Today, President Obama appears in the pages of Ha’aretz— on the very day that Israel’s left-wing newspaper is hosting a “peace” conference at which Obama’s anointed (anti-)Israel Lobby is also present: J Street’s Peter Beinart, Avi Shavit, Gideon Levy, et al.
Of course, this diplomacy-via-media is an over-reaching outrage but it is also pathetic and tragic. Read Peggy Noonan’s appraisal in the Wall Street Journal this past weekend about Obama’s lost, but imperial Presidency.
Instead of holding behind-closed-doors meetings, this President appears on popular television shows, spends times with celebrities, takes long vacations; he is an actor in a film about the American Presidency and he lives as celebrities do. Like so many Hollywood actors, Obama is left-wing, pro-Islam, and anti-Zionist and is proud, not ashamed of being so.
They say that this article appears in Hebrew and Arabic as well. I wonder if the Palestinian media in Gaza and the West Bank have published the exact same words in Arabic? I wonder whether they are running the piece at all? Did President Obama’s team ask for this piece to run in Egypt and Saudi Arabia too? Here’s specifically why I ask:
Obama dares to contradict himself. He finally admits that it is “never too late for peace”– this, after hustling Israel for years, insisting that time was running out. In his op-ed, he insists that America is “Israel’s greatest friend” and that this commitment will “never waver.” He refers to sharing intelligence and military hardware with Israel and claims that “our commitment to Israel’s security is iron-clad.”
Well, I certainly hope so. Israel is probably the only stable and militarily equipped state in the region that the United States can count on. And guess what? The United States may very well be the student, Israel the teacher in matters of counter-terrorism and military intelligence. It has had to be since Israel has been under siege since 1947. Americans only had their first wake-up call on 9/11.
The bad news: Obama equates two morally asymmetrical cultures via the usual false moral equivalencies:
“And as a father myself, I cannot imagine the pain endured by the parents of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, who were tragically kidnapped and murdered in June. I am also heartbroken by the senseless abduction and murder of Mohammed Hussein Abu Khdeir, whose life was stolen from him and his family. At this dangerous moment, all parties must protect the innocent and act with reasonableness and restraint, not vengeance and retribution.”
Wait a moment. Who kidnapped and murdered the three Israeli teenagers? The usual unnamed Martians? Was it perhaps Hamas operatives, members of a terrorist group, or a faction fighting the Hamas leadership? Hamas has been named a terrorist group by the United States, and this is the group that is now heavily rocketing Israeli civilians in at least three or four Israeli cities. Alas, these people cannot attend Ha’aretz‘s “peace” conference because they are hiding at home or in bomb shelters.
Has Hamas found the murderers of the three Israeli teenagers? Are they even looking for them? Within days, the Israeli police arrested six Jews for the murder of Abu Khdeir and will put them on trial.
Israel, the only stable and democratic state in the region, is fighting for survival against barbarism and Jihad. Hamas, ISIS, Fatah, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, etc. are fighting an aggressive war, Hitler-style, to colonize and dominate a large swath of land in the Middle East. They wish to declare a Caliphate from Spain to China. It is a Muslim-on-Muslim religious war and the only thing that unites both Sunni and Shiia is their hatred of infidels, Jewish Israel in particular, but also Christians who dare to live in Muslim lands.
Obama does not seem to refer to this larger picture in his concern for “peace” and in his call for “restraint.” He focuses on Israel-only, Israel-mainly, in his vision of a “peace” that does not and cannot exist. Not because Israel does not want peace, but because Israel’s enemies do not want to live in peace. They wish to destroy Israel in order to live with Islamic “honor.” Nevertheless, Obama writes:
“So while we were disappointed that the tough decisions weren’t made by both parties to keep moving the peace process forward, the United States will never give up on the hope of a lasting peace, which is the only path to true security for Israel.”
Israel made all the tough decisions. It always has. And it has always been blamed. The Palestinian leadership played games, pulled back, had no interest in negotiating a real peace with Israel. Their interest was and still is in keeping the “peace” game going during which time the UN, the EU, and the United States fund their terrorist wars against Israel and allow them to chalk up “Pallywood” propaganda points to further tarnish Israel’s good name.
When I first heard that America was calling for Israel to exhibit “restraint” in its defense of its civilian population, I literally developed an immediate headache. How many times has Israel been stopped mid-battle by the United States before it could vanquish its enemies– people who only live for Israel’s demise?
America should send military equipment as promised and as needed to Israel. America should stop funding Palestinians aka Arab Muslims who live in the disputed territories immediately. Obama should personally tell the New York Times to exercise some “restraint” because their anti-Israel coverage of Israel/Palestine might amount to incitement to genocide and that it might render them vulnerable to legal action.
Otherwise, President Obama should exercise some restraint and leave Israeli policy to Israelis.