Was Winston Churchill “in real trouble” when he took over from Neville Chamberlain in 1940 after war had broken out? Not at all — the English supported Churchill because they could see no alternative to war. Churchill projected strength, and that is what they needed most of all. It was Chamberlain who had to resign as prime minister and apologize in public for his failed appeasement policy. Chamberlain was in trouble, not Churchill.
This week the pundits seem to have decided all together that Benyamin Netanyahu is in real trouble today, supposedly because Barack Obama has “humiliated him” and put him in a double bind. It ain’t so, and the attempt by leftoids to portray Netanyahu as “humiliated” is nonsense.
Yes, Obama, in his usual subtle fashion, attempted to humiliate Netanyahu. But Obama is also an expert liar and faker, who believes that “the appearance of power” is power. It’s all by the book, Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
This whole media narrative is nonsense, for any number of reasons. Here are just some.
1. Humiliation?
Someone can spit in my face to try to humiliate me. Whether I am therefore humbled and shamed — actually humiliated — as a result of that is up to me. Netanyahu comes from a people who thugs and gangsters have attempted to humiliate throughout history. Egyptian slavery is humiliation, but it became part of the defining narrative of the Jews. In the Hebrew Bible every single imperial power in the neighborhood invades the land of Israel and the land of Judah. They still keep their identity — and they are not really as peaceful as they’re sometimes cracked up to be. The dynamic of humiliation by an enemy followed by fierce resistance is pretty much coded in their biblical genes.
The same thing goes on in the Christian Bible. The Romans were brutal conquerors, after all, and Jesus was a rebel against Imperial Rome and its local puppets. So there’s nothing new about resistance to thuggery in the history of Israel.
2. Netanyahu isn’t Obama
Most men and women in Israel have faced the possibility of violent death — not just their own, but that of their children and parents. Israel was founded by such people. They train and train to meet that danger without flinching, if there is no alternative. Jonathan Netanyahu, Bibi’s brother, was killed at Entebbe leading a rescue raid of Air France air passengers who were being held hostage by thugocrat Idi Amin. Bibi’s father fought with the Irgun. His kids have done their service in the IDF.
Netanyahu is a hundred times the man Obama could ever be. Obama is a manipulator, an ideologue, and a liar. He sat for twenty years at the feet of a real racial hate monger, Jeremiah Wright. There is simply no doubt about these facts. Even the Democrats can’t deny it anymore.
Would you bet on a Chicago pol against an Israeli special ops guy? I wouldn’t.
3. More support
Since Obama administered his “public humiliation,” more Israelis and friends of Israel have come out in support of Israel and its prime minister than ever before. This isn’t personal. Netanyahu is the highest elected official of a sovereign people. Imagine Gorbachev trying to publicly humiliate Ronald Reagan in this way. How would Americans have felt? Even the Democrats would have had to fake a little public protest to cover their rears.
Only 9% of Israelis now believe that Barry is actually pro-Israel. The mask is off. In addition, the Israeli left is now being deeply embarrassed. This is important because it is a very delusional left, just like ours. The parliamentary opposition can’t afford to look like they are kneeling down to Barack Obama, or they will lose whatever popular support they still have.
Obama and Rahm Emanuel have been trying to play Israel’s left wing ever since Obama was nominated. They started long before he got elected. Obama has constantly tried to kiss up to the truly bloodthirsty regimes of Syria and Iran, and his big Cairo speech was hosted by Al Azhar University, which also happens to be the mainstay of endless Sunni hate propaganda against Israel and Jews.
The more Israelis perceive Obama to be an enemy, the stronger the support for Netanyahu will become — provided that he doesn’t back down. If Bibi does back down, they’ll just have to find somebody else to be Winston Churchill. This is a time for Churchills, not Chamberlains.
4. The worst Barry can do
According to Noah Greenberg, Obama can threaten some real moves — not Alinsky head fakes.
Barry can stop military aid to Israel.
Not a chance. The Democrats are in enough trouble already. That would just add fuel to the flames of anger against Obama’s medi-fraud. Israel’s military aid money from the United States goes right back to American military manufacturers, who are trying to ride out the Obama recession, as well as the military budget cuts they think are bound to come. Republicans would love to see Obama try this.
