Thursday, April 09, 2009

Moving away from our longstanding relationship with Israel

Connecticut Jewish Ledger

April 8, 2009 12:36 PM EDT
Sometimes humor, even dark humor, is the best way to the heart of a matter. There's the story that circulated during the last administration about a middle of the night phone call to the White House and how it would have been answered in the two Bush presidencies. Informed that Israel and her neighbors were at war again and Israel was in dire need of immediate re-supply, Bush 43 would have unhesitatingly ordered the supplies into the air to Israel. Bush pere, 41, on the other hand would probably have asked his aide to convene a cabinet meeting in the morning. Even though Obama's been in office for a short time, we already have an idea of his response to that middle of the night call. His early moves in the region along with his staffing decisions for his Middle East foreign policy team, and his preoccupation with American Muslim rapprochement both at home and abroad tell us that he'd be more than likely to tell his aide to cut a check for the victims of Israeli occupation and brief him later.

Jewish voters who don't think this is a real possibility are still focused on the President's impassioned rhetoric of the campaign when Jewish votes were at issue. But, now that he's made that sale, he's pitching another and all signs are that the Arab countries are being offered Israel's land and sovereignty as part of that deal. Each and every Presidential appointee to the region sees Israel as the problem and is absolutely committed to a two-state-NOW solution.

Aside from impossible borders, this means a Syrian Golan, a divided Jerusalem, and a right-of-return to Israel of innumerable claimants to land that is Israel's. With the two-state thing as an end in itself, all requirements for a durable peace and an end to terrorism are secondary considerations. The Saudi Royal family and their lap dog Tom Friedmann of The New York Times should be pleased by this adoption of the Saudi Plan.

One just has to read the signs along the road to know where we're going.

€ Envoy supreme, George Mitchell's first statement on the Middle East was about 'illegal' Israeli settlements, Israeli 'occupation' and the re-sizing of Israel behind borders that have already been proven to be indefensible. The belligerence of Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah were ignored, and Mitchell's inference is that the villain is the Jewish family in Jerusalem that wants to add another bedroom for a growing family and not the terrorist who wants to blow them up.

€ When the head of the IDF, General Gabi Ashkenazi came to Washington recently to talk about the existential threat to Israel posed by a nascent Iranian nuclear capability, all the doors in D.C. were closed to him except and unless he agreed to speak only on a predetermined agenda of Israeli concessions.

€ Israel's restraint was all but ignored in the face of seven years of rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel and the incoming administration pressured her to prematurely end her military action in Gaza before stopping the rockets falling onto her population centers. The Obama Administration then helped raise $5 billion for reconstruction in Gaza. The rockets continue to fall on Israel.

€ Charles Freeman's appointment to head the National Intelligence Committee, though withdrawn, should never have happened. It is hard to believe that Freeman's bias and prejudice against Israel weren't known in the White House. For those who doubt it, he confirmed it with his graceless withdrawal speech in which his extreme antipathy towards Israel was again made abundantly clear.

All the bad policies and attitudes of previous administrations are embodied in this one, and there is no offsetting opinion in the White House or State Department to counter it. This is Carter-Baker policy ratcheted up and reinvigorated. It is an Arab-Muslim world view. It is the State Department ascendant with Lugar, Hagel, Brezinski, Scowcroft, Blair et al in power positions. We almost yearn for a return of Powell and Condi Rice. Almost.

All of this serves neither Israel's interests nor those of the United States. Are we better off with a world populated by countries like Israel, or are we that eager to live alongside an Iran, a Syria or a Saudi Arabia? Most of Washington knows that there is a revolving door between the State Department and the growing number of Arab funded organizations, but it's now clear that there is another revolving door at the White House for that same purpose

The hope for continued American support for the existence of a Jewish State of Israel resides in Congress. That is the body which, in this instance, most accurately reflects the will of the American people. Americans know something their State Department and Administration have chosen to ignore: The bond between Israel and America is built on the values both countries share and their mutual heritage is a body of laws rooted in the same Judeo-Christian culture and beliefs that created and sustains both nations.

That is a true and lasting bond and the American people, in the absence of an administration that understands it, will turn to Congress to increasingly embrace it.

nrg

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