Obama prepares to throw Israel under the bus
As predicted here repeatedly – Obama is attempting to throw Israel under the Islamist bus, and he’s getting American Jews to do his dirty work for him. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel reportedly told the Israel lobbying group AIPAC on Sunday that efforts to stop Iran hinged on peace talks with the Palestinians. General James Jones, National Security Adviser to Obama, reportedly told a European foreign minister a week ago that unlike the Bush administration, Obama will be ‘forceful’ with Israel. Ha’aretz reports:
Jones is quoted in the telegram as saying that the United States, European Union and moderate Arab states must redefine ‘a satisfactory endgame solution.’ The U.S. national security adviser did not mention Israel as party to these consultations.
Of course not. If you are going to throw a country under the bus, you don’t invite it to discuss the manner of its destruction with the assassins who are co-ordinating the crime. As I said here months ago, the appointment of Jones and the elevation of his post of National Security Adviser at the expense of the Secretary of State was all part of the strategy to centralise power in the hands of those who want to do Israel harm.
Yesterday Vice-President Joe Biden and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry turned the thumbscrews tighter, telling Israel to stop building more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement.
This is all not only evil but exceptionally stupid. The idea that a Palestine state will help build a coalition against Iran is demonstrably absurd. The Arab states are beside themselves with anxiety about Iran. They want it to be attacked and its nuclear programme stopped. They are desperately fearful that the Obama administration might have decided that it can live with a nuclear Iran.
The idea that if a Palestine state comes into being it will be easier to handle Iran is the opposite of the case: a Palestine state will be Iran, in the sense that it will be run by Hamas as a proxy for the Islamic Republic. The idea that a Palestine state will not compromise Israel’s security is ludicrous.
It is of course, by any sane standard, quite fantastic that America is behaving as if it is Israel which is holding up a peace settlement when Israel has made concession after concession – giving up Sinai, giving up Gaza, offering all the territories to the Arabs in return for peace in 1967, offering more than 90 per cent of them ditto in 2000, ditto again to Mahmoud Abbas in the past year -- only to be attacked in return by a Palestinian terrorist entity, backed in its continued aggression, let us not forget, by the countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which has made no concessions at all and is not being pressured to do so.
It is not the aggressor here but the victim of aggression that America is now choosing to beat up. In any sane world, one might think the Americans would be piling the pressure on the Palestinians to renounce their genocidal ambitions against Israel, to stop teaching and training their children to hate and kill Jews, to adhere to the primary requirement in the Road Map that they must dismantle their infrastructure of violence as the first step in the peace process; one might think, indeed, that they would view Mahmoud Abbas’s repeated statements that the Palestinians will never accept Israel as a Jewish state to be the main impediment to peace.
But no. The repeated professions that America will never jeopardise Israel’s security are stomach churning when Obama is actually blaming Israel for measures it has taken to safeguard its security – the settlements were always first and foremost a security measure, and the travel restrictions are there solely to prevent more Israelis being murdered – and trying to force it to abandon them. Today comes further news that Obama will also try to force Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would force it to dismantle its nuclear arsenal – which it only has as a last ditch insurance against the attempt to annihilate it to which more than a billion Arabs and Muslims remain pledged.
Of course Obama doesn’t care that Hamas would run any Palestinian state. Of course he doesn’t care that Israel would be unable to defend itself against such a terrorist state. Because he regards Israel as at best totally expendable, and at worst as a running sore on the world's body politic that has to be purged altogether (see this bleak assessment by Sultan Knish). His administration is proceeding on the entirely false analysis that a state of Palestine is the solution to the Middle East impasse and the route to peace in the region. What that state will look like or do is something to which at best the administration's collective mind is shut and at worst makes it a potential cynical accomplice to the unconscionable. So Israel is to be forced out of the West Bank. Far from building a coalition against Iran, Obama is thus doing Iran’s work for it.
None of this, however, should come as the slightest surprise to anyone who paid any attention to Obama’s background, associations and friendships before he became President and to the cabal of Israel-bashers, appeasers and Jew-haters he appointed to his administration, with a few useful idiots thrown in for plausible deniability.
Almost eighty per cent of American Jews voted for Obama despite the clear and present danger he posed to Israel. They did so because their liberal self-image was and is more important to them than the Jewish state whose existence and security cannot be allowed to jeopardise their standing with America’s elite.
But the ordinary American people are a different matter. They do value and support Israel. They do understand that if Israel is thrown under that bus, the west is next. And it is they to whom Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu must now appeal, over the heads of the politicians and the media and America’s Jews and everyone else. He must tell the American people the terrible truth, that America is now run by a man who is intent on sacrificing Israel for a reckless and amoral political strategy which will put America and the rest of the free world at risk.
This is shaping up to be the biggest crisis in relations between Israel and America since the foundation of Israel six decades ago. Those who hate Israel and the Jews will be gloating. This after all is precisely what they hoped Obama would do. To any decent person looking on aghast, this is where the moral sickness of the west reaches the critical care ward.
* An earlier version of this post linked to a story in the Jerusalem Post which said an AIPAC delegation to Congress was asking it to lobby for a two-state solution. This story appears to have been wrong.
** Further update:It now appears from this story and this that the AIPAC position may be more ambiguous still.
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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power', published by Encounter.
For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here
Melanie Phillips blog archive
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ahad ha'amoratsim
May 6th, 2009 12:28amI do not like or trust President Obama nor Mr. Emmanuel.I believe that Mr. Obama is not so much motivated by evilly as he is a victim of his own naivete, wishful thinking, and ignorance of history and statecraft. Despite its size, military power, population, and geographic protection, the US can ill-afford his delusions. Israel, bordered on three sides by numerically superior and vastly larger enemies armed and funded by Iran, and on the fourth side by an oceam, can afford them still less.
