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Sunday, March 22, 2015

When words matter and when they don't

President Hussein Obama and his State Department have made a big deal out of Prime Minister Netanyahu's election campaign statement - since walked back - that there would  be no 'Palestinian state' on his watch. The Obami have claimed that 'words matter' (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
"We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn't happen during his prime ministership, and so that's why we've got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don't see a chaotic situation in the region," the president said in an interview with The Huffington Post on Friday.
Citing a similar statement by White House spokesman Josh Earnest, Rabbi Shmuely Boteach points out that the Obama administration doesn't treat all words equally.
So let’s get this straight. When foreign leaders speak, it matters. What they say is consequential. Bibi’s going to have to pay for his remarks.
But I have one question. Why doesn’t any of this apply to Iran? Why, on Saturday Ayatollah Ali Khameini uttered the words “Death to America” even as John Kerry was expressing optimism the very same day that the United States would come to a nuclear accord with Iran!
Suddenly, Iran’s words don’t matter?
Boteach goes on to speculate why Netanyahu's words matter while Khameni's words can be swept aside. 
My own belief is this. President Obama is desperate for some foreign policy victories. There’s a year-and-a-half left to his Presidency and the world is on fire. From Iran to Boko Haram to ISIS to Putin to Hezbollah to Al Qaida and Hamas, bad guys are running amok under this president. American Foreign policy is a shambles.
The only ally President Obama can truly expert pressure on for a deal that would give him the lasting foreign policy legacy he needs and craves is Israel. And in the past Israeli Prime Ministers have proven so utterly malleable. American Presidents have squeezed them like lemons.
But Bibi refuses to be squeezed. He won’t play ball. He won’t withdraw from Judea and Samaria and allow “Hamastan” on his eastern border the way it is in Gaza. He won’t shut up about America’s capitulation to the Iranian mullahs that would leave them with a military-grade nuclear program. He won’t go quietly into the nuclear night while America appeases one of the most violent and vile regimes on earth.
This darned Bibi guy just won’t bend.
And our President finds the intransigence so utterly frustrating.
I don't believe things would be any better if (God Forbid) the Left had won the election. At the end of the day, even Herzog and Livni could not have concluded a deal that gave the 'Palestinians' everything they want, both because the 'Palestinians' would never agree to any deal and because the Left would never succeed in getting such a deal through the Knesset. Look what happened to Ehud Olmert in 2008

And the Clinton's hatred for Netanyahu also might have something to do with Obama's attitude. After all, Hillary was Secretary of State.

But in the meantime, the hypocrisy is flaming. Will anyone in the media call Obama on it? Calling @APDiplowriter....

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