Egypt and Israel receive equal amounts of military aid, and the Egyptians don’t want that treaty arrangement changed either. With Iran getting nukes, the Arab world is going to need Egyptian clout to aid the Saudis and the Gulf states against Iranian aggression — especially if Obama bugs out of the Gulf. Even the French have a carrier in the Gulf now.
Barry can mobilize European and UN opinion against Israel.
He’s been trying to do that, behind the scenes, ever since he got elected in the phoniest election since Jimmy Carter’s teeth carried him into power. The UN hates Israel just like it hates America, so that’s no loss. But the Arab states are quietly hoping that “the two Satans” — Israel and America — will knock out Iranian nukes for them. Sure, the Arabs would love to see Israel driven into the sea, but not at the cost of their own lives. Sunnis understand exactly what Khomeini was about when this regime came into power, even if Jimmy Carter hasn’t figured it out yet. Iran represents political Shiism, which has always laid claim to the true lineage of Mohammed. The Iranians want to conquer Mecca and Medina, and for the Arabs that would be worse than losing Jerusalem.
There’s more. The Europeans do have a huge stream of anti-Israel agitation in their government-supported media. Still, the Germans cannot afford to be perceived as falling back to National Socialism. The French are led by Nicolas Sarkozy, who is part-Jewish. If anybody is going to walk away from Israel, the Europeans want it to be Barry.
In addition — in spite of all the hatred in the European media against Israel, the continent is full of people who have not forgotten their history. Even the Russians haven’t. What is more likely is that the Russians will try to draw Israel into their own orbit, by selling them arms. Putin just put down a hellish Islamofascist rebellion in Chechnya with naked force. He doesn’t want another Islamist regime with nukes within missile range of Russia.
Barry can recognize the Palestinians as a state.
This is a wonderful idea that the Pals have been trying to dodge forever, because real statehood would give them real responsibility — for the welfare of their own people and for the suppression of attacks against Israel. Israel is at peace with Jordan, Egypt, and even Lebanon, neighbors who have the responsibility of statehood. Israel is not at peace with Fatah, Hamas, and Hezbollah, because they can dodge those responsibilities. How many sovereign states in the world have received massive welfare payments for sixty years for four generations of “refugees” who make their living from international terrorism?
Obama is on the run.
Obama’s key move is always to fake brute force and power. Then, when he is challenged, he backs down. That’s why Putin isn’t afraid of Barry. It’s also why the Chinese, who actually took him to the woodshed in public over the weakening U.S. dollar, don’t fear him. Even the GOP isn’t afraid of Barry anymore.
In fact, nobody is afraid of Barry except the people who rely on American resolve and strength. They should realize clearly that ultimately they only have themselves to rely on. If the Israelis are reawakening to that elementary fact, then Barry’s “humiliating” moves may actually do some good.
Barack Obama is now on the down side of his power curve. The Democrats are running scared. A lot of them are going to lose in the fall. In off-years the party in power always loses congressional seats, and the American people are ready to get amazingly angry at this grossly irresponsible administration. These people are just too wacky, too obviously incompetent, and too anti-middle class America to get away with their phony bluff forever.
The emperor is stark raving naked in front of the whole public. Just watch what happens when people really get that.
When he feels threatened, Barry always strikes out — verbally. It’s his personality, a mix of grandiosity and slippery evasion. He also tends to overreach over and over again. After all, most Americans don’t hate insurance companies, or Wall Street, or the car companies. That’s all leftie fantasy land. It’s pure Obamanoia.
The trick with Barry is to let him be himself. He’s his own worst enemy. Netanyahu has already won this game of perception with a Jiu Jitsu move. Watch the silent supporters of real democracies in the world, like Israel, turn against Barry on this one. How do you suppose Taiwan looks at this today? South Korea? France? The Iranian democracy protesters? All the other democracies that count on us?
The Europeans and UN-uchs like to play off all the Muslim regimes against Israel in public, just like they love to scapegoat the United States in their media. It gets them off the hook — they hope. But when push comes to shove they know who their survival depends on.
They know it’s not Obama.
[Corrections: the first paragraph was revised to correct an error. In 1938 1939, Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty; he became Prime Minister in 1940 after having been asked by King George VI to form a unified War Cabinet. Also, the rescue at Entebbe was of passengers of Air France, not El Al. Finally, Nicolas Sarkozy is not of Polish descent. We regret the errors.]
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