Obama's delusions endanger the world, not just the US and Israel. Millions of Cambodians died because of the moralizing delusions of my generation of Americans. Millions of Iranians live under tyranny, many Afghanis died and the Taliban was launched, all because of the naivete of Jimmy Carter. G-d protect all of us against the naivete and moral preening of President Obama.
d gray
May 6th, 2009 1:03amThere is no way that America will come to the aid of Israel when she is attacked by Iran.The attack is coming and is only a matter of time.Some are saying it might come when Pakistan falls under the taliban's boot but Iran will be the ones I think who will either bomb or invade.Obama is a vile coward.
Truthtriumphs
May 6th, 2009 1:38amProvidence WILL look after the Jewish people and Israel.
The Americans are already realising that there are far more pressing problems to occupy them, such as the imminent threat of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of the Taliban, who are only some 60 miles from Pakistan's capital, and are calling the shots.
Only days ago a prominent member of Obama's administration was asked what reassurances the US could give that it would prevent such a nightmare scenario happening at all costs.
He was left floundering trying to respond coherently.
They will not have time to concentrate on the Israel/ Palestine problem and it will become a sideshow in the bigger picture.
Roy
May 6th, 2009 3:23amWhat a depressing lot the free world community has become. They have taken in every ounce of propaganda and lies dished out to them. They have become a dogsbody of appeasing rabble. The silent majority unable to make itself heard above the incessant clamour of the apparatchiks against truth and honour.
Jerry
May 6th, 2009 3:34amWhile I am orthodox in the practice of my Judaism, I know as well that it is inappropriate to depend upon miracles. Rather, I expect that Obama will suffer the same fate as his Middle East counterparts. He may remain in office, but he will be unloved, untrusted and unsuccessful, a circumstance he never expected. Anyone who can talk out of both sides of his mouth so well, will ultimately find his tongue unable to coordinate its own efforts. This is not a religious view, but an observation that cognitive dissonance must ultimately be resolved in humans. Americans will choose the underdog and the happy ending, so Obama's biggest mistake will be to make Israel the underdog.
Thank you for being there, Melanie.
Jason from AZ
May 6th, 2009 3:49amIt's fortunate that Netanyahu is the current PM, as he is the only contemporary Israeli politician with the backbone not to give in to Obama's demands that will seriously compromise Israel's security.
For instance, Israel will never give up its nuclear arsenal under any circumstances. Nukes are the only assurance that if todays 21st century Nazi's attempt a second holocaust, the Jews will not be the only ones to perish this time round.
Terry
May 6th, 2009 4:42amObarmey is actually throwing America under the bus. If iran managed to nuke Israel, it most certainly wouldn't stop there. Its main prize would be the US without which a world under islamofascist rule wouldn't be possible. Europe will be islamic in a very few years as indiginous europeans are wiped out by their tolerance of intolerance. Pakistan is already halfway to being overrun by islamofascists who sign appeasement pacts with the government and then ignore them. All over the world this new fascism is creeping forward.
Israel stands in its way and then the US. Handing Israel to the fascists will only appease them until they can land a nuke on New York.
As it stands, Israel may have to deal with iran and bugger obarmey and his fellow appeasers.
Tying iran to the pretend palestinian project won't solve the ME crisis. The crisis is about a century old racist arab and islamofascist war against the Jews. Nothing to do with land. Palestine will disappear into the caliphate just as Israel would once it had been destroyed. This is a racist war and if America's first black president can't recognise that (Martin Luther King did!) who can?
gary
May 6th, 2009 5:18amIt's sad. It's disgusting.
An American
May 6th, 2009 5:41amMany of us knew and predicted that Obama would abandon Israel.
It appears that Obama wishes to force Israel to continue to give up it's land and protection until it simply disappears...Poof!
Obama is not only intent on destroying the US-Israeli relationship that helped keep Israel safe, he is greatly undermining US safety as well by his actions.
Only God knows what is in Obama's mind, but everything he and his far left Facist cronies have done so far in a short 100 days is an abomination to the American Constitution and the American people.
Along with our Constitution, Obama is in the process of destroying our capitalist financial system.
He is undermining our country's wealth by spending trillions...more in a mere hundred days than in all previous years.
He is destroying private corporations, firing their CEOs and giving the bulk of the coportation's wealth over to his beloved unions which helped finance his presidency. Even thugs have to pay off eventually.
He is destroying our intelligence network while pretending otherwise.
The destruction of what was once a great nation goes on and on and grows with each day.
Are Americans going to march quietly to a dictator driven socialist state as the Europeans did under Mussolini and Hitler?
Only time will tell and time is not on the side of our friend, Israel.
George
May 6th, 2009 7:25amHOW TO START EACH DAY WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK
1. Open a new file in your computer.
2. Name it 'Barack Obama'.
3. Send it to the Recycle Bin.
4. Empty the Recycle Bin.
5. Your PC will ask you: 'Do you really want to get rid of 'Barack Obama'?
6. Firmly click 'Yes.'
You should now feel much better.
israel
May 6th, 2009 7:59amAn American:
"Only God knows what is in Obama's mind, but everything he and his far left Facist cronies have done so far in a short 100 days is an abomination to the American Constitution and the American people."
"Are Americans going to march quietly to a dictator driven socialist state as the Europeans did under Mussolini and Hitler?"
Okay, i'll bite. Which one is President Obama? Is he a Socialist? Is he a Fascist? Is he a Radical Black Muslim? Is he a Foreigner who is illegally President? Is he that urban Southern myth of the angry black man there to subjegate the white people in the US in revenge for three hundred years of slavery and segregation? You members of the 21% have to make up your minds. It's still what, 18 months til the midterms? Everytime l here rants like yours i'm drawn to the thrid verse of Buffalo Springfields "For What It's Worth".
I am not a bit surprised that you feel that the former member of the Israli army is so set on making sure they are left exposed to attack. This is the way of the neocon, right? Promote fear to move on the agenda? Well good luck to you in the 21% with that.
Arthur Lincoln
May 6th, 2009 8:03amLook what the marxists in NuLabour have done to Britain. This is just 10 percent of what will happen to America under the leadership of Obama.
Andre
May 6th, 2009 8:51amThe mistake Obama makes is in trying to reason with Islamic terrorists - like Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria and the Taliban. The new US administration fails to distinguish between peaceable Muslims who - as Mel points out - are very concerned about a nuclear Iran and dislike Hamas - witness the hold up of the peace convoy and the absence of criticism of Israel's Gaza bombing by the Jordanians and Egyptians - and the mad men who see jihad not as a personal struggle against sin but an excuse for physical attack on unbelievers. Ultimately this, I believe, can be explain by Obama and liberal secular America's espousal of a moral vacuum now filling up with live-abortion, dodgy banking, material greed, pornography and gun crime. The west - we are just as bad in Britain - no longer readily distinguishes right from wrong. Bluntly, Israel is on the side of right,good and moral probity, free speech, democracy; it cannot afford to be otherwise. We in the West have yet to realize this. Happily I am remitted by faith to pray for Israel and that good might triumph over evil. Would that Obama had evolved a moral clarity to match that of George Bush.
Neil Turner
May 6th, 2009 9:12amNone of you get it
As Christian and Israel watcher for some 20 years, may I offer a different take here ?
Israel is a miracle. The Lord God of Israel takes a personal interest in Israel's security, and He will not stand by whilst Obama and Iran seek to destroy it
Many of you reading this might be surprised in this secular age, but I firmly believe that the only reason that Israel exists is that God wills it so
Over 20 years of observation, I have noted one attempt after another by Islamists and Humanists foiled or distracted.
Watch this space for economic meltdown, natural disasters and global instability !
Check out Zechariah 12v3, written some 2500 years ago "On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone, a burden for all the world. None of the nations who try to lift it will escape unscathed"
David T
May 6th, 2009 9:36am"the settlements were always first and foremost a security measure"
In what way.
I can see how they might be a 'bargaining chip'.
But a security measure?
peter
May 6th, 2009 9:47amAbout time too.
Only today we saw the results of tender hearted treatment of Israel.
Wholesale barbarity in its invasion of Gaza.
Israel needs slapping and slapping hard.
Everybody knows it, and in the US, deespite AIPAC's best efforts. a clear majority voted for it.
Merlyn
May 6th, 2009 10:17amAs Nostradamus predicts, WW111 involving Iran and Israel coming up soon.
Ronnie
May 6th, 2009 10:44amThanks Neil Turner.
We can forget all about it now and send the bus back to the depot.
George
May 6th, 2009 11:16amPeter,
You are so wrong. There was no barbarity in Gaza. I know from first hand evidence of soldiers who were there. Who did you get your evidence from? The BBC??
Conservative Cabbie
May 6th, 2009 11:16amIsrael
Ok mate I'll bite too. (Yesterday I was in a love the world mood, today, not so much).
"Promote fear to move on the agenda?"
So when the White House threatens to sick the press corp on those Chrysler investors who want their fair return from the bankruptcy proceedings.
When Obama tells Hedge Fund managers that he's the only person standing between them and the pitchforks.
When a young lady expressed an opinion respectfully that the left didn't like and is then pilloried on MSNBC (which an administration spokesman said was very popular in the White House).
How is that not promoting fear to forward your agenda?
"You members of the 21%"
You are aware that Democratic party ID has actually fallen more than Republican ID. According to Pew, GOP ID was down 4%, Democratic ID was down 6%.
John Birch
May 6th, 2009 12:19pmConservative Cabbie: You're right that since Dec. 2008 the Democratic drop in voter id has been greater than the Republicans. However, what it dropped to is where the Democratic Party was in 2004. The Republicans are currently 7 points lower than they were in 2004. The Republican brand is especially low among those under 30. The GOP is in big trouble and in need of a major overhaul.
israel
May 6th, 2009 12:43pmCabbie:
Had a very wry smile at your reply. Hope your "love the world" mood wasn't dissapated by my lovely United tonking the gooners in their own backyard yesterday!! I will reply with just these words on fear promoting the agenda: "We do not want the smoking gun to be in the form of a mushroom cloud". Personally i'm surprised the pitchforks were not in use on Hedge Fund managers in the last few months. Or have l had it wrong about all those who were protesting about how the bailout money was doled out?
As for agressively going after people who have a contrary opinion? Two words: Bill Maher. Two other words: Joe Wilson. Top Trumps? The Dixie Chicks. Your running to the defence of Carrie Prejean is admirable. Thank god there is someone out there who is defendng her, i mean, she can't help it can she? As Melissa Harris-Lacewell said "She is being stigmatzed because of an expression of her sexuality, judged because she's part of a group that is generally stereotyped (i.e pagent winners), and she is finding that her morality is being brought into question because of personal choices she has made." Hmm.... You would think she would have some empathy with those who want equality for what she calls "opposite marriage".
Thank you for pointing me to the PEW poll. I love the fact that you don't point out that it shows Democratic ID as 33% with Republican ID 22%. The interesting thing is the rise of Independents to 39% since December. Both parties have lost voter ID but don't you find that the rise of Independents shows that those leaving the GOp are the more shall we say moderate? How is streamlining to a harder right wing core going to bring them back? But we digress. This thread is about the hair on fire decisions (in the mind of Melanie and most who post here) of the Obama Administration that people here don't like.
James Christie
May 6th, 2009 12:46pmIsrael needs to tell obama to get stuffed.
Mark
May 6th, 2009 12:53pmArthur Lincoln - marxism in New Labour? Well that will come as a surprise to us all. Which specific aspects of Labour policy in the last 12 years do you think could be described as marxist?
Joshua
May 6th, 2009 1:08pm"Israel needs slapping and slapping hard." -- The prejudices of a person are often given away by the language he employs. Can you imagine him suggesting that any nation apart from Israel should be slapped and slapped hard?
Conservative Cabbie
May 6th, 2009 1:20pmIsrael
Joshua said "Israel needs slapping and slapping hard." I sure hope he wasn't referring to you. I may be in a partisan mood but I would definately not agree with those sentiments. A little hair ruffling maybe.
"Hope your "love the world" mood wasn't dissapated by my lovely United tonking the gooners in their own backyard yesterday!!"
It shouldn't do, I'm a Man U fan too.
Max
May 6th, 2009 1:29pmThe seems that the Ezekiel 38 & 39 war is now closer due the the shift in the American Foreign Policy thanks to Obama.
Conservative Cabbie
May 6th, 2009 1:38pmIsrael/John Birch
Actually party ID isn't all that helpful as a barometer of political affiliation within American politics except as an indication of trends.
Take a look at this Gallup survey of party ID in 2008 on a state by state basis.
http://tinyurl.com/dbaaf9
It says that there are only three safe Republican states and one leaning Republican state. All the others are toss-ups or in the Democratic box. Well that can't be right. John McCain won more than four states, so why the discrepancy?
Three possibilities:
1. John McCain did a lot better than he is given credit for.
2. Barack Obama did a lot worse than people think
3. My choice. People who identify themselves as Democratic don't turn out as much in elections as those that identify as Republicans.
Some key results. McCain won West Virginia which has a 19 point Democratic ID advantage, Kentucky has a 13 point Democratic advantage, Arkansas a 12 point advantage. All those are greater Democrat advantages than your 11% difference Israel and all went Republican. The advantage is not as great as you think.
If the Democrats were gaining ID whilst the Republicans were losing theirs, than that would be genuine cause for concern, but the fact that both parties are losing support to Independents suggests that the trend is as much a loss of interest in both parties as anything else.
Israel
May 6th, 2009 1:38pmCabbie:
Hair ruffling only works when you have hair!! Shows what l get for reading your comment first, l thought the Joshua reference was in the bible!! Hope we are not lamenting in three weeks!!
Helen J
May 6th, 2009 2:33pmAmerica is fast realising that as with so much Hollywood-style guff, Obama The Trailer didn't quite tell the truth about Obama The Movie.
Israel can thank its lucky stars Bibi is at the steering wheel because he is all that stands between it and oblivion.
Seat belts and flack jackets on, folks.
O'Teleprompter's script has been written by A'jad.
Helen J
May 6th, 2009 2:46pmPS, American Thinker is running a radio show you can download about the recent AIPAC gathering:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/05/all_american_thinker_night_on.html
That website along with National Review and Mark Steyn is one of the few outposts of media sanity we still have left.
An American
May 6th, 2009 3:01pmIsrael,
Fascism, Nazism, Communism are all socialist based. Obamas' brand of socialism is Fascism. In plain terms, Fascism is when a government forces partnership on private industries and then calls all the shots. This is exactly what Obama is doing. When he took over Chrysler, he fired the CEO, the gave Chrysler stockholders just 10 cents on the dollar, yet gave the union approx. 40% of the company when they originally only had some 20% of the stock. It was out and out thievery and pay-off time to the union for the financial and forced membership votes for his presidency.
Obama is a Fascist thug.
Please do me a favor and read my comments of May 3rd to Tancred on Melanie's blog "Are These People Serious'. It pretty much says it all.
I find it interesting that you, a Brit, believe you know the mood of Americans right now. Where do you get this 21% BS? From MSNBC?
Right now, we're stuck with this very dangerous fraud. Yes, he is a radical in every way, all you have to do is look at the extremist agenda he and his far-left cronies are forcing down our throats. For example the House just yesterday voted for a 'thought' law to protect homosexuals, minorities and yes...pedophiles! Yet its ok, in fact, encouraged to kill late term babies and babies that have survived abortions. You might find it interesting that the majority of babies aborted in the US are black babies, which if you read your history, was the liberal's intent from the beginning.
Obama may succeed with most of his far left agenda...but, in the aftermath, will go down as the most reviled president of all time. And please don't make this into a race issue. If he stood for what was good for the future of my family and my country, I would have voted for him if he were purple with pink polkadots.
Ronnie
May 6th, 2009 3:30pmCabbie and Israel, talking of slapping, I think that's what Utd will get from barca in the final.
:-)
Now, back to the Obama hate-fest...
Fivish
May 6th, 2009 3:31pmMelanie as always has it spot on. Who did not see that B.Hussein.O would not appease the Arabs big time? A loony lefty of the worst kind.
What ever happened to: "In God We Trust"?
Red Lion
May 6th, 2009 3:33pmread the UN report (only the very latest in along, long line)
Same inditements do not apply to Iran's behaviour. Not Hamas' for that matter.
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/05/05/4MayGltrtoSCBrd.pdf
Red Lion
May 6th, 2009 4:01pmAn American: 'Obama may succeed with most of his far left agenda...but, in the aftermath, will go down as the most reviled president of all time.'
Doesn't that accolade go to Bush?
Augustus
May 6th, 2009 4:10pmNow, after Obama's 100 day bash,
the Obama foreign policy doctrine has emerged, and its a mighty frightening one. The combination of dizzying naivety,
hatred of allies, the despising of one's own armed forces, distrust of the secret services,
and hatred of America, promises the worst foreign policy for a lifetime. And that includes the gigantic list of mistakes that Jimmy Carter made. In fact the Obama doctrine would bring cheers and approval from a founder member of the Weather Underground (Weather Underground
was a left-wing subversive terror organization in America, who became notorious in the 1960s/70s for blowing up government buildings).
