changes. This is now being met and combated with women taking hormone replacement in their 40s, which often mitigates the imbalance before trouble begins.

As for the Gores, sometimes independent, busy people simply grow apart while living their separate lives. This is a very simple explanation for a heartbreaking event.

I’m not sure why people immediately are weighing in with incoming emails lauding the Clinton marriage, as the news of the Gores separation broke. As far as is known, Al Gore was faithful for 40 years, which was reiterated today. The same cannot be said of the serial philandering of William Jefferson Clinton. Certainly Al Gore never disgraced and humiliated Tipper the way Bill Clinton did Hillary, not once, but many times over. At least Bill Clinton didn’t stoop to the depths of depravity of John Edwards. But few women would have forgiven, let alone stayed around as Hillary Rodham Clinton has done. I’m not sure that this tenacity by Mrs. Clinton is particularly helpful in the normal scheme of modern relationships. In fact, it’s more of an anomaly. Few modern women would have put up with such a public airing of marital dirty laundry, let alone kept the marriage together. It’s why many young women simply cannot relate to Hillary.

As for divorce after 40 years, we are now living longer and having fuller lives than any time in history. This is especially true for women, who are no longer financially dependent on their husbands.

As for marriage itself, it was never designed to make it through life spans that now tilt into the 80s and 90s. Childhood sweethearts hitting their 60s now find another lifetime spreading out before them. It makes you think, but also wonder what else you have to discover with one another.

The modern era brings many challenges, relationships suffering the most. It must also be said that just because you stay together doesn’t mean a marriage has worked better. Sometimes religion forms the bond that cannot be broken, even if the marriage has long ago ceased to mean what marriage is to mean.

In other cases, two people just reach the end of the road on which they began. There is no more mystery or sensual chemistry, a friendship blooming in place of romance. This is great if you’re 80; not so exciting if you’re healthy and only in your 60s.

Life expectancy can throw ’til death do us part into a tailspin, to which the famous are not immune.

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Between Israel and Turkey

By on 01 June 2010

“We will not be silent about this,” (Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu) said. “We expect the United States to show solidarity with us. . . . I am not very happy with the statements from the United States yesterday.” – Turkish foreign minister: Israeli raid on Gaza aid flotilla ‘like 9/11′ for his country

Israel is serving Hamas’ interests better than Hamas itself has ever done, comes from an article in Haaretz today. Anyone not understanding just how badly Israel has hurt themselves in the eyes of the world doesn’t get the politics of this fiasco. If you’re not enraged by the stupidity of the Israeli government in handing this piece of propaganda to her enemies, then you’re too naive to be in this debate.

The Turkish ship Mavi Marmara was no Exodus. It carried not Holocaust survivors but provocateurs, many of them extremists. But a series of baseless decisions on the part of the prime minister and the ministers of defense and of strategic affairs turned the Marmara into a Palestinian Exodus. With a single foolish move, the Israeli cabinet cast the Muslim Brotherhood in the role of the victim and the Israel Navy as the villain and simultaneously opened European, Turkish, Arab, Palestinian and internal Israeli fronts. In so doing, Israel is serving Hamas’ interests better than Hamas itself has ever done.

[...] During the 2006 war in Lebanon I concluded that my 15-year-old daughter could have conducted it more wisely than the Olmert-Peretz government. We’ve progressed. Today it’s clear to me that my 6-year-old son could do much better than our current government. Even a child would have seen the imbalance in the risk-threat assessment in overpowering the flotilla ships. Any smart kid would understand that you don’t sacrifice what is important for what is not. But the cabinet did not understand. Under the leadership of Netanyahu, Barak and Ya’alon it came to a patently unreasonable decision. It was a decision of complete fools.

Meanwhile, the American right reveals why our Middle East policy is where it is today and why criticism in the face of obvious carnage that should never have happened is met with such deranged spin. Think Progress compiled a good example of the apologists for the IDF’s indefensible actions:

ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN: “There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. … The flotilla is an attempt at violent propaganda against Israel, and Israel will not allow the violation of its sovereignty at sea, in the air, or on land.”

MICHAEL OREN, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: “Over one hundred trucks, every day, laden with food and medicine go into Gaza. There’s no shortage of food. There is no shortage of medicine.”

NEWT GINGRICH: “There was no humanitarian crisis; this was a deliberate political effort on the part of people who want to try to undermine the survival of Israel.”

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “What exactly is the humanitarian crisis that the flotilla was actually addressing? There is none. No one is starving in Gaza.”

Amidst it all picture Sect. Clinton in full friend damage control, as she talks to national leaders around the world to keep an international diplomatic assault on Israel to keep from manifesting.

The the New York Times is reporting the Israeli propaganda being piped through U.S. airwaves non-stop might be different from reality. It won’t make Clinton’s job any easier.

In the American game of “who can be more pro-Israel,” Rep. Weiner scores points.

Sarah Palin, well, her view of Turkey is just bizarre.

Robert Gibbs today: US & Israel “have a trusted relationship” and “we are greatly supportive of their security and that is not going to change.” That is hardly the issue on what happened this weekend.

Beyond this there are relevant questions that no one will ask, let alone answer: Which alliance is more critical to U.S. national security, Israel or Turkey?

