Obama picks a great time to throw Israel under the bus

Jerry

The Obama administration will be subjected to a self-correction mechanism called elections. They will soon be gone.

Jonathan Karmi

It's all about timing. The timing of the Ramat Shlomo announcement was atrocious, stupid beyond belief. I can understand American anger on that one. Who likes being humiliated ?

The principle of building in that particular area of North Jerusalem is another issue. It's nothing like as contentious as many of the dumb places where Israel has build settlements and dormitory suburbs. But the humiliation of Biden overshadowed that point.

Israel’s government shot itself in the foot. In the short- to medium-term all that matters is Iran. Israel will have to destroy the Iranian nuclear sites, because sanctions won’t work. Israel has to achieve tacit US acceptance for such an operation. Anything that distracts from that is a failure.

Netanyahu should have sacked his Interior Minister, Yishai. He should get shot of Yishai and Lieberman’s parties (Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu) from his coalition and bring in Kadima to in effect create a ‘government of national emergency’. What lies ahead will be of that magnitude.

Terry, Eilat - Israel

I can't comment any more, I'm so absolutely disgusted I'm speechless. I feel like I'm living in the 1930's - it's happening all over again. All I can say at this point is that I hope my gov't., the Netanyahu coalition, has the political will do whatever is necessary to stop Iran. And, by this I mean that even using nuclear weapons & I don't care what the world thinks.

Kiwi

Could it just be that Obama is trying to shoehorn Israel into accepting a two-state agreement with the Palestinians, naively believing such an agreement would cause Iran to step away from its nuclear ambitions and genocidal threats aimed at the Israeli state? Clearly, Obama is looking to avoid confrontation with the Islamic Republic at any cost. Surely, even a blind man can see that by doing so he’ll be creating another of those historical ‘peace for our time’ moments.
It would pay Obama, who has been known to compare himself with Abraham Lincoln, to heed the words of the 16th President, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Only time will tell if Obama is made of the same stuff. Somehow I doubt it.

tiki

It's about time that somebody should point out to this US administration, EU and others, that if Iran sends a bomb, their 'precious Palestians' and
Jordan/Egypt/Libanon and others in the ME might go quicker than the Israeli's (who are well prepared). Rockets do have the tendancy to fall on places where they are not supposed to fall. So before the whole world is 'counting themselves rich to a 'world without Israel, think again.......there might be a surprise. Maybe that's why they are called the 'choosen people, because somebody is watching over them and it's NOT the USA and certainly not the EU.

Trumpeldor

@Jonathan Karmi,

"It's all about timing. The timing of the Ramat Shlomo announcement was atrocious, stupid beyond belief. I can understand American anger on that one. Who likes being humiliated ?"

I do not agree ,Jonathan
Since Jerusalem is NOT concerned by the stupid building moratorium in Judea and Samaria,,there was no need to make a fuss about it
You want israel to be loved by nations for its decency and its vibrant democracy,prepare yourself to be disappointed till the end of your days,after 120 years I do hope for you

Shavua Tov,

Nick

Israel is certainly no ally of the UK.

If it were, why did it feel the need to steal the identity of British citizens to carry out a sordid little assassination?

(Wonder why they didn't steal US passports?)

YA

Israel now beefs up IDF even more, and will continue. Especially multi-layered missile defence, anti-terror spec-ops, heavy armoured corps, and long-range attack capabilities. Robotic naval boats and UAV fleets. (And tennis gears, certainly).

Neither Arab terrorists nor Iran don't and won't dare moving against such might. Also, they know that if they behave badly, there will be another hit.

One should expect increasing actions against arms smuggling, and more.

Obama might like liking but we like kicking.

Could someone imagine Netanyahu bowing to Saudi "king"?

Hugo

Weird. Even after reading your post a couple of times, Melanie, I still couldn't find any mention of the 112 new apartments in Beitar Illit that were authorised just as Biden was arriving, which are not in East Jerusalem, and are in the West Bank, and which are probably responsible for poisoning the whole Biden visit from the start.

If I were you, I'd re-edit your post to mention them. Because, if I didn't know how scrupulously impartial you always are about this sort of thing, I might come away sort of under the impression that you'd not mentioned them on purpose, or something.

www.jeremyhavardi.com

Absolutely right. Settlements are a peripheral issue here; it is the PA's refusal to end its war against the Jewish state, manifested in so many ways, that is the true cause of this current impasse.

logdon

Not to mention Biden’s reiteration of the 'contiguous Palestinian State' meme.

