Caroline Glick
The Jerusalem Post
Obama's Spectacular
Failure
Two weeks ago, in an unofficial inauguration
ceremony at Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt's new Muslim Brotherhood President
Mohamed Mursi took off his mask of moderation. Before a crowd of scores of
thousands, Mursi pledged to work for the
release from US federal prison of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman.
According
to The New York Times' account of his speech, Mursi said, "I see signs
[being held by members of the crowd] for Omar Abdel-Rahman and detainees'
pictures. It is my duty and I will make all efforts to have them free,
including Omar Abdel-Rahman."
Otherwise
known as the blind sheikh, Abdel Rahman was the mastermind of the jihadist cell
in New Jersey that perpetrated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His cell
also murdered Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1990. They plotted the
assassination of then-president Hosni Mubarak. They intended to bomb New York
landmarks including the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and the UN headquarters.
Rahman
was the leader of Gama'a al-Islamia - the Islamic Group, responsible, among
other things for the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. A renowned Sunni
religious authority, Rahman wrote the fatwa, or Islamic ruling, permitting
Sadat's murder in retribution for his signing the peace treaty with Israel. The
Islamic group is listed by the State Department as a specially designated
terrorist organization.
After
his conviction in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,
Abdel-Rahman issued another fatwa calling for jihad against the US. After the
September 11, 2001, attacks, Osama bin Laden cited Abdel-Rahman's fatwa as the
religious justification for them.
1.
By calling for Abdel-Rahman's release, Mursi has aligned himself
and his government with the US's worst enemies. By calling for
Abdel-Rahman's release during his unofficial inauguration ceremony, Mursi
signaled that he cares more about winning the acclaim of the most violent,
America-hating jihadists in the world than with cultivating good relations with
America.
And
in response to Mursi's supreme act of unfriendliness, US President Barack Obama
invited Mursi to visit him at the White House.
Mursi
is not the only Abdel Rahman supporter to enjoy the warm hospitality of the
White House.
His
personal terror organization has also been the recipient of administration
largesse. Despite the fact that federal law makes it a felony to assist members
of specially designated terrorist organizations, last month the State
Department invited group member Hani Nour Eldin, a newly elected member of the
Islamist-dominated Egyptian parliament, to visit the US and meet with senior US
officials at the White House and the State Department, as part of a delegation
of Egyptian parliamentarians.
2.
State
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland refused to provide any explanation for
the administration's decision to break federal law in order to host Eldin in
Washington.
Nuland simply claimed, "We have an interest in engaging a broad cross-section
of Egyptians who are seeking to peacefully shape Egypt's future. The goal of
this delegation... was to have consultations both with think tanks but also
with government folks, with a broad spectrum representing all the colors of
Egyptian politics."
MURSI IS not the only Arab leader who embraces terrorists only
to be embraced by the US government. In a seemingly unrelated matter, this week
it was reported that in an attempt to satisfy the Obama administration's urgent
desire to renew negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, and to
satisfy the Palestinians' insatiable desire to celebrate terrorists, Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered to
release 124 Palestinian terrorist murderers from Israeli prisons in exchange
for a meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.
Alas, Abbas refused. He didn't think Netanyahu's offer was
generous enough.
And how did the Obama administration
respond to Abbas's demand for the mass release of terrorists and his continued
refusal to resume negotiations with Israel?
By attacking Israel.
3. The proximate cause of the Obama
administration's most recent assault on Israel is the publication
of the legal opinion of a panel of expert Israeli jurists regarding the
legality of Israeli communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines.
Netanyahu commissioned the panel, led by retired Supreme Court justice Edmond
Levy, to investigate the international legal status of these towns and villages
and to provide the government with guidance relating to future construction of
Israeli communities beyond the armistice lines.
The committee's findings, published this week, concluded that
under international law, these communities are completely legal.
There is nothing
remotely revolutionary about this finding. This has been Israel's
position since 1967, and arguably since 1922.
The international legal basis for the establishment of the
Jewish state in 1948 was the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. That
document gave the Jewish people the legal right to sovereignty over Judea,
Samaria and Jerusalem, as well as all the land Israel took control over during
the 1948- 49 War of Independence.
Not
only did the Mandate give the Jewish people the legal right to the areas, it
enjoined the British Mandatory authorities to "facilitate... close
settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not
required for public purposes."
So not
only was Jewish settlement not prohibited. It was required.
Although
this has been Israel's position all along, Netanyahu apparently felt the need
to have its legitimacy renewed in light of the all-out assault against Israel's
legal rights led by the Palestinians, and joined enthusiastically by the Obama
administration.
4.
