PrintMay 25, 2011
At least Obama clarified some things
Some things are abundantly clear in the aftermath of President Obama's speech on May 19 to the American people outlining his vision of the Middle East and his plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's responses.
It is clear for example that Obama's vision is divorced from reality and is detrimental to the national security interests of the United States. He is looking at recent events in the Middle East (the so-called Arab Spring, Palestinian attempts to form a 'unity government' and so on) through rose colored glasses and has no knowledge or understanding of the history of the region, the mentality of its people, the nature of Islam or the real animating factors behind the Arab Spring and Palestinian actions. He doesn't understand or believe that the national security of the United States is being threatened and eroded by his own actions or lack of same and that his policies of appeasement and kowtowing to those who would do the U.S. great harm if not destroy it are placing America in mortal danger.
An American President has four basic, fundamental national security priorities in the Middle East. These are 1) to unequivocally and unambiguously support and defend Israel becaue Israel is America's only true friend and ally in the region, because the American military could not operate effectively there when and if it had to without Israeli cooperation and assistance and because the American economy would be significantly damaged if Israel was crippled or ceased to exist, 2) to keep the supply of oil flowing, 3) to keep friendly and mutually supportive relations with regimes in the region that help the U.S. meet its needs there, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to cite but two examples and 4) to keep Islamists and Jihadists from taking power and/or externally using the power they already have in various countries because that would be disastrous for America and Israel and would lead straight to all out war, war which could easily turn nuclear when Iran develops and acquires nuclear weapons thanks to Obama doing absolutely nothing to keep them out of her hands or to Israelis using theirs as a last gasp effort to survive. All are intimately related and cannot happen on their own i.e. unless each of the others do too.
Obama's vision and peace plan are completely antithetical to these four priorities and would ensure that they would not be achieved and that the opposite would happen in all four instances. They already have to one degree or another and major damages have occurred as a result. Netanyahu was right to stand up to Obama, to reject his peace plan and to school him in Middle East realities, not only for Israel's sake but for America's too. We can only hope that he will continue to have the courage, strength and political acumen to keep on doing so because Obama being Obama he will not change his course of action unless he is forced to and the future of the United States and Israel, not to mention the Middle East and the rest of the world, could well depend on it.
Natanyahu is trying to save Israel from Obama and in the process may wind up saving the U.S. and the rest of us from him as well. Now that's ironic. Deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize I'd say, unlike Obama.
