‘President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus.” That’s what Mitt Romney, Republican candidate for president, said in the high-profile speech accepting his party’s nomination last week, repeating a slang phrase for sacrificing a friend for selfish reasons. Romney had deployed this phrase before, for example in May 2011 and January 2012.
This criticism of Obama fits a persistent Republican critique.
Specifically, several other recent presidential candidates used or
endorsed the same “bus” formulation to describe Obama’s attitude toward
Israel, including Herman Cain in May 2011, Rick Perry in September 2011, Newt Gingrich in January 2012, and Rick Santorum in February 2012.
Fourth, as Israel increasingly becomes an issue that divides Democrats from Republicans, I predict a reduction of the bipartisan support for Israel that has provided Israel a unique status in U.S. politics and sustained organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. I also predict that Romney and Paul Ryan, as mainstream conservatives, will head an administration that will be the warmest ever to Israel, far surpassing the administrations of both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. On the contrary, should Obama be reelected, the coldest treatment of Israel ever by a U.S. president will follow.
Obama’s constipated record of the past three and a half years vis-à-vis Israel on such topics as the Palestinians and Iran leads to this conclusion; but so does what we know about his record before he entered high electoral politics in 2004, especially his associations with radical anti-Zionists. For example, Obama listened deferentially to Edward Said in May 1998, gave a warm tribute to former PLO flack Rashid Khalidi at Khalidi’s going-away party in 2003, and sat quietly by as guests at this party accused Israel of terrorism against Palestinians. (In contrast, Romney has been friends with Benjamin Netanyahu since 1976. In this photo from Romney’s July 2012 visit to Israel, the men’s big smiles attest to their ease and friendship.)
Also revealing is what Ali Abunimah, a Chicago-based anti-Israel extremist, wrote about his last conversation with Obama in early 2004, as the latter was in the midst of a primary campaign for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. Abunimah wrote that Obama greeted him warmly and then added: “Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I’m hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.” More: Referring to Abunimah’s attacks on Israel in the Chicago Tribune and elsewhere, Obama encouraged him with “Keep up the good work!”
When one puts this in the context of what Obama said off-mic to then–Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in March 2012 (“This is my last election. And after my election, I have more flexibility”), and in the context of Obama’s publicly displayed dislike for Netanyahu (as in this photo from 2008, in which he points a finger at the prime minister), it would be wise to assume that, if Obama wins on November 6, things will “calm down” for him and he finally can “be more up front” about so-called Palestine. Then Israel’s troubles will really begin.
— Daniel Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum. © 2012 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.
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