JPost: Obama's not good for Israel
The JPost editorializes that most American Jews will vote for Obama anyway, but he is definitely not good for Israel. Regardless of the Pew poll results, however, there may have been a turn for the worse in the White House’s position on Israel, as Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, argued in an interview with The Jerusalem Post’s Herb Keinon that appeared in Friday’s paper.Read the whole thing.
A prime example pointing to such a shift is Obama’s refusal to reaffirm former president George Bush’s 2004 letter, endorsed in overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress. A central element in the letter was its rejection of the notion that any Israeli-Palestinian agreement would include a full and complete return to the 1949 armistice lines. Obama, in contrast, has insisted on using the 1949 borders as the basis for talks, with land swaps to compensate the Palestinians for territories beyond the armistice lines that remain under Israeli control. In essence, this means Israel will be forced, according to Abrams, to “give up sovereign Green Line territory to keep the Kotel,” a “ridiculous” demand that seriously weakens the Israeli negotiating position.
Another example given by Abrams is the Obama administration’s different approach to the United Nations. The Bush administration cast nine vetoes blocking anti-Israel resolutions in the Security Council over an eight-year span, out of a conviction that the UN is inherently biased against Israel. In contrast, the Obama administration “is desperate to avoid vetoes,” Abrams said.
Abrams also implied that until now Obama might have been constrained by domestic politics and that in a second term he might feel freer to place more pressure on Israel. Perhaps this helps explain the Palestinians’ success in using their September statehood bid in the UN to put pressure on Israel.
Obama will undoubtedly continue to enjoy wide support among American Jewry. But it is a sobering thought, as the US celebrates July 4, that this does not mean his Mideast policies will be good for Israel.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Elliott Abrams, US support for Israel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:46 PM
4 Comments:
Obama will be involved in looking out for his re-election first. If he gets a second term, he can make Palestine his legacy. There won't be time for the Administration beginning in the fall to give attention to the moribund peace process. The economy at home is the one issue that can kiss Obama's re-election prospects a death blow.
Obama will be deadly for Israel. He is constrained in his animosity toward Israel now because of the 2012 election. Nothing will hold him back if he wins a second term.
Latest poll: American Jewish support for Obama down to 60%:
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=228036
Shocking photo choice. You should be ashamed of yourself. President Obama does not hate the Jewish people. Simplistic assumptions about a person's attitude towards others is a problem. You are stirring up the hatred you profess to want to prevent. The issue of identity is coming into sharp focus for many people now. As the prophecies state all people will turn to G-d over time. Some parts of the world are facilitating this transition better than others at the moment. The Holy Land should be a centre of such change.
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