Apart from the fact that getting Hamas and Fatah to agree on anything (apart from virulent Jew hatred) is impossible, how do Israeli's feel about having their state split in two? Carved up and served on a plate to be devoured bit by bit until there’s not one scrap of Jewishness left.

Or is Jewish fate now the preserve of a Muslim adoring US President bowing and scraping, in more ways than one, to his Saudi clientele? Remember, this is a man, one of whose first symbolic actions was to return the bust of Churchill to Britain.

It's all a charade. The biggest smoke and mirror act of the decade.

The only thing which would cause ecstatic rejoicing amongst the Arabs is not a 'Palestinian State coexisting peacefully, side by side with a Jewish State' but the complete annihilation of Israel.

Those banners proclaiming ‘Hitler was right’. The indoctrination of goose stepping children. Arm raised Fuehrer salutes. The history of the Nazi ideology, welded at the hip with Arab anti-Semitism. Yet the puerile and disgustingly abusive finger of apartheidt state always points towards the Jews.

It’s as plain as could be, yet how many are either that stupid or wilfully blind to this obvious truth?

One thing, reading blogs from Israel show a new binding and coalescence of saving the nation attitudes. Obama has around a three percent approval. Biden regarded as a clown.

The Dunkirk spirit, so in evidence at the nation’s birth is re-emerging as this life and death struggle with the combined forces of hate and ignorance ratchets into screaming diatribe.

We may be sneeringly casting aside our historical heritage, national antecedence and Christian Judeo roots but Israel, having fought so relatively recently against all odds to create a Jewish homeland is certainly not.

Merlyn

Nick,
If you had been following the M.E. news outlets, you would have learnt that The palestinians now believe that it was Jordan and Egypt that were behind the assassinations. Check it out.If this is the truth, for sure you would not find any retractions or apologies to Israel.

compayee

Yet afaik Obama got 85% of the Jewish American vote (and would have
got/would get mine too were I an eligible American voter).
Quite clearly, the overwhelmingly liberal American Jewish electorate
was (still is?) seduced/infatuated by/with Obama. It is not that they
do not care about Israel or Obama's impact on Israel but they
definitely regard this issue as collateral, as something of a distant/low
priority which does not affect their daily lives.

And what would have been the alternative in the White House?
The hawkish right wing as embodied by the neo cons? It has all but a
limited appeal among the American Jewry much as one of its mentors was
one Norman Podhoretz. Perhaps this is because the neo cons have this
hard core Christian religious dimension that unsettles the more liberal Jewish
voter. It is true, attempts have been made to forcibly "marry" the
Christianity and Judaism under the common denominator of
Judeo-Christian values/civilization.
This is meant to satisfy both the Christians and the Jews and mould a
new, all inclusive narrative.
The trouble is that don't think this appeals to the liberal minded as
it does not really please the state of Israel itself either, which wants to
remain, and rightly so, faithful to its Judaic roots only, no strings
attached. After all, one religion had their Messiah arrived 2010 years ago
whereas the other still waits for that first coming.

True, there have been rather naive attempts to create
such bodies as "Jews for Jesus" (they've
got an outlet in Kentish Town not far from where I live)
but I think no ordinary Christian would describe himself/herself as "Judaic" as no
Jewish person would accept being labeled as "Christian", much as privately might not mind each other's creed.

That is why I got a bit alarmed by Norman Tebbit's use of the word "anti-Christian horde" in his Telegraph blog.
As someone who has a Jewish background, am not myself Christian. Does Lord Tebbit ascribe me to that "horde" too?
Hmmm... Now you know why I shan't vote for the Tories as I wouldn't vote for their Republican kin in the US.
Writes Lord Tebbit:

"I have some affection for the real Charlemagne. He certainly defended Europe from the anti-Christian hordes, but he certainly was not British, nor Anglo-Saxon. "

So, to end with, there is little one can do as to Obama's reluctance to back Israel's Iranian stance.
It's a matter for the American voter to decide who is their leader and implicitly who moulds the external policy.
I doubt Obama can be manipulated in any other way than eventually voted out of the office by those who dislike him in 3 long years' time.