In a previous
attempt to appease Obama's rapacious appetite for Israeli concessions,
Netanyahu temporarily abrogated Israel's legal rights by banning Jews from
exercising their property rights in Judea and Samaria for 10 months in 2010.
All the legal opinion published this week does is restate what Israel's
position has always been.
5. Whereas the Obama administration opted to
embrace Mursi even as he embraces Abdel-Rahman, the Obama administration
vociferously condemned Israel for having the nerve to ask a panel of senior
jurists to opine about its rights. In a press briefing, State
Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell banged the rhetorical hammer.
As
he put it, "The US position on settlements is clear. Obviously, we've seen
the reports that an Israeli government-appointed panel has recommended
legalizing dozens of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but we do not accept
the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, and we oppose any
effort to legalize settlement outposts."
In
short then, for the Obama administration, it is all well and fine for the newly
elected president of what was until two years ago the US's most important Arab
ally to embrace a terror mastermind indirectly responsible for the murder of
nearly 3,000 Americans. It is okay to invite members of jihadist terror groups
to come to Washington and meet with senior US officials in a US taxpayer-
funded trip. It is even okay for the head of a would-be-state that the US is
trying to create to embrace every single Palestinian terrorist, including those
who have murdered Americans. But for Israel's elected government to ask an
expert panel to determine whether Israel is acting in accordance with
international law in permitting Jews to live on land the Palestinians insist
must be Jew-free is an affront.
THE
DISPARITY between the administration's treatment of the Mursi government on the
one hand and the Netanyahu government on the other places the nature of its
Middle East policy in stark relief.
Obama
came into office with a theory on which he based his Middle East policy. His
theory was that jihadists hate America because the US supports Israel. By
placing what Obama referred to as "daylight" between the US and
Israel, he believed he would convince the jihadists to put aside their hatred
of America.
Obama
has implemented this policy for three and a half years. And its record of
spectacular failure is unbroken.
6.
Obama's failure
is exposed in all its dangerous consequence by a simple fact. Since he entered
office, the Americans have dispensed with far fewer jihadists than they have
empowered.
It
is true that the election results in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and elsewhere are
not Obama's fault. But they still expose the wrongness of his policy.
7.
Obama's policy
of putting daylight between the US and Israel, and supporting the Muslim
Brotherhood against US allies like Mubarak, involves being bad to America's
friends and good to America's enemies. This policy cannot help but strengthen
your enemies against yourself and your friends.
Rather
than contend with the bitter consequences of his policy, Obama and his
surrogates have opted to simply deny the dangerous reality he has engendered
through his actions. Even worse they have come up with explanations for
maintaining this policy despite its flagrant failure.
Nowhere
was this effort more obvious than in a made-to-order New York Times analysis
this week titled, "As Islamists gain influence, Washington reassesses who
its friends are."
The
analysis embraces the notion that it is possible and reasonable to appease the
likes of Mursi and his America-hating jihadist supporters and coalition
partners. It quotes Michele Dunne from the Atlantic Council who claimed that on
the one hand, if the Muslim Brotherhood and its radical comrades are allowed to
take over Egypt, their entry into mainstream politics should reduce the
terrorism threat. On the other hand, she warned, "If Islamist groups like
the Brotherhood lose faith in democracy, that's when there could be dire consequences."
10. In
other words, the analysis argues that the US should respond to the ascent of
its enemies by pretending its enemies are its friends.
Aside
from its jaw-dropping irresponsibility, this bit of intellectual sophistry
requires a complete denial of reality.
11. The Taliban
were in power in Afghanistan in 2001. Their political power didn't stop them
from cooperating with al-Qaida.
12. Hamas
has been in charge of Gaza since 2007. That hasn't stopped it from carrying out
terrorism against Israel.
The
mullahs have been in charge of Iran from
33 years. That hasn't stopped them from serving as the largest terrorism
sponsors in the world.
13. Hezbollah
has been involved in mainstream politics in Lebanon since 2000 and it has
remained one of the most active terrorist organizations in the world.
And so on and so forth.
Back
in the 1980s, the Reagan administration happily cooperated with the precursors
of al-Qaida in America's covert war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. It
never occurred to the Americans then that the same people working with them to
overthrow the Soviets would one day follow the lead of the blind sheikh and
attack America.
Unlike
the mujahadin in Afghanistan, the Muslim Brotherhood has never fought a common
foe with the Americans. The US is supporting it for nothing - while seeking to
win its support by turning on America's most stable allies.
Can
there be any doubt that this policy will end badly?
Unity Coalition for Israel 3965 W. 83rd.
Street #292 Shawnee Mission, KS 66208 Phone: 913.648.0022 I Fax: 913.648.7997
Website copyright © 2006-2012. http://unitycoalitionforisrael.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment