Putin lectures Clinton on camera, Obami have no comment
Hillary Clinton got her comeuppance in Moscow on Friday. ABC's Alexander Marquardt reports: When reporters traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Moscow were informed that a last-minute meeting with Russia's Prime Minister Valdimir Putin had been added to the schedule, they were told they would only get to see a few seconds of handshakes before being ushered out.Why did Putin humiliate Clinton (you mean he didn't make her sit on a lower stool for the gathered media)? Jennifer Rubin explains.
Instead, with cameras rolling, they watched Putin spend six minutes rattling off a number of complaints he has with the United States.
Trade with the US has slowed during the financial crisis, he complained, Russian companies have been slapped with US sanctions and Russia is having trouble joining the World Trade Organization.
He also singled out the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment, as he has in the past, as evidence that the US is not fully encouraging business with Russia. (The amendment restricts trade with countries that limit emigration, as the USSR did with Jews.)
...
Reporters were surprised at the length of Putin’s list of issues and the fact that he did it in front of the Russian and American press corps, a pool reporter noted.
The meeting was held at Putin’s government-owned country estate just a few hours after Russia’s foreign minister declared that Russia and the US have “managed to perform a true reset of relations.”
The other most contentious moment of Clinton’s trip was also thanks to Putin after he announced yesterday that a nuclear power plant Russia is building in Iran will be completed in the next few months.
In short, the Russians have now shown us what resetting the U.S.-Russian relationship means. Putin has figured out that there is no risk — so long as you aren’t a small democratic ally of the U.S. — of incurring the wrath of the Obami. No condemnations or even frowns will be forthcoming. This is, you see, what comes from throwing ourselves at our adversaries’ feet and scorning our allies. Adversaries learn to take advantage of us while friends learn not to trust us.Netanyahu can't allow this bunch of Bozo's to bully him. Israel is likely to have to act on Iran with or without US support and before Bushehr goes on line and Iran gets the S-300.
And where does that leave our Iran policy? No prospect of international sanctions. The U.S. sanctions bill is languishing in Congress. The mullahs feel neither isolated nor besieged. It is not they whom the Obami are pressuring this week. We eagerly await Hillary’s Monday speech to AIPAC when she can explain the wizardry at work here. We’ll be all ears.
What could go wrong?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:36 PM
4 Comments:
Israel apologizes for building in its own capital and allows the US to treat it in a manner the US would treat no other country. And the Russians treat the Americans like Israel allegedly treated the US and the Americans sit there and take it. Obama will never instruct Clinton to make a phone call to Putin laying down a list of demands he has to fulfill. The Russians would never stand for it. Why does Israel?
What could go wrong indeed
This is why Netanyahu should completely ignore the Obami, and skip meeting with any administration official this coming week. He should instead meet with as much of congress as possible, speak to the American people.
It beyond dispute that the American President is anti-Israeli. I won't assume he is anti-semitic, but his fellow travelers, people he has spent decades with, are virulently anti-semitic. There is little possibility that there is no influence upon his world views.
His actions speak far louder than any words. So Bibi's should as well. He should politely disentangle from any administrative function or meeting, and simply bypass them.
Let me be clear, this president, and his administration, already is America's greatest failure in its history, and we are barely 16 months in to his term. It will take decades to reverse the damage this fool and his minions have done to our standing, our allies globally.
Netanyahu needs to not provide any fodder for the fool and his traveling horde to grab on to. Obami is a passing phase in the US. Not a permanent ideological shift. Just a temporary comeuppance for those who used to be in power and needed to be humbled. Unfortunately we all have now payed a huge price for this. I'd argue it wasn't worth it, and there were better ways to do this.
None of our adversaries respect our power, none of our allies respect our friendship. There is a reason for this. And his name is Obama.
Good point, Kranky. I don't understand why Netanyahu feels the need to throw Obama a life vest when he is drowning politically both domestically and overseas. The last thing Israel's Prime Minister should be doing is strengthening someone not committed to the well-being of the Jewish State. And Obama will be in a much weaker position in the event the Republicans regain control of Congress later on this year.
My advice to Israel is do the opposite of what obama says you should do. Don't let obama screw up your country like he has our country. 2012 election can't come soon enough for this American.
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