The Lynching of Netanyahu, Oren, and Israel
Commenting last week on the “Biden row,” President Obama said there was no “crisis” between the United States and Israel, just that the actions of the interior minister in Israel “weren’t helpful” and that “Prime Minister Netanyahu acknowledged as much and apologized for it.” Really? So why did the U.S. administration make such a fuss about it for days, way after Netanyahu had formally apologized? Why did the administration keep saying that the government of Israel, not just the interior minister, had insulted the United States? And why did the administration go so far as to summon the Israeli ambassador in Washington to Foggy Bottom to be scolded, a very harsh step by diplomatic standards, especially between friends?
Back to the hard facts. Vice President Joe Biden landed in Israel on March 8, in the evening. The mood was cheerful. Everybody, both on the American and the Israeli side, recalled that Biden, in his previous life as a U.S. senator, had been one of Israel’s most reliable friends on Capitol Hill.
March 9 was equally idyllic. That is to say, until 6:00 p.m. Then, news broke, from an Israeli Interior Ministry source, that Israel was going to build 1600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a neighborhood in northern Jerusalem that the Obama administration sees as part of East Jerusalem, i.e., an “occupied Palestinian territory.” (Previous U.S. administrations had various views on East Jerusalem: those parts of the city that were either no man’s land or under Jordanian occupation until 1967. But they usually agreed that its ultimate legal status was legally undecided and should be settled through Israeli-Arab or Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.)
It looked a bit like an Israeli blunder, or even a provocation, since Netanyahu had agreed to Obama’s request, some six months earlier, to freeze for some time any settlement building in the West Bank, if not in East Jerusalem. Biden insisted on apologies. Netanyahu was eager to get over the incident — he and his wife were supposed to host the Bidens for dinner that same evening — and did indeed apologize to him.
However, it became clear very soon that there was no Israeli decision at all to expand Ramat Shlomo. The Israeli prime minister had not passed any such decision. The Israeli interior minister — Eli Yishai, from the Sefardi orthodox Shas Party — hadn’t either. There was only a green light, at a very subordinate bureaucratic level at the Ministry, to review a housing project, without any kind of government commitment. Lara Friedman, an analyst writing for Americans for Peace Now, a militant group opposing any kind of Israeli settlement across the pre-1967 green line, said:
This has been reported by many as a deliberate slap in the face to Vice President Biden by the government of Israel. The facts are less clear. From what we understand it seems almost certain that Prime Minister Netanyahu did not know about the plan or have advance warning that it would be considered and approved for public review at this time. Likewise, this is not the sort of thing that comes under the authority of (Jerusalem) Mayor Barkat. If the timing of this approval/announcement was deliberate, than the culprit here is more likely Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) and/or right-wing officials in the Interior Ministry bureaucracy.
obama is not a friend to Israel nor to america.
he is a malignant narcissist. nothing good will come from obama for anyone.
Why Jews are such fall-over-ourselves-apologists – an explanation.
Centuries of having what psychologists call our personal “boundaries” crushed through violence and rejection have caused us to lose the ability, the emotional intelligence, to gauge situations of challenge – we tend to panic, and that is what happened to Benyamin Netanyahu – he panicked and apologised to Hitlery. Then a day later he recovered his emotional balance and since then he’s been preaching about how Jerusalem was is and ever will be ours.
But the damage has already been done, he projected weakness and that is why the European Union and others have piled on with their condemnations against an innocent people, who have done nothing basically to deserve this outrageous attack.
Americans should urgently do “something” about the Obami, otherwise there really won’t be elections in November as Rush is prophesying.
Will most Jewish voters now see the reality of this administration? Stay tuned.
Observers have noticed that the only time in Hillary Clinton’s life when she spoke out for Israel was when she sought and held the job of Senator from NY. Before that, she was Mrs. Arafat’s pal, and now she’s the official mouthpiece against Israel, much as Condi Rice was, but with far more venom and less intelligence.
Barack Obama, however, has been anti-Israel all the way except for a few soothing words when he needed votes in 2008. His closest advisors on Middle Eastern matters share his scary world view. Don’t bother to talk about Rahm Emanuel, who has some burning desire to put the screws to his native land.
The more people think about it, it was Barack Obama who insulted Sgt. Crowley and the Cambridge Police Dept., insinuating that they were racist. If fact, it was Barack Obama’s reflexive condemnation of them that was truly racist.
