Thursday, January 17, 2013

Interfering Obama

I am outraged at the crude attempt by Pres. Obama to intervene in the Israeli election process.  He gave an interview to a journalist Jeffrey Goldberg just a week before the Israeli general election, and he reported that Obama felt that he knew better what was good for Israel than the Israelis themselves and he wanted to save Israel from making serious mistakes. What gives Obama the right, the gall, the arrogance to think that he knows better what is good for us than we do ourselves.  It is foolish for a foreign leader to intervene in an election, but it will ensure that our political leaders will have the tendency to maximize our sovereignty and independence of action. 
Take for instance the area E1 that has been in the news a lot lately. After the PA leader Pres. Abbas went to the UN to seek to obtain unilateral recognition of a Palestinian State without Israeli involvement, the Israeli Government reacted by announcing the intention to build housing on the area E! that lies between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, thus making Israel contiguous in that area.  This upset many European and American leaders, including Obama, who have commited themselves to a two state solution in which Palestine will be in the West Bank to the exclusion of Israel.  The fact is that there has never been Palestinian or even recognized Arab sovereignty in this area, it passed from Turkish control to the British Mandate (that was not permanent) to illegal Jordanian occupation to Israeli control.  Therefore, to call this area "Palestinian Land" as is often done is not only incorrect, it is prejudging the results of any negotiations. 
Then last weekend a group of Palestinian Arabs took over a parcel of this land and set up tents on it, claiming it as theirs, without a shred of evidence or justification.  The Israeli Govt. ordered the squatters removed and they were, although a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court left the tents in place for a few days.   Now I put it to you that it is in Israel's sovereign interest to ensure that Israel is contiguous there, while Pres. Obama opposes this and represents the Arab view that to have a contiguous Palestinian State is more important.  But, in the absence of any negotiations and with the PA taking unilateral action, Israel should and must act in its own interests.  So Pres. Obama butt out!  I will vote for PM Netanyahu in this election because I believe that he is strong enough to stand up to Obama's pressuring tactics.
According to a poll published on the front page of the Jerusalem Post this morning (Thurs), three seats were actually lost by Likud-Beitanu for the first time to a left of center Party, in this case Tzipi Livni's Hatnuah.  This brings Likud down to 32 seats, the lowest poll result so far.  Until now Likud has been losing seats to the more right wing party Bayit Yehudi, that has gone from nowhere to become the second or third largest party.  So overall the right is increasing its lead, but Obama's criticism of Netanyahu may persuade some voters to waste their vote on a smaller centrist party.  However, in the end Netanyahu will win and will become our next PM, so Obama should face up to that eventuality.

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