Iran is the major security issue facing Israel, which sees itself confronting an extremist regime seeking nuclear weapons and stating openly that Israel should be wiped off the map. Israel believes the military option has to be on the table and credible if diplomacy and sanctions are to have any chance, and many Israelis believe a military strike on Iran may in the end be unavoidable. The Obama administration, on the other hand, talks of outstretched hands; on July 15, even after Iran’s election, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said “we understand the importance of offering to engage Iran….direct talks provide the best vehicle….We remain ready to engage with Iran.”
Ideology is the name of the game:
The deeper problem—and the more complex explanation of bilateral tensions—is that the Obama administration, while claiming to separate itself from the “ideologues” of the Bush administration in favor of a more balanced and realistic Middle East policy, is in fact following a highly ideological policy path. Its ability to cope with, indeed even to see clearly, the realities of life in Israel and the West Bank and the challenge of Iran to the region is compromised by the prism through which it analyzes events.
As Jennifer Rubin explains,
The takeaway here is deeply sobering. Ideologues don’t accept new evidence or recognize that their theories aren’t bearing fruit. Failures are always attributed to a lack of time or effort. We simply have to keep at it, we will be told. That does not bode well for a course correction. They have their worldview, and they are sticking with it.
As I have said before, the administration is telegraphing a message.
Most of this is certainly not surprising given the sympathies most of the coterie around Pres Obama have. But the downgrading of Dennis Ross to non-person by the Administration is that neon glowing sign in the fog. He had the audacity to release a book recently that said the Israel-Palestinian problem should not be linked to negotiations with Iran and that if all else fails the US should be prepared to act militarily to prevent Iran from acheiving a nuclear armed state. And what is even worse is that Pres Obama acceded to Iranian pressure to find another Special Envoy as they would not talk to Ross because of his sympathies to the State of Israel but also because the Iranians wouldn’t speak to him because he is an observant Jew. So instead of being one of the few diplomats that strives to represent American interests, yet trying to find solutions for the ME, Ross has been exiled to the basement of the National Security Council. Simply another body heaved out the door to lighten that bus load of fabulists and demigods.
For all the moaning and misdirection served up by the Left during the Reagan years concerning South Africa it is noteworthy that Reagan went out of his way to irritate the South Africans by sending Black Americans to positions within the consulates and embassies for years. Even as the apartheid government made clear their hostility to dealing with black diplomats from the US.
Will Obama only appoint Muslims to consular positions in the ME? Or even better only those that are hostile to the country they represent to show their sympathy to the Palestinian cause?
The new catch phrase:
Obama — is there any foreign policy decision he can’t screw up?
Spread it around.