Ben, Cracow

Melamie is right generally but it's not the whole picture.
According to Debka East Jerusalem housing plans were not the attack but rather counterattack, a response to Biden behavior http://www.debka.com/article/8638/
And today it came to this: "US ponders denying Israel arms needed for conflict with Iran" http://www.debka.com/article/8648/
BTW it makes me sick that liberals around the globe support apartheid in Jerusalem. It is not secret that a lot of Arabs buy apartments in new development areas of Jerusalem and live there without any problem. But then a Jewish family will try to move into their own property in Arab neighborhood all hell breaks loose...

Larry in Tel Aviv

hey Melanie you need to e-mail Alan Dershowitz and ask him to comment. Let's see Dershowitz wriggle out of this one..

logdon

Here's a bit of clear blue sky on the whole thing. From Arutz Sheva.

Netanyahu: Let’s Not Get Carried Away’ with US Crisis
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu Bibi: Calm Down over US Crisis

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tried to calm down the political crisis with the United States and told the Cabinet Sunday morning “not to get carried away and to calm down” following an unprecedented public rebuke from top American officials.

In what a UPI analyst headlined “Biden's Operation Boondoggle,” the Vice President’s arrival in Israel last week coincided with a government announcement for construction of previously-approved housing for Jews in the Jewish Ramat Shlomo neighborhood bordered on all sides by the densely populated Jewish neighborhoods of Sanhedria, Ramot Eshkol, French Hill and Ramot.

The United States considers the area, along with Gilo, Ramot and other outlying Jerusalem neighborhoods, to be part of a future Palestinian Authority state, and U.S. President Barack Obama has called them “settlements.” Ramot alone has over 40,000 residents.

Virtually every Israeli leader in the entire political spectrum, except for Arab legislators, has repeatedly stated that a final agreement for a PA state cannot include all of the area that was restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967.

However, Vice President’s Biden’s condemnation of the plan for 1,600 more housing units, followed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s publicly charging that it “undermines” American policy, have whipped up Arab protests in the street and in the political realm.

Prime Minister Netanyahu apologized to Biden over the timing of the announcement, which he said was done without his knowledge, and thought the issue was a tempest in a teapot. However, Clinton (pictured), who previously has referred to Jews with a crude and racist epithet, surpassed him the following day with her public condemnation.

Sunday morning, the Prime Minister ordered an inquiry into the timing of the ministerial statement on the housing at Ramat Shlomo.

Virtually all foreign and Israeli media have placed Israel in a bad light for ostensibly upsetting American plans to mediate between the PA and Israel for a new Arab state within Israel’s borders. However, an “editor-at-large” for UPI, which generally reports with less bias than other news agencies, wrote that the “anemic Middle East 'peace process' is beginning to look like The Fool's Errand.”

Commentator Arnaud de Borchgrave explained that what neither U.S. President Barack Obama nor his vice president seemed to realize was that Netanyahu and his supporters “were deeply aggrieved when the U.S. president went to Cairo last June 4 for an address to the Muslim world without stopping in Israel on the way home….

“Obama's background, his middle name Hussein, his Muslim father and Muslim stepfather, and his associations with Arabs and Muslims have made the 44th president of the United States an object of derision and contempt among many Jews. They have assumed since Day One, correctly, he wanted Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem dismantled to make room for what [former President George W.] Bush called "a contiguous and viable Palestinian state."

De Borchgrave revealed that following Biden's displeasure with the announcement of new construction at Ramat Shlomo (pictured), the Prime Minister inadvertently broke the glass of a framed document the vice president had given him. The document was a certificate that several trees were planted in Jerusalem in memory of the vice president's mother, who Biden said was a strong supporter of Israel.

Simon

Almost simultaneous with this was a report on a poll indicating US support for Israel was at an unprecidented high.
I believe such nakedly obvious pro muslim appeasement, coupled with Obummas uniformly diasterous domestic and other policy, is badly counterproductive to his domestic support.
The Jew haters are out. They have been counted. They allied with our unenlightened Jewish brothers and sisters in a uniquely unholy alliance when they voted this anti - semitic bozo into office.
The growth of pro Israeli sentiment is a powerful symbol of kicking the ombumma in the balls.
It has a powerful resonance incresingly it seems, of how Americans choose to see themselves, morally, politically and culturally.

logdon

And another from Barry Rubin on the contrariness of Obama and Clinton.