There is the doctrine of 'we are the guilty ones': When something goes wrong in the world it is America who is to blame. This is a central conviction of left-wing ideology, and has so infiltrated the President's consciousmess that he now wears it like a second skin. There is the doctrine of problems can always be negotiated away: From the Somali pirates to disagreement with Russia, Obama and his team choose happy get-togethers as the best answers to conflicts. This president didn't arrive at the Oval Office by his deeds and his trust in his own negotiating skills knows no boundaries. Russians have found new oxygen for a cold war; the Taliban are gobbling up Pakistan; President Hugo Chavez is destroying democracy in Venezuela; Iran continues developing nuclear weapons with fresh enthusiasm...and Obama just wants to talk with them all. Then there's the doctrine of problems which can't be talked away can always be bought off: Pakistan, a state with nuclear weapons and 170 million Muslims,
who all boil with anti-American rage, and whose monolithic army is falling apart, is on the verge of self-destruction. Obama's answer? Let's send them millions of dollars, all of which will disappear. Lets send them weapons, most of which will be turned against America. And Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, believes the answer to the Somali pirates is a full-scale rebuilding of Somalia, as well as giving millions away to Hamas. This is Las Vegas law: You can buy sex, but you can't buy everlasting love. You can't buy off terror with benefit cheques. There is also 'Islamic terrorism doesn't exist'
doctrine: In fact, even the term is officially banned. When an Islamic extremist blows up thousands of innocents we are assured that Islam is a religion of peace which has played an enormous part in the development of the USA. (huh?)
As if 9/11 never happened. The 'non-terrorists' who bathe the whole of the Middle East in blood, and threaten the West at the top of their voices, are only victims of our past agressions. It's all our fault! Yet terrorists do exist; like returning veterans, and those who don't agree with the political turnaround in America.
And the Obama doctrine on Israel is very simple: The Palestinians are all victims. Hamas is a group of fighting social workers. The terrorists are only to be found in the Israel army.
America threatens to become a third-world country, riddled with a sickening culture of self-guilt. And this culture is being fed by breathtaking ignorance, with a president as leader who doesn't even know that Pakistan was founded as a democratic nation; a foreign secretary who actully believes that the West created the Taliban; a chief of homeland security who doesn't believe that terrorists exist at all; and a vice-president who swears that F.D. Rooseveldt spoke to the nation on television in 1929. If President Bush had made all those blunders the media would have had his guts for garters (suspenders in America btw). But Obama and his followers continue to evoke in the media only forgiveness of for everything. America's defeats will be turned into her victories.
Red Lion
May 6th, 2009 5:08pmM Phillips: 'They want it (Iran) to be attacked and its nuclear programme stopped. They are desperately fearful that the Obama administration might have decided that it can live with a nuclear Iran.'
What evidence do you have for that?
Would it be a good idea to attack another country on trumped up charges?
After all, 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' (no laughing at the back. please) was a success wasn't it?
Dan Vevers
May 6th, 2009 5:12pmChrist on a bike, what are you all talking about?!
dgray: "The attack is coming and is only a matter of time.Some are saying it might come when Pakistan falls under the taliban's boot but Iran will be the ones I think who will either bomb or invade."
Iran, with the military output of Finland, to invade or bomb Israel, with one of the most powerful and technologically advanced militaries in the world? And let's not forget that ALREADY-EXISTING nuclear arsenal of 200-300 nukes. But Ok, you indulge your ludicrous apocalyptic scenarios. And what do the Taliban have to do with anything?! The Taliban and Iran hate each other more than they hate Israel or the US!
Terry "If iran managed to nuke Israel, it most certainly wouldn't stop there. Its main prize would be the US without which a world under islamofascist rule wouldn't be possible."
WHAT?! If Iran managed to nuke Israel, it would be the last thing Iran ever, ever did, because it would forthwith be utterly obliterated. And in a world without the US, China would be the superpower, because next to the US/China/Russia and everyone else on the G20, this shadowy cartel of - what was it? - "Islamofascists" have a tiny amount of power, economically, militarily, politically. Snap out of this manic paranoia.
Joshua: " "Israel needs slapping and slapping hard." -- The prejudices of a person are often given away by the language he employs. Can you imagine him suggesting that any nation apart from Israel should be slapped and slapped hard?"
Well yes, when someone says they think a country should be slapped hard, I don't think there's much room for doubt as to what his prejudice towards that country is. But what you're trying to imply, is that just because he's criticised Israel, he is therefore anti-semitic.
I think North Korean should be slapped and slapped hard. Does that make me anti-North Korean people?
Arthur Lincoln: "Look what the marxists in NuLabour have done to Britain. This is just 10 percent of what will happen to America under the leadership of Obama."
Now THAT I can agree with.
An American
May 6th, 2009 5:26pmRed Lion,
The continuous Bush hate fest went on for the seven years, it's what put the 'Messiah' in to power...continue to go for it if it makes you feel better.
Obama and his far-lefties have all the power now, yet its not enough...they have to destroy anything and everyone that disagrees with their Fascist agenda.
I didn't agree with everything that Bush did in office, he was especially weak on the financial front and didn't have the courage to veto the Congress' sprending sprees, especially the wasteful stimulus plan that didn't work...but he kept us safe from attack for seven years. For that I owe him much appreciation.
You can't do what Obama is doing...in the end it will destroy the US and him along with it, just like his socialist predecessors.
History does repeat itself. Obama is just playing the same old game from the 30's and 40's with just a different smiling face. Who says that evil has to have an evil face?
An American
May 6th, 2009 5:32pmAugustus,
Thank you again...its always a pleasure to read comments from someone with a keen intelligence and common sense to boot.
