...It took a while -- about fourteen months to be exact -- but both the ADL and AIPAC have issued strong condemnations of the President's war on Israel. Both have asked for the administration to curtail its public berating of its supposed ally. Both request that the White House work with Israel in a more diplomatic fashion -- on both the peace process and Iran.What is truly disgraceful is that, so far, exactly one (1) elected Democrat in Congress has done the same - Congresswoman Shelley Berkley of Nevada. Sadly, Democrats seem to care far more about passing health care legislation this week than protecting the US-Israel relationship from Obama's assault.
It is interesting that David Axelrod, who blasted Israel on network news programs on Sunday, is a proud standard bearer of the Millard Fillmore label when it comes to the history and politics of the Middle East conflict. For the record, Fillmore headed the Know Nothing Party back in the 1850s. Axelrod will be honored by the NJDC (National Jewish Democratic Council) at a coming event. Axelrod has pretty much a perfect record of having avoided any connection with any pro-Israel or Jewish communal activity in his long political career, with the notable exception of raising money from Jews for Democratic candidates. This Obama does well too.
In Obama's case, the handwriting , as to his sympathies in the Middle East conflict (not to be confused with his lies delivered to AIPAC conferences), were pretty well documented well before he was elected -- the 20 years he listened enraptured to the sermons of Reverend Wright; all those dinners, babysitting and chit chats with Rashid Khalidi and Ali Abunimah; the close friendship with Samantha Power (who sought an international force to invade the West Bank and liberate it from Israel); the years spent in the most anti-Israel hothouses in America -- the neighborhoods where elite colleges are located.
Obama's sympathies lie with the Palestinians. He is, after all, a re-distributionist on all issues. The attacks by Hillary Clinton, other State Department officials, and Axelrod will do nothing to advance the peace process, ostensibly the goal of the Administration. Since Oslo and for fifteen years since, the Palestinians spoke directly to the Israelis, without intermediaries, even during the intifada.When Obama launched his Presidency with a call for for a 100% settlement freeze on all land beyond the green line, including natural growth of settlements, he enabled the Palestinians to avoid coming back for talks without those conditions being met. Why would the Palestinians be more pro-Israel than the White House, and accept less than the White House was demanding of Israel? Now the PA can hang back some more... honor some more mass murderers of Israelis while they wait for Obama to deliver more Israeli concessions before talks begin... including prisoner releases, extending the settlement freeze to Jerusalem, eliminating more roadblocks, easing the blockade of Gaza, etc.
Netanyahu is right to let the Americans know that Israel will continue to build in its capital. To please the Americans, and not establish facts on the ground, only new housing for Palestinians would be allowed.
Of course, when the ten month freeze on new settlements in the West Bank was agreed to, Bibi came in for high praise. Bibi specifically excluded Jerusalem from that freeze. The announcement of the 1,600 units in a neighborhood where 16,000 Jews already live, was step 4 in a 7 step approval process, with no construction for 3 more years. Yes, perhaps it was an ill=timed announcement, with Joe Biden in town, given how everyone needs to walk on hot coals to avoid giving the PA another excuse to not negotiate even indirectly with Israel.
For the Administration to blow up over this, as some grave insult, is ridiculous, but telling. This is a real and deliberate provocation... but by Obama, not Israel. This was an opportunity for the Administration, to let Israel know which side Obama backs. Sad to say, even J-Street has been better than Obama this week. The White House had nothing to say (no condemnation to be sure) for the PA honoring a terrorist mass murderer of Israeli Jews last week. Even J-Street said this was a provocation and condemned it.
Murdered Jews and Jewish apartments: Obama finds one more repellent than the other.
Then again, Obama was silent on the mass murder of hundreds of Christians in Nigeria by Muslim marauders. Never will an unkind word be said about Muslim murderers, or Palestinian killers, that might deter from his charm offensive to the Arab Street. So far it has accomplished only this: a projection of weakness, and cowardice, and a loss of any ability to weigh competing claims fairly.
It's called moral equivalence and it's a common trait among the denizens of the Left. They see good and evil as equals; secularism the same as faith; and statism equivalent to individual liberty.
History refutes their every instinct, and still they persist in their fruitless pursuits of a Utopian state that inevitably descends into tyranny.
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