All the way up there

I have a few thought's on the Obama administration's 'spat' with Israel.

Here's my vlog on this subject.

We've been hearing a lot of America's so-called 'spat' with Israel. It's being called the worst 'spat' in 20 years. I have a feeling that Barack Obama is going to be a one-term President... and a lot of it has to do with this America-Israel 'spat.' There are few instances of a US President rebuking Israel. There was , of course, Dwight Eisenhower. He expressed his displeasure when Israel - along with Britain and France - invaded Egypt in 1956. But that was before America and Israel had their special relationship.

Since they became special friends, the only administration that has not sucked up to Israel has been the George H.W. Bush administration. And he ended being a one-term President. Come to think of it, Jimmy Carter was also a one-term President; but he wasn't particularly anti-Israel. He did help establish peace between Israel and Egypt. But since he's been out of office, he has shown himself to not be a suck-up to Israel. Case in point: Carter's book 'Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.'

So basically, to succeed in US politics you have to be ALL the way up Israel's butt. You can't just be halfway up there. You gotta be ALL the way up there. Reagan was ALL the way up there. Clinton was ALL the way up there. Bush 43 was ALL the way up there. President Obama, it seems, is moderately pro-Israel. But he's just not ALL the way up there. And that is why I believe he will be a one-term President.
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Obama will be a one term President because he failed to honor his campaign promises.  He has failed to lead his nation and allowed the Republicans to steal the lime light.  When Jewish voters voted for Obama they were holding their noses.

The birther movement started in an op-ed at Israelinsider.com.  Most Israelis did not support Obama, but Jewish voters in the US believe Israel must change its behavior or it will whither and die.  They believe that someone must push them to change.

They believed that the Democrat party better served their purposes.  I realize that you feel the Palestinian movement is the center of your life, but for most Americans it's the economy and jobs right now.  What is going on in Israel is a side show.

Since neither side wants peaceful coexistence, it's also a waste of time.

Don't waste your vote, vote Green or Independent in the next election.

by mcamelyne on 03/17/2010 10:05:22 PM EST

Firstly, Jewish Voters didn't hold their nose to vote for Obama ....... This is complete B.S. Jewish Americans are the most reliable democratic voters after Blacks. They even voted for Obama more than they did for Kerry, Gore & Clinton.

Secondly, Jewish Voters don't vote for Democrats because of Israel. Majority of Jewish Americans are Liberal in their Views .. that's the reason they support the Democrats.

" for most Americans it's the economy and jobs right now.  What is going on in Israel is a side show.

Since neither side wants peaceful coexistence, it's also a waste of time. " ......... here I agree with you 100%.

The US should let the Palestinians, Israel & Iran .. fight this one out on their own .. with any interference.

A Proud Progressive!!!

by teron678 on 03/18/2010 12:10:25 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Obama will be a one term President because he failed to honor his campaign promises.

It would be nice if the world were that simple, but Obama's prospects for a second term depend heavily on what alternatives are presented in 2012. Obama's broken promises, sure...but he hasn't done anything that would make a rational human give so much as a thought to voting for Sarah Palin or Dick Cheney. Barring the introduction of a hitherto unknown miracle candidate, the majority of the country will go into selective memory mode and vote the safe way.

by OneHitKill on 03/18/2010 12:51:25 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Sarah Palin is working the crowd to extract as much money as she can.  Not a chance.  As for Dick, Liz Cheney is a better bet.  He's ugly, she isn't.

Don't waste your vote, vote Green or Independent in the next election.

by mcamelyne on 03/18/2010 09:16:07 PM EST

[ Parent ]
He's ugly, she isn't.

You don't think Liz Cheney is ugly? Give it time...you will.

by OneHitKill on 03/18/2010 09:33:51 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Rarely before have Jews and Arabs been as united as they are in the face of the Iranian threat. But Israel's government is deliberately ignoring this historic opportunity to push the peace process forward. Indeed, Benjamin Netanyahu's government seems satisfied with the status quo.