Margaret Muller-Johansson
May 6th, 2009 5:50pmObama Bamacka and the Iranian dictator may try wherever they are thinking to Destroy the Holy Land but they will not succeed, The Iranians should fix the problems in Persia and should not involve the Arab and the Jewish world
newt
May 6th, 2009 6:41pmMelanie wrote
"Obama will also try to force Israel to give up its nuclear weapons – which it only has as a last ditch insurance against the attempt to annihilate it to which several billion Arabs remain pledged"
several billion? holy s**t! the last time I checked the arab population only numbered 300 million or so. Where are they hiding the rest?!
Hannah
May 6th, 2009 6:57pmThank you Melanie for an eye opening article.
Israel is a small country surrounded on all sides by hostle countries that want to see it wiped off the face of the planet and the US President wants to 'throw Israel under the bus', it beggers beleif. I love Israel and I hope the ordinary American people are as outraged with what Obama is on his way to doing as the people who have posted their comments are here today.
There's always hope Melanie :)
Joshua
May 6th, 2009 7:19pm'Joshua said "Israel needs slapping and slapping hard." ' -- I never said anything of the kind. I was quoting Peter - hence the quotation marks.
Pesach Goodley
May 6th, 2009 8:34pmMy first thought was to thank you, Melanie. Then I got swept trying to emphasize my main point that Obamination has been illegal from the first, and I forgot. THANK YOU, MELANIE. In retrospect, you are the reason I attended th Jerusalem Conference. I can't explain it, but I was not aware of you before then.
Jenny
May 6th, 2009 8:52pmThe mullahs must be wetting themselves laughing in Tehran - inbetween cries of "Allahu Akbama!"
All hail the Taqiyya President.
Original Tony
May 6th, 2009 9:25pmIt's ironic that Israel may find more allies among the arab people than in Obama's cabinet when push comes to shove over a nuclear Iran. Who would have ever figured that out!!
Gil
May 6th, 2009 9:29pmOh come on Melanie, Israel did not offer 'ALL [my capitals] the territories to the Arabs after 1967', even Resolution 242 talks about withdrawal from 'territories', not all of them.
Biden and Kerry were reminding Israel of its obligations to which it had been committed to.
I hate being in this position by pointing this out but not mentioning it doesn't do Israel any favours.
I don't believe that Obama will 'throw Israel under the bus' (he is merely creating new mood music for when the US finally takes action against Iran) and I disagree that Bibi should attempt to speak to the US over Obama's head.
Bill M
May 6th, 2009 10:16pm"Almost eighty per cent of American Jews voted for Obama despite the clear and present danger he posed to Israel. They did so because their liberal self-image was and is more important to them than the Jewish state whose existence and security cannot be allowed to jeopardise their standing with America’s elite."
You nailed it, Melanie.
The truly sick thing is they still support him for the same reason.
When will they swallow their pride and admit that they've made a grave and deadly error and make their voices heard in D.C.? AWAKE, AWAKE! If the Jews rise up, the administration may listen because it will threaten the seats in the House and threaten the wallets of "representatives".
Over the past few years, I was saddened to watch Britain flush itself down the multicultural toilet. Now I am caught in the American swirl.
NC chik from North Carolina
May 6th, 2009 11:09pm"He must tell the American people the terrible truth, that America is now run by a man who is intent on sacrificing Israel for a reckless and amoral political strategy which will put America and the rest of the free world at risk." Ms. Phillips, we know, we know. The American media will never acknowledge that they made a mistake bringing this man to power but the American people are not fooled. We support Israel for what our adminsitration is too cowardly to do and that is bomb Iran. God bless Israel and the Mossud.
sauce and sources
May 6th, 2009 11:49pmI think I might marginally prefer Melanie’s piece if she had credited General Jones with the “under the bus” expression she uses.
She seems to have got the expression from Jones via the Haaretz.article which she links to and which seems to be her main source.
What Jones was reported by Haaretz to have said however was this: “We will not push Israel under the wheels of a bus.” Which of course is precisely the reverse of what Melanie is claiming.
Pinching the expression, of course, looks pretty lazy in itself. But if she’s going to take Jones’ remarks as evidence for “A”, the fact that Jones actually said “not A” might, perhaps, have been something we might have liked to know.
I also love the way she begins her piece, “As predicted here repeatedly,” - as if her predictions have now come true – when what follows is at best a prediction itself. And one based on remarks by Jones which specifically contradict what she alleges.
Yehuda
May 7th, 2009 11:58amThere are clear indications that the Obama administration is planning to attempt to pressure Israel to countenance the creation of a third Palestinian state { yes; THIRD} even as the putative leaders and populace of such a putative state constantly reaffirm their refusal to countenance an independent Jewish national existence in The Land of Israel, and even as they constantly proclaim their ambition to ethnically cleanse the Land of Jews.
Israel, however, has come a long way since the days when President Eisenhower could threaten to throw it under the bus unless it rewarded Arab aggression; also a long way since the US Secretary of State, James Baker, exhorted the US administration to "f..k the Jews"; also a long way since the first President Bush's administration was able to compel Israel to absorb Iraqi missile strikes without defending itself.
Today the Obama administration, by its wrong-headed embrace of a Middle East policy which has been tried and in every case has failed, it risks pushing the region into a cataclysm which will shove the USA itself under an express train.
William Lambton
May 7th, 2009 12:30pmThe West does seem to be going through a process of intellectual disintegration, in the political world. Few writers have an original point of view. Those that do 'disappear' from journals. The game seems to be to analyse little sections, the trees, of the body politic; looking at the wood is unfashionable. The looming prospect of war, one must allow, gets uglier as it gets closer. It is normal to look at one's toes, as one tries to decide what to do. Or simply to look in any direction other than ahead.