How Quick They Forget: A Short History of U.S. Policy and Israeli Construction in East Jerusalem

Posted: 14 Mar 2010 12:39 AM PST

By Barry Rubin

For more than four months the U.S. government has been celebrating Israel agreeing to stop construction on settlements in the West Bank while continuing building in east Jerusalem as a great step forward and Israeli concession deserving a reward. Suddenly, all of this is forgotten to say that Israel building in east Jerusalem is some kind of terrible deed which deserves punishment.

Israelis are used to this pattern: give a big concession and a few months later that step is forgotten as Israel is portrayed as intransigent and more concessions are demanded with nothing in return. Here is a short history of this round:

October 31, 2009: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lavishly praises Israel as making "unprecedented" concessions in stopping construction on West Bank settlements while it is still going to build in east Jerusalem.

November 1, 2009: The U.S. State Department cheers Israel’s announcement that it will stop construction on West Bank settlements but not in east Jerusalem: "Today's announcement by the Government of Israel helps move forward toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

March 12, 2010: Secretary of State Hilary Clinton says that Israel building in east Jerusalem is an “insult” to the United States, jeopardizes the bilateral relationship, and damages the cause of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Meanwhile, even though the Palestinian Authority has refused to negotiate for 14 months; made President Brack Obama look very foolish after destroying his publicly announced September plan to have negotiations in two months; broke its promise not to sponsor the Goldstone report in the UN; and rejected direct negotiations after months of pleading by the Obama White House, not a single word of criticism has ever been offered by any administration official regarding the PA's continuous and very public sabotage of peace process efforts.

Can people please point out that there's a bit of a contradiction here?

Simon

@Logdon
Its patently obviously to all except the blind, the dumb, and the haters.

Douglas Bass

Mr. Foxman is only the latest of many Americans who discovered that the President Obama in charge of the USA is not the Senator Obama for whom they voted.

I've been looking for a UK word for a person who is easily deceived, without success. One American word is "rube." The Republican Party hasn't asked my advice, but I think "Hey Rubes!" would make a great campaign slogan.

Simon

Try "to have been sold a pup"

compayee

>As Noah Pollak speculates at Commentary, the most troubling conclusion is that America has provoked this crisis in order to stop Israel from attacking Iran because America itself
will not stop Iran from getting the bomb.

Strange, but I kinda' agree with the above. This could well be the case. There's no way America will allow (or can for that matter afford itself) to open another front in the Middle East apart from the already existing Iraqi and the Afghan ones. That would mean a wider conflagration, a contagion that eventually cannot be contained.
So the current US Israeli fracas is kind of handy: a convenient and timely alibi that serves as pretext for America's defeatist disengagement towards Iran.
In a way this is not unwise, as it his highly unlikely Iran will ever make use of its nuclear arsenal. But then again, given the volatile nature of the regime in Teheran this is not a certainty!

Yet contrary to what overheated YA believes, Israel will not dare go alone. The virtual reality is one think, one can indulge in wishful thinking and emphatic, declamatory, vain and bombastic hawkishness. The reality on the gound is totally another story.

Time will tell which side the true prediction is on...

Best of Luck

The chance for peace is very much within the grasp of all parties.

It was and still is in Israel's interest to unilaterally put ALL settlement activity on hold while conducting peace talks (in good faith) with Palestinians. If the Israeli gov. chooses to continue massive expansion of settlements and relentlessly put the pre-conditional onus for peace on the Palestinians (without looking in the mirror) , they will have to suffer the consequences along with all other affected parties.

It is the right thing to do to pursue peace in good-faith.

blue_&_white_avenger

Nick: "
Israel is certainly no ally of the UK".
Nick - I think you've got this round the wrong way. Britain is currently giving Israel preferential treatment by threatening to arrest its soldiers & politicians on British soil, by labelling W.Bank goods vs Israel goods, by boycotting Israel universities, academics, firms, by castigating Israel for defending itself against its enemies etc.
Then Britain has a long history of appeasing the Arabs going back 90 years since the Mandate & of supporting the Arabs & of embargoing arms when Israel was desperately trying to defend itself e.g. 1948, 1967, 1963.
Oh - & of refusing to countenance Palestine as the destination of Jews fleeing Nazi murderers (at Evian 1938), of sealing off Palestine by the RN to prevent Jews escaping from nazi-Europe & of returning them there to certain death.