One of the tenets of the Middle East conflict has always been that Israel's hawks are the only ones who can bring about a peace agreement -- the doves are too weak to make it happen.

A second is that Arab leaders need the conflict in order to justify their own wobbling and undemocratic regimes.

The third tenet is that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

With the farce that it is now playing out with its ally, the United States, Israel's government has simultaneously taken all three tenets out of play, and that isn't good news.

First, Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai made a fool of Joe Biden, the US vice president and a proven friend of Israel who last week ensured the Jewish state of the United States' "absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel's security." In response, Yishai ensured the approval of 1,600 new apartments in parts of East Jerusalem claimed by the Arabs.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then apologized for the unfortunate timing of the announcement and claimed he hadn't known anything about the 1,600 apartments. The prime minister? Unaware of city's single largest current construction project?

The "incident" was "hurtful," Netanyahu said, before appointing senior officials to investigate the events "to ensure procedures will be in place to prevent those kinds of incidents in the future." Netanyahu also quickly hinted at the draconian punishment he had planned for his minister -- namely, none at all. "There was a regrettable incident here, which occurred innocently," he prematurely mused, before the commission had even started its investigation.

The first tenet has resolved itself: No one in the Israeli government is currently interested in peace talks -- neither the hawks nor the doves:

In January, Mossad agents chose Dubai, of all places, as the scene of the crime for the targeted assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Dubai is one of the two Gulf emirates that has ignored the Arab boycott and received an Israeli minister.

In February, Netanyahu declared the graves of Rachel in Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem and Abraham in Hebron (who are sacred to both Christians and Muslims) to be "Zionist cultural heritage."

And in March, one week before ultra-Orthodox Interior Minister Yishai approved his 1,600 apartments, Labor Defense Minister Ehud Barak had authorized the construction of 112 new buildings in the Beitar Ilit settlement in the West Bank, where a 10-month moratorium on construction was supposed to be in place.

The second tenet no longer holds true, either -- with the reverse applying instead. It is no longer the Arab leaders who need the conflict to justify their regimes. Netanyahu needs it to hold together his disparate right-left government.

Jews and Arabs Have Never Been as United as they Are Today

Indeed, the Arab regimes today are more flexible than they have been in years. Just prior to Biden's visit, they unanimously called on the Palestinians to start a new round of negotiations with Israel. Many have come around on the issue and would very much like to see peace in the Middle East.

There's good reason, too: They are no longer the ones who profit from this war. These days, the Arabs fear the terrorists of al-Qaida and Iran's leadership, with its rabid rhetoric and nuclear program, as much as the Israelis do.

Never before since the time of Israel's creation were Jews and Arabs as united as they are in the face of the Iranian threat. It goes so far that Saudi Arabia's foreign minister has even spoken openly to his US colleague Hillary Clinton of the potential necessity of a military strike against Iran. In its research, SPIEGEL has learned that Western intelligence agencies believe that the Saudis would even open up their air space to Israeli jets for an attack on Iran -- unlike the Americans, who would not allow them to fly over Iraq, with good reason.

As alarming as this scenario would be -- it takes a remarkable degree of obstinacy and political autism to ignore this stellar constellation and thereby disregard the third and most simple of the three tenets. It leads to a sole conclusion: That the Israeli government is satisfied with the status quo in the Middle East. It is hard to believe, though, given the extent of death and suffering this conflict has caused.

It is true that Hamas isn't firing any rockets at the moment. The last suicide attack in Israel struck almost two years ago. But does anyone seriously believe the situation will stay so calm?

In protest over the settlement construction, Hamas has already called for a "Day of Rage." Hundreds of Palestinians protested on Tuesday in Jerusalem and skirmished with security forces. Tires and trash cans were set on fire. Police struck back with stun grenades and rubber bullets. Access to the Temple Mount, where violence has erupted several times since Friday, has also been restricted. Neither Jewish groups nor tourists were allowed to visit the contested holy site on Tuesday.