David
May 7th, 2009 2:28pmthe USA does not owe every snot nosed little country eternal protection. It is just too damn expensive. In case Israel hasn't heard the news yet, the USA is stone cold broke.
David Lindsay
May 7th, 2009 4:22pm"the attempt to annihilate [Israel] to which several billion Arabs remain pledged"
Billions of Arabs? Where?
You might be able to see them, Melanie Phillips. But nobody else can.
Stick to domestic policy. You are good, indeed invaluable, on that.
Hans Moleman
May 7th, 2009 7:19pmDefense Secretary Gates, obviously speaking at the president’s direction, has announced that the US has no military ability to destroy the fast-developing Iranian nuclear program. All we would do would be “send it further underground.”
So, the penultimate obstacle to Iran’s holocaust plan has been removed. The world’s powers have now informed Israel that she is on her own. The 6 million Jews living in the Iranian crosshairs must now decide if they have any alternative to “learning to live with an Iranian bomb” as the "realists" advise. They may decide that “sending Iran’s nuclear program further underground” is not a bad idea, if you keep at it.
This may turn out to represent as dark a day for freedom as the Munich pact, when “silent, mournful, abandoned, broken Czechoslovakia receded into the darkness” as Churchill put it. But Israel is unlikely to recede quite so quietly. A people whose cherished shrines include Masada will not go down without a fight.
America has suffered a humiliating defeat without a shot fired. As commenter Lester puts it, “America can’t afford to have a foreign policy anymore.” But money isn’t the problem; the will to defend freedom is our real deficit. Recently, Obama spoke the all-too-easy words: “Never Again.” Now he has retracted the words.
This is a tragic day for free peoples everywhere.
Adam B.
May 7th, 2009 7:49pmDavid, you're quite right.
Then the USA can have no regional allies at all. Brilliant!
Jess
May 7th, 2009 9:21pmMs. Phillips,
Superb article! You are exactly right that Mr. Netanyahu needs to make the case to Americans, bypass the politicians and the American Jews.
I am an American who is a wholehearted supporter of Israel and the Jews, which is one of the main reasons I did not vote for Obama, I knew he would be poison for Israel. I told my Jewish friends, who said I was crazy,I tried to make them look objectively at his "associates" and "preacher", his "background" etc. They did not want to hear any of it and even distanced themselves from me.
There are many of us here in the U.S. who support Israel and the Jews, my mother who voted for Obummer is a supporter of Israel and does not believe he would turn his back on the nation, once she see's he will, she will no longer be a supporter.
Mr. Netanyahu stand strong against this man and his teleprompter! The people of the Great Nation of America will stand with you and Israel!
Barb F
May 8th, 2009 2:19amI want you to know that I and my family are those average Americans who love Israel and are appalled at Obama's blatant disregard for its preservation and safety. My 17 year old son hears anti Israel drivel in his "World Studies" class at Buffalo HS in Buffalo, MN and goes nuts. He has tried to speak up, but it is difficult when he is the only one who understands or cares about what goes on in the Middle east and Israel in particular. One girl in his class said she didn't understand what all the fuss was about regarding Israel because hardly anybody lives there anyway. HELP!!!!! Thank you for your writing and insight. PS I do not believe Obama is naive. I believe he is a Marxist megalomaniac who knows exactly what he is doing and does not care about the consequences.
Jorge
May 8th, 2009 8:39amIf Pr. Obama thinks destroying & harassing the only democracy in the m.e.is constructive for america, he is wrong. the appeasment policy does'nt work. But i'm sure israel will make it with or without obama as has been making it since her independence. 61 years of existence - so many achievments like no other nation, read some statistics in the cia fact book site
JONNY
May 8th, 2009 3:12pmI'm very much afraid that Israel, like every other country in the world, must now accept the hard fact that its own narrow interests aren't the only ones that matter.
That the time has maybe come for it to stop relying for ever on unlimited US patience and indulgence.
And that, as a sweetener, it would be a very acceptable gesture to surrender its own illegal nuclear weapons in exchange for Iran not building one.
Fair's fair, even in cases when one of the parties happens to be Israel.
Raymond in DC
May 8th, 2009 7:48pmDavid writes, "the USA does not owe every snot nosed little country eternal protection. It is just too damn expensive. In case Israel hasn't heard the news yet, the USA is stone cold broke."
Funny, though. The US seems to find the funds for Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon and the Palestinians. Indeed, they get collectively more than does Israel. How many of them can be deemed close allies and friends of the US?
Trapped under the bus
May 8th, 2009 9:19pmI do not trust a theocratic, right wing, expansionist government that refuses to listen to the outside world and respect treaties and rulings that effect it. Obama shouldnt either
Matt Neville
May 9th, 2009 1:23amI just do no buy that these guys who have always been firmly in the Pro-Zionist camp are doing 180 degree turns. I say that deceptive theatrics are being staged. After Obama let Chas Freeman go down without so much as a whimper in his defense-No Sir-I do not buy it.
beloved
May 9th, 2009 6:15pmJohn Birch,
Republicans have always been the minority party, and it's been repeatedly announced for fifty years that conservatism is dead.
John Birch
May 10th, 2009 12:15pmCabbie and Beloved: All valid points, but that still doesn't mean that the Republican brand isn't in trouble. In the last 5 presidential elections the Democrats have won three, won the popular vote in a fourth and barely lost in 2004. They now also control the House and Senate. Plus the Republicans lack an heir apparent as they did with Reagan in the 1970s. There's no one of his stature anywhere on the horizon. So this may well be a lengthy period in the wilderness for the GOP.
Dan Martins
May 10th, 2009 3:10pmPhillips is brilliant but she does like to start a stampede.