Can we be Israel’s steadfast ally, but when she’s acted foolishly weigh in, because our alliances with other nations depend on our frankness to our friend?

There were many ways to handle the flotilla exchange. Israel chose the most extreme, which fueled its enemies, and put its friends in an untenable position. Nobody wins.

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Speaker Pelosi’s ‘Word Made Flesh’ Appearance

By on 01 June 2010

Pelosi’s politics is one thing, but drenching it in religion is another.

We need less of this in American politics.

Having the Democratic Speaker of the House genuflect to the Catholic Community Conference on Capitol Hill simply brings back Pelosi inviting bishop representatives in to help write portions of the health care bill.

As a rebel Episcopalian, with my focus on spiritual meditation more than traditional participation, I fully understand the importance of private faith or the intellectual struggles surrounding the journey of doubt.

However, women in America do not benefit from such religious groveling. The Catholic Church being one of the most patriarchal, misogynistic, felonious representatives of the faithful, not to mention unjust, that has ever been given sway in American politics. The more Democrats align with patriarchal religious institutions the worse it is for American women, because we all know women cannot count on the right.

As we continue to fight in Afghanistan against fundamentalist religious fanatics, but also elsewhere around the world, it’s stunning that leading politicians continue to be so clueless of the harm traditional religions do to women across the globe, but also the harrowing message they continue to send to American women, circa the 21st century.

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Netanyahu’s Folly

By on 01 June 2010

… Ankara warned that further supply vessels will be sent to Gaza, escorted by the Turkish Navy, a development with unpredictable consequences. Israel has sounded an alert throughout the country fearing rocket attacks by Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Arab League has called an urgent meeting on Tuesday to decide on a common response. Egypt is under pressure to end the blockade of Gaza while Greece has cancelled a military exercise with Israel. – Turkey threatens action; Israel on alert

Pres. Obama’s response of “deep regret” at the Israel-caused deaths “also expressed the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances around this morning’s tragic events as soon as possible,” was greeted in Turkey as “sort of weak.” State weighed in yesterday as well.

Jake Tapper is reporting today that the Obama administration will stand with Israel, because doing otherwise would isolate them further.

Ben Smith has the quote of quotes: “We’re the only ones who believe them.”

Meanwhile, the Republican right is already saying the activists on board attempting to get aid into Gaza are linked to Turkey “terrorists.”

Pick your sides, folks, then we’re off.

Cutting to the chase, PM Netanyahu and the IDF are forcing Pres. Obama into a corner, while Muslim and Arab nations will press for him to condemn Israeli actions if the Security Council finds against Israel, something that will cause a political squeeze play in the U.S., as well as set off a domestic dynamic that plays into the neoconservatives who have been lying in wait for 2012.

Everyone writing about this story keeps saying “Israel” in the larger sense of things. I get that, but let’s down to specifics. Prime Minister Netanyahu, well, I’ll let someone else fill it in, though I’d replace “Israel” with the “Netanyahu government” below:

How badly has Israel f**ked up in its response to a flotilla intending to deliver aid to Hamas-controlled Gaza? Pretty f**king badly. – FP

The IDF blog posted the footage of soldiers being beaten with “knives, metal rods, firebombs,” as well as “metal poles and chairs, and threw one soldier over the side of the ship.” But I’ve got to ask what did the IDF expect? Just because the people are “non-violent,” doesn’t mean they should trust the IDF. See history.

What began a tenuous slip in the relationship between Netanyahu’s government and Ankara that began with Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey and Shimon Peres having a very public spat at Davos, which escalated over Israel dressing down the Turks over a TV show, has now developed into a full blown diplomatic and perhaps even a military crisis, with the UN Security Council calling a special session because of Netanyahu’s folly. Reactions from nations on the UN Security Council boiled down to “shocked.”

Jeffrey Goldberg is invoking the Second Intifada, what he described as the “(specifically, the story of the non-massacre at Jenin),” to give himself time to process the apocalyptic scenario for Israel playing in his head over the actions of the IDF, which Netanyahu backed.

When Pres. Obama came into office, King Abdullah of Jordan warned that if peace wasn’t obtained between the Palestinians and Israel war would be next.

One of two calculations are going through the right wing Netanyahu government, with Avigdor Lieberman whispering prompts of preemptive mania in Bibi’s ear. First, they may want to squeeze Pres. Obama further, because they feel he’s been weakened in the U.S., sensing a tide about to sweep into Congress that will bring more hawkish leaders in, dreaming of a Republican victory that will be more amenable to Netanyahu’s dreams of military action with Iran. Or perhaps Netanyahu has decided that Obama is irrelevant and so he’s going to go his own way, because the current American president isn’t easily bent to his will. There is also the possibility that the collective right wing in Israel has gone mad.

Netanyahu’s actions send a clear signal to the U.S., coming after our military command said that the situation between Israel and the Palestinians is making our job harder. Netanyahu government obviously is no longer interested in the U.S. position in the region.

Someone needs to assess that our friendship with Israel is now one way, though I don’t expect any politician in either party to admit it.

Netanyahu’s provocative actions are coming at a time when Pres. Obama is facing the worst domestic crisis of his presidency in the Gulf. That’s not by accident; it’s by Netanyahu’s design.

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