Israel Matzav

How Israel can deal with Obama's second term

Caroline Glick writes that Israel can cope with President Obama's second term. All we have to do is to stop relying on the United States (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

Certainly, this is a horrible situation. But just as demographics have changed America, so they are changing Israel. Rising anti-Semitism and economic decline in Europe have dramatically increased immigration rates to Israel and those rates will only grow as the situation on the continent worsens. In contrast to the rest of the West, Israelis have become more religious, readier to embrace the free market and more eager to compete in talent and productivity. While Americans have joined Europe in dwindling fertility rates, Israelis have matched the fertility levels of their Arab neighbors.

Israel's demographic and economic power have been largely ignored and undervalued. But the time has come to use them for all they are worth. As America enters its age of dependency and decline, Israel must end its age of dependency on America and begin to depend on itself. That does not mean that Israel won't cooperate with America. But as America's foreign policy becomes indistinguishable from Europe's, Israel will increasingly need to take its fate in its own hands.

We need to expand the size of the IDF ground forces. We need to expand the size of the Navy. We should reinstate the Lavi jetfighter project. We need to expand our independent offensive missile programs, developing a serious cruise missile arsenal. And we need to promote a new generation of generals that is not psychologically dependent on their American counterparts.
As for the Palestinians, and the international, leftist anti-Israel cottage industry that supports and feeds off of them, the time has come to take our demographic advantage for a spin. As we decrease our psychological dependence on America, we need to increase our trust in ourselves. We need to staunchly defend and assert our rights to our land. And we must exercise our right to defeat those who deny our rights and seek our national destruction.

In other words, we need to begin applying Israeli law in Judea and Samaria.

True, talk is cheap. We can expect — indeed we were warned to expect — for Obama to turn on Israel immediately after the election. Obama can be expected to dispatch his political advisors to Israel to run the Left's electoral campaign with the goal of defeating Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and paving the way for the return to power of the socialist, appeasement crazed Israeli Left. We can expect the State Department, (under the guidance of New Israel Fund alumni) to renew its attacks against Israel's religious institutions and the Jews of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. We can expect the US to abandon us at the UN. We can expect the US military to undermine any Israeli strike against Iran.

No one said any of this will be easy. But difficult is not the same as impossible. Within a year, the consequences of Obama's failed domestic and foreign policies will make him weaker rather than stronger than he was in his first term. He will be hard pressed to pressure Israel when the US loses its leadership role in the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Middle East. And Israel's independence of action will consequently grow.

I think a lot depends upon Israel's election in January. Too many Israelis place too much faith in our alliance with the United States. Too many Israelis don't understand yet how Hussein Obama feels about us and what that means. Yes, 85% of the Americans in Israel who voted cast their ballots for Mitt Romney. But those are mostly American immigrants who are both religious and right leaning. That's not the average Israeli, who still looks at America like he's Feivel the Mouse. 

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, IDF, Israeli economy

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:04 AM