Israelis voted for Netanyahu not because they refuse to part with the West Bank but because, following Lebanon and Gaza, they refuse to hand yet another and even larger, more dangerous chunk or territory to Iran for use as a missile base. Unfortunately Netanyahu and Lieberman, the people who represent and exploit this legitimate Israeli concern, also represent the poisonous settlers, whom the majority of Israelis have no time for.
Unfortunately handing back the WB is the necessary chess move. As Obama and Livni both understand, the settlers are the key. It is they and only they who fuel Arab propaganda, legitimise Arab violence in the eyes of morons all over the world and keep the issue burning for rejectionist states like Iran to use as excuses for their own aggressive agendae. To deflate Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizballah, one must deflate the settler movement. The way to do this, most believe, is to hand over the West Bank to Abbas. Therefore the West Bank must be handed to Abbas.
Israelis are happy to do this - as long as the result isn't yet another Iranian base like Gaza or Lebanon on Israel's doorstep, this time bigger and closer. They have no faith that, left to themselves, the Palestinians will not rush to become exactly that, which is the one reason they voted for Netanyahu rather than Livni. Yet voting for Netanyahu has strengthened the settlers rather than weakened them, as needs to happen.
And this, I think, is what Obama understands. Yes, Israel's right wing must be thrown under a bus: the settlers must lose, the West Bank must be given to Abbas. But does this mean Israel will be sacrificed? Not if assurances are given that the new Palestinian state will not be militarised (something long demanded by Israel and suddenly part of the revised Saudi plan) and not allowed to become an Iranian base; that is, if Israel is given carte blanche to stop this from happening. Surely this is what Obama has in mind; anything else would be a betrayal of such calamitous and historical magnitude that even the darkest imaginable version of Obama would not want it on his record.
And will this solution work? Not necessarily. The Arabs will do everything possible to undermine any agreement and covertly arm an independent Palestine to the teeth. But what else is new? With the settlers gone, at least it will be clear to the world that the Arabs and Islamists have no excuse for terrorizing the world any more, and perhaps their cause will finally wither on the vine, as it should have 60 years ago.
planetdestroyer
May 10th, 2009 5:22pmpraise and glory be to you melanie and to caroline Glicks. its people like you we should be tuning into everynight on tv to give us the TRUE low down.
archer
May 10th, 2009 11:43pmroy said:
What a depressing lot the free world community has become. They have taken in every ounce of propaganda and lies dished out to them. They have become a dogsbody of appeasing rabble. The silent majority unable to make itself heard above the incessant clamour of the apparatchiks against truth and honour.
now those are three eloquent, succinct, truth-packed sentences.
beloved
May 11th, 2009 12:24pmJohn Birch wrote: Cabbie and Beloved: All valid points, but that still doesn't mean that the Republican brand isn't in trouble. In the last 5 presidential elections the Democrats have won three, won the popular vote in a fourth and barely lost in 2004. They now also control the House and Senate. Plus the Republicans lack an heir apparent as they did with Reagan in the 1970s. There's no one of his stature anywhere on the horizon. So this may well be a lengthy period in the wilderness for the GOP.
beloved asks: so, you think Carville is right? He published a book '40 more years of Dem absolute monarchy.' (He's referencing the 40 year control of the Congress after WWII until mid-term Ronald Reagan.) I can't remember the actual title, but that is the tone. We need to factor in two things: 1- the percent who self identify as liberal or conservative/and or libertarian, rather than party name. (The majority are conservative, liberal is a dirty word that equals socialism leading to communism.) 2-the de-centralized and grass roots nature of the Republican party, at this time, makes it indeed the people's party. Voters have the Republican politicians and their party under the voter's thumb, where all parties and politicians should be. Whereas, Dems tightly control party members down to the least insignificant mouthpiece for propaganda. As a result, the Dems are currently experiencing brain drain, and up and coming independent minded political brains are attracted to the Republican Party; the same as capitalists run toward a stock crash to take advantage of new opportunities. The Republican's situation as the underdog makes them attractive to some voters, as well. I have a number three: Dems in the White House with control of Congress ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS over-reach. They cannot help themselves. Their natural arrogance leads them to believe all of America and the entire world is behind them. They think the angels sing when they wake up every day to expand the power of central government/the kingdom of God. Happens EVERY time, and it's happening now much more quickly than usual. Correction of imbalance of power is a historic fact, and usually happens at the mid-term Congressional elections. If not, O could end up being a one-term President.
beloved
May 11th, 2009 1:52pmPS to John Birch. "Brand" is offensive to voters, as well. The Dem Media and the O'Machine use it all the time, as in 'Obama brand' and as you have 'Republican brand.' The phrase turns thinking ppl's stomachs.
Bill M
May 11th, 2009 2:44pmTrapped under the bus @May 8th, 2009 9:19pm
I'm right with you on those Palestinians!
a jew
May 19th, 2009 4:28amcan anyone explain to me why 78% of jews voted for Obama? probably every 3/4 here now complaining with their comments
Lenny
May 19th, 2009 11:27pmWhy did you put these disgusting green spots all over the text? It looks like some kind of censorship! It is very uncomfortable to read.
shai
May 20th, 2009 10:34pmim an israeli
unfortunatly israel bent down to the popular ajenda of self disseption. people on the street like everywere else in the world dont Comprehend whats hapening.
Larry Hill
May 20th, 2011 12:34pmAnd on May 19, 2011 Obama followed through.
Tom
May 21st, 2011 1:01amBush Thows Isreal under same bus in 2008
Speaking after two days of meetings with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Bush said, “I believe that any peace agreement between them will require mutually agreed adjustments to the armistice lines of 1949 to reflect current realities and to ensure that the Palestinian state is viable and contiguous.”
He added, “I believe we need to look to the establishment of a Palestinian state and new international mechanisms, including compensation, to resolve the refugee issue.”