Gee - the Jews have real cause to love the Brits.

Jonathan Karmi

Mr Trumpledor :

This is politics. Like I said, the location is not the issue, just the timing. Why does Israel aggravate its number one ally, when for all we know, it might still need the latest bunker-busting hardware ?

Israel doesn’t choose who sits in the White House, but it has to work with whoever’s there, like him or not. Israel needs America more than America needs Israel. It should treat its friends with due consideration, even if their policies are misguided.

Simon

Israels door has been open for peace since 1947 -8.
I think the "good faith" of the other parties are seriously in question now. That includes the US, the "eu" and the "Arab world" (whatever that is)

Simon

Israel will attack Iran all right. With or without this administrations "permission"
"Wont dare" is not really in the Israeli lexicon.

Patrick de Barry

It appears that the majority of commentators feel that Israel is in the center of the world. Let's take a step back. Who are Iran's neighbours? Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq (a cradle of stability) and not far away is India. So for their own security, what do you suggest they do?
But it appears that most of you is just focused on a country the size of a postage stamp that have close to 187 nuclear weapons. Do the math. Iran will not bomb Israel.
Well folks, you heard it here first and remember what I said.

A J Scott

This must - happily - be the only blog that Igonikon Jack seems not to contribute to?
Otherwise, right on,Melanie, keep right on.

Trumpeldor

jonathan
" when for all we know, it might still need the latest bunker-busting hardware ?"

Jonathan,

We will not get those bunker buster bombs whatever we do...
We have an open enemy at the white house
The only powerful counter punch we have against that "president"is the .....American People

steve

How has the U.S. government thrown Israel under the bus? The Netanahu government blundered politicaly and embarrassed its greatest friend in the world and its main financial backer. The Israeli media recognizes this and so does Israel's prime minister who has apologized.

Simon

Have you been following any of this Steve?

St Bruno

The truth of the matter is the fact that in the eyes of the world, nay, in the eyes of the Islamic world, Israel is a rogue Jewish state and, therefore, should not be allowed to exist, let alone exist on Arab soil. The Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini has spoken. Ring any bells?

Joan

Thank you Blue and White, well said. One of the many problems Israel confronts is the huge lack of knowledge most people have of any of her History apart from the last decade and even that they have got wrong. Joan Peter's 'From Time Immemorial' needs to be read by the British. Am sure they would feel great shame at Britain's actions past and recent just as I did. Notice how she has gone down since she has opposed the Jews, the Apple of God's Eye. Now she is getting a taste of what it is like to have Islam spreading in her own back yard. How will they escape it? We are indeed fortunate to have Melanie but how many can hear wisdom.

Larry

God bless the Israelis. I am ashamed of my government and the efforts of the American intellectual and political elite.

I don't speak of my fears to Jewish Americans because they think themselves safe. They become hostile and remote if I mention the road they are evidently agreeing to travel. Palin is their fear. Bush and the "neocons" their enemy.

David

I think that the situation could be worse for Israel than Melanie suggests. Given that Obama is determined not to threaten or to attack Iran, Israel is faced with two bad choices. Either she does nothing while Iran develops nuclear weapons, or she attacks the nuclear development facilities in the hope that by destroying them, Iran’s nuclear programme will be delayed or cancelled.

Melanie has canvassed the situation where Israel does nothing, so I won’t comment further at this stage.

If Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities, either she will be successful or she will fail. If she is successful, the situation from Obama’s point of view, is that the Iranian nuclear weapons problem just went away.

On the other hand, if Israel fails, a further Israeli attack is very unlikely. But Israel can be sure that Iran will drop a nuclear bomb on her as soon as one is developed. A nuclear bomb dropped on Israel would cause the State of Israel to cease to exist. From Obama’s point of view, the Palestinian problem just went away.

Thus whether Israel attacks Iran or not, Obama has merely to do nothing and this is likely to ensure that one of two major problems facing the world today will be solved.

Simon

Blue & white avenger @ 7:14 pm

Very well said.