The more we see of Barack Obama, the more we see his inner Jeremiah Wright peek out. Perhaps Obama WAS listening during his 20 years in church.
The Jews who voted for him are a greater danger to Israel than he himself is. The enemy you don’t see is a bigger threat than the enemy before your eyes.
When the camps were liberated the kapos were dealt with first. I wish we could arrest them all…I will miss my family.
SFI
I watched with amazement as the Jewish vote went to Obama. He is clearly no friend to Israel and he isn’t doing anything to help his own country either. If, in 2012, the people who voted for Obama, vote to put him back in office, I guess they, as well as the rest of us, will just have to reap what others have sown. I still look back in shock that so many people, millions, in fact, were so poorly informed about the man they elected as President.
Are there any actual Jews out there who voted for him but do have buyer’s remorse? Anybody know of any? Please speak up here!
Or is this just a current urban legend?
The ‘Jews’ who voted overwhelmingly for Obama are liberals first, Jews last. Every proud, synagogue-going Jew I know is a conservative who loathes what Obama is doing and doesn’t give a damn what is PC. Self-loathing, apologist, liberal Jews desperately want to fit in to society and not stand out. They fear the Christian right more than any Moslem. I have no doubt that they will vote for Obama again en masse in 2012.
“Harold Hill Obama” should have been obvious to the “self perceived elite” “rich know it alls” among us; sometimes refered to as “self hating…
Today many of “them” see it but still can not say: “I was wrong, I made a mistake”; that is how you know they still consider themselves..as noted above…
Clarity: Islime is at war with the west to end free speech to criticize Islime!
Islime leaders do not think Islime can survive against western culture! So we are under perpetual attack: by Islime! However:
Bin Laden (Achmatjihad Iran) is a mercenary marketing director for various government own weapons manufacturers parading as a “religious person” which he, by “English” definition, could not be: no definition of “religious” could include flying planes into buildings…
…and by the way, believe it, do not believe it, my charactization of Ben Laden fits better than his own and mine makes it hard for him to recruit…we do his work by accepting he is religious…is that clear?
If Israel, G-d forbid goes, these terrorist will tear America down in no time.
It is correct that we do not need invading armies to woop their sorry a…;
We start winning by not buying any mid east oil and embargo all food, oil, and steel to/from Iran, Saudi, Syria et al (embargo by land, sea, and air: no phones, no lights, no internet)…Just like we did Japan in June 1940; not in your history book is it.
Domestically produced cellulose ethanol equals: full employment in the USA, balanced trade deficit, cut off of funding for terrorist; set the minimum price of fuel at the pump at $1.75/gal to keep monopoly OPEC from lowering the price long enough to rust out our stills.
I could convert the USA to cellulose ethanol in 24 months; WAR ENDS WE WIN!
(Did you, invalid objection, ethanol dissing Lilliputians add the BTUs for the war ships and dead Army men to the cost of crude?)
Clinton/USA demand no Jews in parts of Jerusalem!
Clinton/USA is demanding a terror state (like Iran or an entity like Al Qaeda) be established on the West Bank/Gaza…
… while the US/EU claim to be at war (Iraq/Afghan) with the same terrorist they demand set up a state on the West Bank/Gaza.
One can only conclude that the US/EU soldiers are in fact human sacrifice to the Islime G-d and that this war is in fact a phoney “nice Long lasting War and sell lots of weapons” exactly as I informed every member of congress between 1989-1991. c 1991 getty…
We send army men to die fighting people; while we demand that that same enemy/people set up a terror state on the West Bank and Gaza exactly like the States we are fighting/human sacrifice…this is “bazaar…
The USA: with friends like the USA, who needs enemies…The USA brought this current uprising in Israel with “malice of forethought”.
“Obama is now willing to meet Netanyahu in the wake of the AIPAC conference. Quite a change of tune from a fortnight ago.”
Don’t be so sure. This is to be a “private meeting”, with no press and no photos. Just like Netanyahu’s last visit where he was delivered to the White House back entrance in a van. More likely, Obama – who reportedly was “rip sh**” angry at Israel over the Ramat Shlomo announcement – will use the occasion to show Netanyahu who is boss, and to wrest yet more concessions out of him.
