Israel Matzav

Obama's problem: Israel supports the Right

Barack Hussein Obama would like nothing better than to get Israel to voluntarily surrender its strategic assets for a 'Palestinian state.' But Leftist David Remnick reports from the Saban conference that's unlikely to happen, because the Left in Israel now has no support.

Olmert also violated the rules of the conference by dragging something that was off the record onto the record. He accurately, if generally, described how, earlier in the day, Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago and Obama’s former chief of staff, had spoken angrily and bluntly about the way Netanyahu has repeatedly betrayed the friendship of the United States, lecturing Obama in the Oval Office and now, after the U.S. had underwritten the Iron Dome anti-missile system, supported the operation in Gaza, and voted Israel’s way in the U.N., embarrassing the Obama Administration by taking punitive actions against the Palestinian Authority. After describing Emanuel’s remarks, Olmert went on to agree with them.

Olmert was unflinching in his criticism of Netanyahu. “This government is not dedicated to the cause of peace in a realistic way,” he said. “The most important thing for a prime minister,” he said, any Israeli prime minister, is to create two states for two peoples.

What was striking was that Israeli politics is now utterly dominated by Netanyahu, Lieberman, and an increasingly rightist coalition. And, demographically, the Israeli electorate is only getting more conservative.

But Olmert, as Remnick admits has no support in Israel. Neither does Ehud Barak. And Tzipi Livni has very little support. So Obama is stuck working with Netanyahu and Lieberman again whether or not he and Rahm Emanuel like it.

Israelis are not fools. Very few people in this country think that Obama has our back. Israelis follow politics closely. Most of them know that all Obama did with Iron Dome was to continue a program started by Bush, and that he attempted to cut its funding every year only to be thwarted by Congress. Most Israelis know that Obama has opposed nearly all sanctions against Iran, only to have his hand forced by Congress. In fact, most Israelis know - or will know soon - that the Senate voted 94-0 again on Friday to override Obama's objections to additional Iran sanctions.

The Left has proven time and again that it is willing to abandon Israel. We Israelis aren't buying what Obama, Clinton, Emanuel, Olmert and Livni are selling.

Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud K. Olmert

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:16 AM