'Call When You're Serious About Peace'

The German chancellor is correct to describe Israel's settlement announcement as a "serious setback" and to speak of "negative" signals. It would have been even better if she had done that during her speech before the Knesset in 2008.

The settlements in East Jerusalem didn't just start growing last week. They have been growing, as Netanyahu boasted yesterday, for the past 42 years and they make fools of anyone who wants to help the Jews and Arabs find peace with each other.

Twenty years ago, US Secretary of State James Baker was in the same position that Hillary Clinton and her frustrated Middle East negotiator, George Mitchell, find themselves in now. He handed the Israelis the White House switchboard number and told them: "Call when you're serious about peace."

"The first thing Fascists usually try to do is silencing the opposition."

by opposition on 03/18/2010 08:18:18 AM EST

I saw that editorial on AJE; they'd picked it up from Spiegel. I have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit.

You know, the quote at the end there is a good one, but there's another quote from a different US Secretary of State that I recall.

In early 1973, US envoy Henry Kissinger (who would become Sec State later that year) told Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, "You must not expect to win at the negotiating table what you have lost upon the battlefield."

On October 6th of that year, Egypt, Syria, and a host of other Arab states launched a surprise attack upon Israel, and achieved the greatest success of arms they had seen thus far.

As a result of the successful Egyptian assault and holding action in Sinai, Israel was moved to return the entirety of the Sinai peninsula. Remember, if you please, that at the start of that war, Israel occupied everything down to the east bank of the Suez canal.

Unfortunately, in choosing to take only a narrow strip along the east side of the canal and then dig in where they could be protected by SAM batteries in Egypt, the Egyptians betrayed their pre-war agreement with Syria. That agreement had called for Egypt to drive on Jerusalem (from the south) while the Syrians attacked the Golan Heights to the north of Israel.

The Syrians were slow to realize they'd been suckered, and threw everything they had into the battles for the Golan. Apparently Sadat deliberately continued the deception for a time. This meant the Syrians were chewed up badly in the Golan, though the casualties they inflicted on the Israelis appear to have been nearly crippling.

Obviously this deception, heavy Syrian losses in what was apparently a very close battle, and the post-war "separate peace" Egypt signed with Israel, all led to a severe strain in relations between Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.

But the point here is that the only time the Islamic world has ever gotten any concessions from Israel was right after a costly, bloody, and (perhaps) nearly successful war.

by RedPossum on 03/18/2010 02:55:30 PM EST

[ Parent ]
The great journalism of Der Spiegel. This is by far the best weekly magazin in Germany. People are arguing all the time whether it is too conservative or too left leaning. Even though I consider it too conservative, I think these arguments show that it is usually quite on the money.
Their analysis of foreign politics is also very interesting for foreigners. They post part of it in English under this url:

http://www.spiegel.de/inter national/world/

"The first thing Fascists usually try to do is silencing the opposition."

by opposition on 03/19/2010 01:31:33 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Israel cares about one thing, Israel. I shudder to think what would happen if Israel had to choose between adding more settlements or turning over information that would prevent an attack on the US. It obvious that the more settlements they create the harder it will be to repatriate any land to the Palestinians. That is why they have been doing it since the founding of Israel.

by TinaBlue1985 on 03/18/2010 04:37:34 PM EST

The US of A cares about one thing, the USA.  Every country has a right to self-interest.

Don't waste your vote, vote Green or Independent in the next election.

by mcamelyne on 03/18/2010 10:17:58 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Israel has again started bombing the Gaza-Strip. So far no casualties, but if we have learned anything from the past, it won't stay like that.


Middle East Quartet meet in Moscow amid rising tensions

"The first thing Fascists usually try to do is silencing the opposition."

by opposition on 03/19/2010 04:12:20 AM EST

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