The administration is the midst of developing a new narrative to justify its pro-Palestinian/pro-Islam realignment. The narrative has two contradictory components. The first component is the classical anti-Semitic “the Jews are the cause of all our problems” argument. The current manifestation of this argument is that our support for the Israelis is undermining our ability to fight Sunni extremism and therefore the strategic imperative of the War on Radical Islam requires this realignment. General Petraeus has recently said this.
This argument is easily disposed of by examining Arab/Muslim behavior over the past decade. One of the first things the Iraqi people did when Saddam was overthrown was to expel all the Palestinians from Iraq. That indicates that the Iraqis only give lip service to the “plight” of the Palestinian people. Given an opportunity, the Iraqis treated the so-called Palestinian people worse than the Israelis.
In May of 2007, the Lebanese army attacked Palestinian extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Northern Lebanon. In the process of rooting out these terrorists the Lebanese army destroyed the camp, caused hundreds of civilian casualties and displaced 50,000 people. The Arab and Islamic world was silent. Again this demonstrates that the rest of the Muslim world only gives lip service to the cause. They couldn’t care less.
Finally, General Petraeus recently stated that our tilt towards Israel makes it hard to win the support of the Afghan and Pakistani population. The typical Afghan doesn’t know where “Palestine” or Israel is let alone care about the people there. The idea that Pakistani militants are motivated by the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is laughable. They are motivated by Kashmir and not events in the far away Middle East.
The second line of argument, which is being made to justify Obama’s continuing efforts to court Iran, is that the enemy is Sunni extremism and a strategic alliance with Iran would help to defeat the Sunnis. Iran makes noises about the Palestinians but since they are Sunnis they really don’t care. What they are, the mullahs that is, are Holocaust denying Jew haters who would gladly exterminated both Jews and Sunni Arabs. If the US were to make such an alliance it would not enhance our relations with the Sunni world. Instead it would inflame them and increase support for the radicals as act of self defense.
The Obama administration is doing what every anti-Semitic government does. It uses contradictory rationales for an anti-Jewish policy. This Administration is deliberately taunting the Israelis with the intention of creating a break with Israel so they can create a justification for flipping sides in the dispute. Obama understands that an outright abandonment of Israel would not work politically but if he can make it look like Israel’s fault then he might get away with it.
Many good comments, but Toronto Girl said it best,
Superb moral clarity.
The ‘liberal Jews’ who might feign outrage will indeed pull the straight Democratic ticket in both 2010 and 2012. Israel is to a very large degree irrelevant to their decision, and far from the most important of issues.
History has proven again and again to believe anything else is sheer foolishness, and a “stiffnecked people” will not change without divine intervention. It will take an act of God Himself to make otherwise.
bo won’t wrest anything from netanyahu. it’s clear that we have a mentally unbalanced president. his actions and those of his toadies are reminiscent of the last days of the caesars’ when the empire was deteriorating.
he struts and puffs himself up and admires himself like a third world ruler (for whom apparently he has nothing but admiration) despite the disgust that most americans feel whenever they see him or hear his pathological lies.
and, who are the iranian dissidents meeting with? israel.
and, where are sanctions and the harsh rebukes for iran from this potus?
nowhere.
77% of Jewish-American voters MAY have voted for Obama, but no one in the media ever noticed how many Jews stayed home and did not vote for anyone, especially in New York City where the Daily News reported threats of “blood in the streets” if Obama lost. That kept hundreds of thousands of Jewish voters home in Brooklyn and Queens alone. Dig for the data because New York State made sure the voter data was reported in a way to make it extremely difficult to determine why voter turnout was so low.
Please, to all my American friends, collegues, and relatives, wake up. Don’t you see that Obama is an islamic mole whose prime purpose is to undermine the US and do irreparable damage?
Must agree with supreme allied commander @ #1 and Toronto Girl @ #8 (more or less); unfortunately Toronto Girl, I know of observant Jews who voted for St. Barak; I asked one, is he happy he voted for him, and he walked away from me. All of this reminds me of a statement by one of the bloggers at Commenatry Contentions: James Baker said, f**k the Jews, they don’t vote for us; the Obami say, f**k the Jews, they’ll vote for us anyway.
so what everyone here is saying every jewish person has to agree with Israel or else they are traitors..right?
They are saying that at least a majority of this smart people should be smart about this point.
mr.
Can’t speak for everybody, but I will speak for me so I’ll be blunt. And I believe I speak from the ultimate “negotiator” with authority far exceeding any past, present or future U.N. mandate or Obama dictate.