Dixon

"Patrick de Barry
March 14th, 2010 8:33pm
It appears that the majority of commentators feel that Israel is in the center of the world. Let's take a step back. Who are Iran's neighbours? Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq (a cradle of stability) and not far away is India. So for their own security, what do you suggest they do?
But it appears that most of you is just focused on a country the size of a postage stamp that have close to 187 nuclear weapons. Do the math. Iran will not bomb Israel.
Well folks, you heard it here first and remember what I said."

In case it falls to me to do so I shall point out the obvious, that Iran has not promised to "annhilate" Pakistan, Iraq or India, et al.

Oh, so Israel has 187 warheads. I was so worried it might be only 186 or 188! Are you sure its not 189 now? What kind of clown makes an assertion like that?

Meanwhile, I should again ( as previously here ) point out that NATO doctrine in the Cold War envisioned detonating hundreds, possibly thousands of nuclear warheads on its own territory in the event of a Warsaw Pact tank invasion and considered this a practicable and survivable method of defense. Nuclear armed Lance missiles deployed in Germany only had a range of twenty miles. The Davey Crocket, a nuclear grenade fired from the back of a jeep had a maximum range of TWO miles and several thousand of them were deployed in Europe. French Pluton missiles, outside of the NATO command structure, could reach no further than Western Germany. Contrary to tyhe libtard mind-set, the use, even quite liberal use, of nuclear weapons does not in itself spell the end of everything ...unless you are a country that is...as he himself says...the size of a postage stamp. Ie, Israel. A country the size of Iran could absorb the entire Israeli arsenal several times over.

But in any case the fact is that their leader believes that the sacrificial destruction of Iran itself is a noble and necessary step towards the coming of the "Hidden Imam".

Mladen Andrijasevic

If Iran gets the bomb they will likely use it against Israel since MAD [mutual assured destruction] has no effect on them and the power of the faith in the return of the Mahdi supersedes any rational wish for self preservation.

Israel therefore has no choice but to take out Iranian nuclear sites, because Israel cannot afford to first be attacked with nuclear weapons and then respond.

I do not understand how this present US administration believes it can contain a nuclear Iran. It shows a basic lack of knowledge of the power of fanatic religious conviction.

It is therefore highly possible that if the Iranians get the bomb there will be a nuclear war between Iran and Israel. How does the US expect to prevent this war if it itself does not want to lift a finger and stop Iran NOW, and at the same time is doing everything to stop Israel from attacking the Iranian sites?

One can only conclude that this whole uproar with the Jerusalem apartment building is a way for the US administration to blame Israel for the US not having the will to confront Iran and to justify their policy of accepting a nuclear Iran .

For Israel to acquiesce to this would amount to suicide. America will survive another three years of this President and it would survive a nuclear Iran. Israel would not.

Israel has to be given the room to defend itself without the US jeopardizing its action with constant demand for non-action. Time will soon run out.

So what can be done? It is time to educate the American people that we are not talking here about the high prices of oil or poor economic times but about the survival of millions of Israelis and Iranians.

Do the American people realize what they have done? Who they have elected? Do they want to be responsible for the deaths of millions of Israelis and Iranians? If not, they better do something about it. They have to pressure the Obama administration to let Israel defend itself. They have to demand to hear more about Shi’a eschatology and the rationale by which the administration would accept a nuclear Iran. This rationale must be discussed openly by the population so that its flaws become clear.

The stakes are too high. The American people must never say they did not know.

jOHN ROOSEVELT

Jonathan Karmi: very well put.

JOHN ROOSEVELT

Nick
"March 14th, 2010 12:37pm
Israel is certainly no ally of the UK.

If it were, why did it feel the need to steal the identity of British citizens to carry out a sordid little assassination?

(Wonder why they didn't steal US passports?)"

brilliant post. I'm always uplifted when some schmuck comes out with "knowing" the detail of spy operations...

digbydolben

General Petraeus, in requesting that the West Bank be placed under his command at CENTCOM, has made it plain that he believes that the intransigence of the Netanyahu government in Israel regarding Palestinian rights is threatening the lives of American servicemen:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/03/petraeus-vs-netanyahu.html#more

Joshua

"Israel is certainly no ally of the UK."

It is far more true to say that the UK is certainly no ally of the Jewish people.

SimonP

Joshua,

Some of us Brits are friends of Israel and friends of Jews.

