Sunday, March 17, 2013

Aaron David Miller, "One trip won’t fix things between Obama and Netanyahu. Here’s what might.": Aaron, Get Real

Obama is arriving this week in Israel for his first time as president, and in a Washington Post guest opinion piece entitled "One trip won’t fix things between Obama and Netanyahu. Here’s what might." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/one-meeting-wont-fix-things-between-obama-and-netanyahu-heres-what-might/2013/03/15/f31d7eca-8b27-11e2-9f54-f3fdd70acad2_story.html), Aaron David Miller, vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, writes:

"For almost 25 years as an analyst, adviser and negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations, I observed the U.S.-Israel relationship up close. And it’s been clear from the beginning that Obama and Netanyahu were doomed to dysfunction. Netanyahu is preternaturally suspicious of America’s role in the peace process, and particularly of someone like Obama, who aspires to do big things. And Obama’s naive push for a settlement freeze and apparent lack of an emotional connection to Israel have contributed to the tension.

One presidential visit won’t forge a reconciliation. But increasing pressures to manage the Iranian nuclear issue, the peace process and Netanyahu’s need to remain relevant in his new government just might.

. . . .

What is required, though, is respect, understanding and reciprocity that create trust, or at least the ability to work together on things that are important to both countries. And despite the dysfunction at the top, the institutional relationship between the United States and Israel is probably closer than ever, through security cooperation, intelligence-sharing and joint military exercises."

Ah, yes, "understanding and reciprocity that create trust." In recent weeks, Obama appointed Chuck Hagel, an anti-Semite, as his secretary of defense, and appointed John Kerry, an idiot (Syria's Bashar al-Assad was - or perhaps still is - his "dear friend") as his secretary of state.

In his latest display of naivete, Kerry, who recently declared that "Americans have a right to be stupid," turned to Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu to assist in mediating between Israel and the Palestinians (see: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=306619) immediately after Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan labeled Zionism a "crime against humanity." At a subsequent press conference with Kerry, Davutoglu defended Erdogan's racist allegation, and needless to say, Turkey refused Kerry's request.

Trust Obama? No way. Obama is Rashid Khalidi's friend, and The Los Angeles Times still refuses to allow us to see the video of Obama toasting Khalidi at a Chicago dinner party after Khalidi received his appointment as Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia and director of that university’s Middle East Institute.

Yes, I can personally attest to "security cooperation, intelligence-sharing and joint military exercises" involving the US and Israel; however, Obama is a foreign relations naif and much of his first term as president was devoted to goodwill gestures toward Iran, Syria and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

The US Embassy held a contest to select up to 20 "lucky" persons who will be given the opportunity to watch Obama recite a speech in Israel using his beloved teleprompters. However, Obama will not address the Israeli parliament and will not be visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem so as not to antagonize Israel's Muslim neighbors.

This is a man who has Israel's back at a time when Iran is threatening Israel with a nuclear holocaust? Sorry if I have my doubts.

6 comments:

  1. Why on earth should anyone expect Obama to help bridge relations between the Palestinians and Israel? The splintered Palestinians who are themselves on the brink of civil war, a war only prevented by them having two separate territories, Gaza and the West Bank of the Jordan.
    The very lack contiguity is what keeps them from each other's throats.
    So why on earth would anyone want to pursue the myth of uniting them?

    And Obama's solution to Iraq was to increase the USA's military investment in Afghanistan. Some foreign policy.

    Remember those lines from T.S.Eliot that could well have been intended for Obama: "Do you know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember nothing?"

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  2. Obama is a charlatan and the world should be concerned.

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  3. Der Neue Stuermer has a headline:
    "Jewish Homes Complicate Jerusalem Plan"
    Well ... Der Neue Stuermer isn't the first to think this way - there is a long history of this "thinking" - the Romans, Constantin, etc.
    Well .... do I have to comment?

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  4. Obama has already lost Israeli trust with his selective invites to 'talk directly to Israeli college students' unless they attend Ariel University, and I assume not one Israeli believes the spin about how that decision was made. Hope for a stealth protest!
    Many Americans lost trust when he stopped the WH tours, using same naked political ploy by blaming someone else.

    I feel sorry for Jordan's King Abdullah, who has to pretend HE trusts Obama.

    K2K

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  5. Oh, the bastards. Der Neue Stuermer replaced the "Jewish homes in Jerusalem" a problem with something less obviously sick.

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  6. Oh JG -- I absolutely love your writing! It's been too long since I last read this site.

    Re: ADM -- I cannot stand this man. He's the worst of his ilk -- and hopefully I don't have to put a name on what that is.

    I cannot stand people who pontificate in the worst sort of way (as you illustrated) -- but also, by misusing words such as "dysfunctional" relationship.

    Really, Mr Miller? Is "dysfunctional" really the word you want to use? Is there something really that perverted about the relationship -- other than, perhaps just "bad blood." Other than just that the two may not "get along?" Other than the fact that Netanyahu has no reason to trust Obama and that Obama likely knows this (at some level at least).

    The instinctive grab for the Freudian "dysfunctional" is so... well -- I almost said dysfunctional -- but in fact it's just a pseudo-intellectual pose.

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