Anybody that calls themselves Jewish and doesn’t agree without equivocation that the city called Jerusalem is the Jews, all of it, should drop the title of calling themselves Jewish immediately, and find another descriptor. Because frankly, it’s an insult to Judaism to say otherwise.
And I have a sneaking suspicion, in fact a complete confidence, that those that penned the words which created Judaism would agree. That is, until somebody can convince me Obama knows better than say Moses, Joshua, King David, or Solomon.
I don’t have that kind of confidence in Barack’s abilities to determine what is valid and just, nor do I believe I will anytime soon.
Why in the world is anyone surprised at Obambi’s attitude toward Israel. This is an individual who spent 20 years at the feet of his pastor, Jerimiah Wright, the very openly anti American, anti Israel, White hating, Jew hating black liberation communist. So Obambi learned his lessons well. Any surprise?
I think Obama’s warped view of the world was developed well
before he laid eyes on Reverend Wright. I truly wonder just
how much Obama’s radical opinions helped shaped the Reverend’s
views, not the other way around.
Jerusalem Is the Capital of the state of Israel it is NOT part of the “occupied Territory” that all the liberals squawk about. There are parts of the city that are Arab but it is STILL not part of the disputed territories.
The cynic within me thinks it’s all just kabuki theatre.
Most American Jews will vote for Obama because they pay little attention to what goes on outside of their own immediate lives – no different than other Americans. It requires persistence to sift through media misinformation and go against the grain. Most American Jews don’t vote for Obama because of attachment to liberalism. Ideology is not that strong. They do it so their families won’t ostracize them and so they can fit in with their friends and neighbors. Most have no idea what he stands for or his policies. Only gradually will some awareness percolate down, but it is always late.
great interview by Rush Limbaugh in his magazine “Limbaugh Letter” of Norman Podhoretz.. NP described the situation of the American Jew, with liberalism being a higher religion to many of them than Judaism.. a combination of old mistrust of Christians (many of whom were anti Semitic in bygone decades and centuries)and a sense of intellectual superiority caused Jews to be leftist, which of course is most of the history of the nation of Israel itself..
Today, the Dem party is purging traditional religious folks and everyone else who isn’t a hardcore MARXIST.. and Jews are noticing that hardcore Marxism includes a HUGE dose of anti semitism from Marx the self hating Jew, the original “leftism first, Judaism last” Jewish guy..
THe comfort zone of leftism which the American Jew has occupied for decades is eroding away, revealing the bones of a hard and vicious new leftist mindset which wishes destruction on Israel and considers Jews inferior in every way. Naturally, this will divide American Jews, says Podhoretz. Some will be like Marx (Karl, not Groucho), wishing they weren’t Jewish and clinging to leftism. Others will wake up.
It remains to be seen how many, and how quickly, but it certainly looks to me like it’s happening.
I don’t know enough about Jewish history to know if NP’s analysis is accurate, but it seems good to me. Dennis Prager says today’s American evangelican Christian is the best friend Israel has, FAR better now than the Democrat party. Perhaps their ONLY friend, even…
I am sickened and saddened by BHO’s treatment of Israel. Israel is our ally and has always been there for us. I admire the people of Israel and their commitment to what they believe and commitment of their time, money and energy to maintain their security and the welfare of the people all while facing dire adversity. I believe that they know the vast majority of Americans are there for them. I apologize to them for their treatment by Biden and BHO. They are both oafs. One is a narcissistic communist racist oaf and the other is just a dumb oaf, but both are legends in their own minds. If I could only believe this was a horrible nightmare – I hope we vote them out soon or, better yet, the judicial arm removes them before 2012. I am sad that the news is all about “hooray for socialists and their policies” and to see this is demoralizing. I do believe we shall have this last chance to ensure none of them are ever placed into positions of power again in America. We all need to pay attention and be involved.
This is the battle for Jerusalem.
It is extreme religious, political, and violent and always has been. Every stone seems to come from Herod or before. Religious fervor sweats out the walls.
If one looks there and walks the streets in Yerushalayim, America seems…distant. Yet Israelis love America far more than anywhere else in the middle east.
So I cannot understand what is happening now. I still think most Americans feel a connection and that is important in what will happen. We have been disconnected by our governments. Bibi is less popular than Obama in Israel.