Nachman

Obama Middle East diplomacy comes down to this:
Syria - implacable enemy dictatorship hold out olive branch and get a kick in the teeth
Iran - implacable enemy theocracy producing weapons grade plutonium for its arsenal against the free world - sit on your hands and hope they go away
Israel - enduring democratic ally - announces the possible erection of 1600 new homes for ~Jews in its own capital - condemnation and freezing of ties
I hate to think what would happen if he faced a real crisis.

Lynne T

Hugo:

I agree that Melanie should revise this post. I think she needs to ask why the strong reaction from the US administration about house-about the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas naming a public square in Ramallah after the female suicide bomber who murdered 38 people or is that not an impediment to restarting peace talks.

Dixon

BTW, the fact is that 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs, so the statement that the homes are specifically for Jews is in itself a racist slur on Israelis as a whole.

Penny

I have said this before on Melanie's blog, I know, but does anyone in power in any Western government not 'get' the outcome of an Israel, destroyed by Islamic means?

Such a victory - according to Iran and their many proxy groups such as Hamas - would be but one small step along the road to establishing the Caliphate. They are quite open about it, so why doubt them?

The psychological impact of a 'conquered' Israel on Islmists around the world would be huge. Greatly emboldened by their victory, is it honestly feasible that they would stop there? In my view the answer is 'no'. The Islamists would be far more likely to take this victory as a sign from Allah, and unleash far more jihad - aggressive and passive - into the world than exists at present.

This mad, mad view that once Israel is out of the way, the whole Islamist thing will stop and we'll all be living in peace is both naive and deeply worrying.

Simon

Israel is not going anywhere Penny.

Al Ramy

True, but: One has to give it to Bibi's coalition partners, a disreputable lot with the political appointees who blundered into this terrible ambush. Mme. Clinton, a hard core Saul Alinsky groupy, has been itching for an opportunity since the days that Bibi humiliated her insatiable husband, the cuckolding POTUS, by going to the Republican Congress every time Clinton over-reached. She was a pathetic failure as a so called health Czar, cobbling with several wasted Communists a plan no one wanted. As a Secretary, she failed on every mission she undertook; noticed from being AWOL from every hot issue, none of which she can resolve. Essentially, she is positioning herself to challenge the bumbling Obama, once he will have to give the critical speech that President Johnson had to deliver in 1967. Getting heavy with Israel, is a face saver with their Leftist supporters and an opening for larger financial contributions from Islamic donors. Readers should recall the deep pockets that helped the Clinton gang in the past: Shady Chinese and Indonesian money which also resulted in convictions and compromising classified satellite technologies. The question is: Did Israel really need this jib-jab? What was behind this unfortuitous press release? That Bibi is not quiet up to it is a given, engaged to back stabbers and corrupt lot of weasels (Sahs, Orthodox appointees), they chose this act to weaken him, nail him to the wall in order to make sure that the freeze on housing everywhere will not be honored. This is how one old veteran sees it.

Al Ramy

To the person who posted this question:

Melanie, I still couldn't find any mention of the 112 new apartments in Beitar Illit that were authorised just as Biden was arriving, which are not in East Jerusalem, and are in the West Bank, and which are probably responsible for poisoning the whole Biden visit from the start

Before the Independence war broke out, Gush Etzion, whose last defenders were slaughtered by the British trained Jordanian Legions and the local tribes, it was a cluster of several Jewish settlements, which existed on the land where Baytar Elit is now located.
Israelis did not feel any need to be excused for taking back what was theirs. Please check your history before displaying your indignation in public. Learning can go a long way.

Adam B.

That's Obama all over, treat your friends like garbage, and be nice to your enemies.

Funny he wouldn't condemn Iran because it would be "meddling" - he has no problems meddling with Israel.

Simon

Al Ramy 10:56

Great post.

