Israel Matzav

An idea for a video

Remember that seven-minute Obama campaign video that included endorsements from just about everyone in power in Israel, including Prime Minister Netanyahu? Abe Katsman has some ideas for a seven-minute video against Obama (Hat Tip: Jack W).

The video is the height of chutzpah. It is a cynical ploy (just what are Israel's leaders supposed to say publicly about the sitting U.S. President?) to shore up shaky Jewish donors who support Obama but are uncomfortable with his hostility towards Israel and its elected government-a record punctuated by innumerable calculated insults and public slights demonstrating "daylight" between Obama's America and Israel.

While the blogosphere is abuzz with debate over the fairness of the video, a better question arises: seven minutes? Is that the best this administration can do?

Perhaps it is. Compare those seven minutes to the administration's dressing-down of Israel in Hillary Clinton's publicized 43-minute telephone harangue of PM Netanyahu for announcing construction, specifically exempted from any building freeze, in a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem. How many minutes could be filled with senior advisor David Axelrod televised proclamation that President Obama considered the housing approval "an affront, an insult...and very, very destructive"? Or VP Biden's castigating Israel for endangering American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or Clinton's condescending demand that Israel show its commitment to peace by unilaterally conceding negotiating positions and releasing hundreds of Palestinian terrorists even before "indirect" peace talks could begin? Or Defense Secretary Robert Gates calling Israel "an ungrateful ally"?

Would the next seven minutes include new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's chastising Israel to "get back to the damn [negotiating] table? Or holding U.N. support for Israel hostage to Israeli concessions? Or shoving PM Netanyahu out the White House back door, without so much as feeding him dinner, issuing a joint statement or allowing a photo-op? Or, over an open mike, Obama agreeing with French President Sarkozy's statement that "I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," helpfully adding, "You're fed up, but I have to deal with him every day"? Or pushing Israel to apologize for the Gaza flotilla incident? Or Obama's speech, sandbagging Netanyahu on the eve of his Washington visit, calling on Israel to retreat to the 1949 Armistice line as a starting point for negotiations? Or reneging on the written American commitment to Israel to support retention of major settlement blocs in any peace negotiation?

Message to my friend Noah Pollak (Emergency Committee for Israel): Are you guys working on something like this?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, US-Israel relationship

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:02 PM