Spinlost
It seems that Israel is an ally as long as the US follows its false policies blindly. For the first time in recent decades, a US president has the guts to say enough is enough and for the sake of Israel herself, let’s bring some sense to the table.
I find it amusing that while most users of this webiste and its writers are attacking the Obama administrations effort to bring healthcare to the Americans, they are supporters of Israel, a country that provides healthcare to all of its citizens. Yes, healthcare in Israel is universal and all citizens are entitled to healthcare. So aren’t you guys supporting a ‘communist’ regime (in your opinion of course). Oh I see, israeli citizens deserve healthcare but Americans don’t? And by the way, needless to say… we give billions of dollars of aid per year… don’t we deserve a little bit of respect in return? How about postponing the announcement of your plans to build illegal settlements until after our vice president has left your country?
Israel has a public healthcare co-op. There are several, BUT they have the option (and anyone middle class or above uses it) to purchase excellent private care, where docs make house calls. Comparing 6,0000,000 homogeneous Jews with a country of 300 million VERY diverse ethnic groups is ridiculous. Apples and oranges.
Problems arise time and again among good friends or among allies. In spite of their special relationship, the U.S. and the UK have quite often quarreled. But friends and allies usually make sure to calm the issues down.
Pure bs. I want my country to care about my country first. Let the UK and Israel take care of themselves first, and let them fund their own endless wars. We have ours, let them have ours. I certainly don’t see what Israel brings to this partnership. We give them over three billion dollars a year, and we get a headache every six months when they defy every request we make of them. Seriously, anyone who advocates this deal is an imbecile.
lgkicks @ #29 – Why don’t you ask the other side to sit down face-to-face with Israel? Instead, Israel has endured rocket attack, suicide bombers, many dead Israelis, and for what? Israel made extensive concessions to the so-called Palestinian Arabs. Had no agreements been signed between Rabin and Arafat, both the Israelis and the so-called Palestinian Arabs would have a better have today. Instead, Israel has become an embattled state and the so-called Palestinian Arabs have(by their own choosing) sunk into poverty, gangesterism and banditry. You see the problem really is not any particularl concession Israel might make, because the only concession truly to the liking of the so-called Palestinian Arab would be the extinction of Israel. Remember, for Islam, any place it puts down roots becomes part of Dar-es-Salaam; and Israel is occupying a place that belongs to Dar-es-Salaam, hence it must be extirpated (and Andalusia (=Spain and Portugal) is not too far behind).
Oscar Le Grouche @ 31
Really, you don’t see what Israel brings to the table????
How about decades of fighting America’s wars and keeping Russian/communist expansion into the Middle East (which is BTW the source of the life blood of the USA – oil) at bay. The USA has never had to intervene physically on behalf of Israel and shed the blood of American boys and girls like they did in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. And please don’t tell me that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has anything to do with Israel as these wars are a reaction to a murderous attack against the US that occurred on 00/11/2001 if you have already forgotten.
How about all the technology, know-how, intelligence and other help Israel provides the USA with in the war on terror which in some expert’s words saved more money than is ever given to Israel, not to mention the number of American lives saved.
BTW – most of the money granted to Israel is being spent in the US (part of the deal) which helps keeping many people’s jobs here in the US.
What do you think that the Muslims will do when they are done with Israel, be happy and act like civilized people? No my friend, they’ll go after your @@s.
Even now as we speak it seems like Israel is the only ally that is willing to do something about the Iranian threat, which is not confined to the Middle East alone, or do you believe that when Ahmadinijad will have the bomb he won’t give the technology to his good friend Chavez? So, who is fighting the other’s war now? And who is an imbecile?
Pardon me for the typo – I meant 09/11/2001. No offense meant.
BHO is a coward bully, who has no courage to face the real foe, a.k.a Iran,Russia of N Korea. Natanyahu and Israel will survive
spite to the antisemite in WH.
Well written… but what else is new? By now, the only people who don’t know what a jerk obama is, or who don’t know that defilement of the smelliest kind has festered the White House since January 2009, are the hardcore liberal progressives and stupid democrats who are surprisingly STILL mesmerized by the fake president and first ungrateful wench (a.k.a. defilement of the smelliest kind).
Little o get the F off of here and quit using my name. You are the only imbecile on this blog.
Little o get the F off of here and quit using my name. You are the only imbecile on this blog.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/tobin/266066