Israel Matzav

Even-handed would be an improvement

The Obama administration's hostility to Israel did not start last Tuesday when Israel's Interior Ministry announced the construction of 1,600 apartments for Jews in Ramat Shlomo. It's actually one of the few things in this administration's foreign policy that's been consistent since the get-go. But according to Isi Liebler, last week's events in Jerusalem show in a new phase in the Obama administration's hostility to Israel. Obama has crossed a line.

THERE ARE now ominous signals that to obviate their failures, White House strategists are cynically distancing themselves from us in order to curry popularity by capitalizing on the anti-Israeli hatred which has engulfed the world.

Despite continuously incanting the mantra that it remains committed to the alliance with Israel, the White House is not behaving in an even-handed manner. Obama does not disguise his animosity and repeatedly humiliates our prime minister. The administration “condemns” us for building homes, not in densely Arab populated areas of Jerusalem but in Jewish suburbs like Gilo and most recently Ramat Shlomo which most of us regard as Israel no less than Tel Aviv.

Instead of condemning the brutal Palestinian murderer of an Israeli civilian in December, the US requested “clarification” after Israel apprehended the killers who the PA extolled as heroes. They failed to block a UN Security Council resolution criticizing Israeli police for protecting worshippers at the Temple Mount from Arabs hurling stones at them. They even condemned us for authorizing repairs on Jewish heritage sites over the Green Line.

In stark contrast, the US has not publicly reprimanded the PA on a single issue over the past twelve months. It is unconscionable that neither the White House nor the State Department conveyed a word of protest concerning the ongoing incitement and spate of ceremonies sanctifying the memory of the most degenerate suicide killers and mass murderers. Not even when our peace partners President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad personally partook in these ghoulish ceremonies. In fact, during Biden’s visit, the PA announced that they would postpone a ceremony to name a public square in Ramallah to honor Dalal Mughrabi, the female monster responsible for the abominable 1978 massacre in which 37 Israelis including 13 children were butchered. Nevertheless the ceremony took place and the PA TV interviewed Mughrabi’s sister who stated: “This is a day of glory and pride for the Palestinian people. We must unite, and our rifles must unite, against the enemy who steals our land.” The US failed to register a protest.

Read the whole thing.

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who reads this blog. After several posts dealing with Obama over the previous year, in February 2008, I warned that Obama was "bad for the Jews." Unfortunately, an awful lot of people didn't listen.

Although I am pleased with the prospect of a Republican retaking of Congress in November, I fear that it may rein in Obama on domestic policies but not on foreign policies. Reining him in may also improve his chances of re-election in 2012, in which case, we would have four years of what is essentially a lame duck anti-Semite in the White House (yes, I agree with Hagai Ben Artzi about that - there is no escaping it even if Bibi himself cannot say it).

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:27 AM