US-Israeli relations

Pres. Obama has now taken the gloves off in his "lame duck" period as President against the State of Israel and its Prime Minister.  PM Netanyahu has not gone along with Obama's policies and Secty of State Kerry's pronouncements, but this is not enough reason to "throw Israel under the bus."  Obama  has made some spectacular mistakes in foreign policy, from his Cairo speech pleading with the Muslim world to accept Americans as friends (which they did not do) and completely misreading the so-called "Arab Spring," to his lack of action on Syria, and support for Muslim Brotherood Pres. Morsi, who was rejected by the Egyptians themselves.  If Pres. Carter was the one who lost Iran by not supporting the Shah, so Pres. Obama is the President who lost Egypt by not supporting Mubarak and his successor Al-Sisi, who is now President of Egypt. Also, the US is probably preparing to compromise with Iran on its obtaining enriched uranium that could be used to develop a nuclear weapon.  But, now allowing a "Senior Adminstration official" to go on the record as calling PM Netanyahu a "chickenshit" and a "coward" is unacceptable in relations between two supposed allies. Obama, with his own bullshit is now deliberately trying to destroy the relationship between the US and Israel.

With relation to Israel specifically, Kerry supported the Qatari-Turkish attempt at a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel during the Gaza war that would have given Hamas everything it wanted, while Israel accepted only the Egyptian ceasefire proposal, which gave Hamas nothing, and it was the one that was adopted.  Now with the murder to 33 Egyptian soldiers in Sinai this week, Egypt is blaming Hamas for allowing the terrorist perpetrators to be trained in and exit from Gaza, and they are taking a hard line against Gaza, by shutting the Rafah crossing and building a 500 m wide buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza.  So far there are no protests about this from the pro-Palestinian supporters in the West, although it could be far more damaging than the Israeli blockade.  Israel is still sending about 300 trucks a day of produce, medicine and building materials (under UN auspices) into Gaza, that have been inspected before being allowed in.  In other words Israel's blockade is only against weapons, missiles and the mis-use of building materials for military infrastructure, such as tunnels. 

Israel has just been named by two independent studies as having the best air-force in the world and the best army in the Middle East.  Now why, in a situation of great peril for Western civilization, while the US is actually fighting the Islamic State (but only from the air) and is continuing to increase security at home after the attacks in Canada, why then would the President of the USA insult the leader of the one country that the US can rely on as an ally in the Middle East.  The only explanation is, as many have said for years, that Obama is effectively pursuing a pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian policy and using all his efforts to force Israel to accept his dictates.  The fact is that PM Netanyahu will not bend to his will, he has resisted most efforts against US pressures to make unacceptable compromises.  For example, under US pressure Netanyahu instituted a 10 month cessation of construction in the West Bank, and what did he get for that, nothing!  Neither any concessions from the Palestinians and a loss of support from the right wing in his own Likud Party as well as the formation of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish home) party against him.

The ostensible reason for this break-down in US -Israel relations is the approval for the construction of 1,000 housing units in two suburbs of Jerusalem.  These are NOT settlements, but actual areas that are contingent with and part of Jerusalem that was annexed to Israel after the 1967 war.  You would think that the Obama Administration could find something more important to spend its time on rather than the construction of housing in Jerusalem.   Unless of course that is what Obama's Arab friends are telling him to do.  The next stage is that Obama will use this really secondary issue to not veto a UN SC resolution against Israel, that will usher in a whole new era of Israel-US relations.  American Jews take note, you either stand with Israel on this and vote Republican in the coming elections or you are complicit in Israel's potential demise.