David ben Duji

Some people have short memories....
The USA didn't have any interest in Israel before 1967. Up to then it was the French and the Italians who gave military and economic aid. This stopped with De Gaulle who started the prevailing French aim of working with the Arabs/Muslims.
It was only with the 'astounding' success ofthe Israelis in the 'Six Day War', in 1967, that the USA began to give practical support to the Jewish state.
But everything is down to the 'Palmerston Doctrine':
'We do not have permanent friends, we do not have permanent enemies. But we do have interests that must be supported...'
John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower's Secretary of State was fond of quoting that. In any case, the USA has had to balance 'support' for Israel with the need for oil and keeping the Arabs 'sweet'
It was James Baker, Bush senior's Secretary of State who said, about Jewish demonstrators protesting about jet planes for Saudi Arabia:
'Ah ***** them, they don't vote for us, anyway.'
Bush junior might have been a 'good friend' to Israel but he still had strong links with the Saudis. Have any of you read 'House of Bush, House of Saud'?
And he will be remembered as the President who got the USA into two wars that it was very difficult to get out of.
One of the main reasons Obama got in was that many of the Republican 'makers and shakers' refused to get behind McCain. Don't you remember the howls of anguish from the likes of Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh when McCain, who called the likes of Pat Robertson 'agents of intolerance', got the Republican nomination.
Palin might get many of the posters here gibbering in ecstasy - but she failed to get many USA voters feeling the same way.
The 'Tea Party' movement might go the same way as Howard Jarvis and Ollie North - remember them? If they end up splitting the opposition to Obama. Unfortunately 'Scooter' Libby is not around to bring the forces together; he has been somewhat 'detained'.
Then 2012 will be a repeat of 1996 and you'll get Obama MkII.

Paul

There was no peace before the settlements were ever thought of. The fundamental problem is that one side does not accept the right of the other to even exist. The settlements are just an excuse to carry on with this madness. Barak offered virtually everything the Palestinians wanted 10 years ago and they still refused, much to the disgust of Clinton and the Saudis. Get real and learn from history-real history not the spun rubbish coming out of the Biased Broadcasting Corp

Mailman

David,

Its highly unlikely you will get another American president as spineless as the current one.

Just as you didnt get another Jimmy Carter when he was voted out after one term, I doubt we will see another Barry anytime soon.

Mailman

roger

A letter to the world from Jerusalem

http://www.aish.com/v/49498552.html

Little

This is an amazing chain of responses/comments to an extremely one sided writing. I could not find any other comments that I agreed with (excuse me if I missed yours) than that of Best of Luck (6:46) and Patrick de Barry (8:33).
Reading this column and the comments is more entertaining than listening to Rush Limbaugh's radio show. I hope you folks get it there you'd all be in ecstasy I am sure.

Vincent

So, if "this is not a good time.." perhaps you could tell us at what point in the last 42 years would have been better for the US to criticise your spoiled little brats. Since its stunning victory in 1967 Israel could have had peace any time it wanted it. To whit, when they wanted peace with Egypt they were able to negotiate it quite easily - the neighbours find it easier to get on with you if you give back what you stole from them in the first place. The conclusion has to be that Israel's leaders are either monumentaly incompetent or that they don't really want peace, they want all the land and no Palestinians with it. The sooner the US tells them agree a settlement or do without our subsidies the better. I think you'd find that after all the anguished screaming had died down a settlement would be agreed in short order.

Simon

@Little
Ok, both posts attempting to deligitimise Israel.
You like them huh?
Its a damn sight more sensible than the anti semitic trash that one has to suffer looking at the gruniad, HP, etc etc.
Sorry about that. Best you go back to where you feel comfortable then.

Simon (aka pk) UK

Vincent
What a bizarre little post. Pregnant with "untruth" shall we say.
Ever heard of the 3 Nos? Or just thought you would downplay it a bit?
It took another bloody arab aggression in 1973 before they realised they could not conventionally beat the IDF, so Sadat sought peace. However the terrorist arm of the war continued and continues with full Egyptian and Jordanian complicity, until very recently.
The arabs could have had peace anytime up to may 1948, when they broke all international and war crimes law by invading the new state of Israel with genocidal intent.
Please dont peddle your anti Jewish crap here. It wont wash.

gil

Silly Vincent. Forgetting that Israel withdrew from Gaza and received a Hamas terror state on its doorstep.

Vincent expects us to believe that he cares about Israel's survival.

Adam

I would hope that if some travellers came and parked their caravans in your back garden, you too would be relaxed and tell them that they could ocupy the western side of the garden but not the eastern -at least until you sat down and negotiated everything!!

gareth

Terry from Eilat - the West has been throwing you under the bus for a long time, sometimes because it's expedient and sometimes malicious.
Hopefully it will end soon and we'll come to our senses - with people like Melanie telling it like it is - there's hope.
Remember the many truly great leaders who have esteemed Israel - Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and the majority of ordinary men and women in the USA and UK.