Earlier in the week, Israel’s defense minister pointed out that the current US foreign policy is weak, especially regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said “If we wished others would do the work for us, it wouldn’t be done soon, and therefore in this matter, we have to behave as if we can only rely on ourselves.” Basically, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Ya’alon added that US weakness is bad for the world, and that he hopes “the US comes to its senses.” Many Americans share that sentiment.
Ya’alon’s comments come after years of the Obama administration snubbing Israel, casting it as the villain in its difficulties with the Palestinians, and generally treating Israel and its leaders unfairly.
US Secretary of State John Kerry decided that he would demonstrate strength by calling up Israel’s prime minister to tell on Ya’alon.
“Secretary Kerry spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning. And he protested to him his concerns about these comments,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday.
The U.S., Psaki reaffirmed, maintains an “unshakable commitment” to Israel’s security.
“So it is certainly confusing to us why Defense Minister Ya’alon would continue his pattern of making comments that don’t accurately represent the scope of our close partnership on a range of security issues and on the enduring partnership between the United States and Israel,” she said.
Campaign hack Psaki may find all this confusing, but it’s straightforward to anyone who has followed US-Israel relations, and Obama’s treatment of the Iranian nuclear standoff, since 2009. Obama has tilted toward Islamist groups from the Palestinian territories to Cairo to Syria and beyond, quite consistently. He has at the same time criticized Israel over settlements, tried to force it to accept indefensible borders, and publicly slighted its leaders. He has taken America’s positions of leadership in so many areas and thrown them away.
It all adds up to, as Ya’alon notes, Israel not being able to depend on the United States anymore.
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