Obamaism; Betraying friends and allies
There is no doubt that something fundamental about the American Administration’s foreign policy has changed. The US conduct in the Middle East lead by President Obama attests to inexperience and lack of familiarity with the region at a most basic level. It appears as though a rookie is leading the world. There are no excuses for Obama’s lack of experience and judgment. How can it be that Bush's America understood the problem of repression in the Arab world, but Obama's America ignored it until last week? How can it be that in May 2009, Mubarak was an esteemed President whom Obama respected, and in January 2011, Mubarak is a dictator abandoned and cast aside by Obama? How can it be that in June 2009, Obama didn't support the masses who demonstrated by the hundreds and thousands for democratic elections against the dictator of Iran, Ahmadinejad, the only world leader publicly calling for the destruction of a democratic nation, Israel while now Obama stands by the masses who are coming out against the moderate Mubarak in Egypt?
There can be only one answer: Obama’s foreign policy is not a moral one that reflects a real commitment to human rights. Rather Obama’s foreign policies reflect the adoption of Jimmy Carter's worldview: courting and groveling to dictators and tyrants while abandoning moderate, Western oriented leaders. Carter's betrayal of the Shah brought us the Ayatollahs, and will soon bring us Ayatollahs with nuclear arms. The consequences of Obama's betrayal of Mubarak will be no less severe. It's not only a betrayal of a leader who was loyal to the West, served stability and encouraged moderation in the Middle East. It's a betrayal of every ally of the West in the Middle East and the developing world. The message is sharp and clear: Obama’s word is no word at all; an alliance with the Obama is not an alliance. Obama has lost it, he and his administration have stopped being a leading and stabilizing force around the world. The strategic bottom line is that Obama and his administration’s abandonment of Mubarak shows that Israel cannot count on the White House at times of crisis.
Ignoring Middle Eastern realities
We have all been warned over and over again. The Einsteins at Peace Now, at J-Street, Obama, Europe, the think tanks who blanket Capitol Hill. Even the Arab dictators warned us. For decades now, they have been warning us that if you want "peace and stability for 1000 years in the Middle East," just fix the Palestinian Arab problem. So what would really happen if peace would break out between Jews and Palestinian Arabs? Would all those furious Arab masses now demonstrating in Egypt, Tunsia, and Jordon feel any better? Would they feel less oppressed? Would they quietly go home ?
Even if you absolutely believe in the imperative of creating a Palestinian Arab state, you can't tell me that the single-minded and global obsession with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the expense of the enormous ills in the rest of the Arab nations of the Middle East hasn't been idiotic, if not criminally negligent. While tens of millions of Arabs have been suffering for decades from brutal oppression, while writers jailed and women humiliated and dissidents killed, the world -- yes, the world -- has been obsessed with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has anything to do with the 1,000-year-old bloody conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, or the desire of brutal Arab dictators to stay in power, or the desire of Islamist radicals to bring back the Caliphate, or the economic despair of millions, or simply the absence of free speech or basic human rights throughout the Arab world. While self-righteous Israel bashers have scrutinized every flaw in Israel's democracy, they kept their big mouths shut about the oppression of millions of Arabs throughout the Middle East. Think of the ridiculous amount of media ink and diplomatic attention that has been poured onto the Israel-Palestinian conflict over the years, while much of the Arab world was suffering and smoldering?
Imagine if those Israel bashers, during all the years they put Israel under their hypocritical microscope, had taken Israel's imperfect democratic experiment and said to the Arab world: Why don't you try to emulate the Jews? Why don't you give your people the same freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to vote that Israel gives its people? And offer them the economic opportunities they would get in Israel? Why don't you treat your Jewish citizens the same way Israel treats its Arab citizens? Why don't you study how Israel has struggled to balance religion with democracy -- a very difficult but not insurmountable task? Why don't you teach your people that Jews are not the sons of dogs, but a noble, ancient people with a 3,000-year connection to the land of Israel?
Imagine if President Obama had taken 1 percent of the time he has arrogantly harped on Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria to defend the democratic rights of Egyptian Arabs.
Well, now that the cesspool of human oppression in the Arab world has been opened for all to see, how bad is Israel's democracy looking? Don't you wish the Arab world had a modicum of Israel's civil society? And that it was as stable and reliable and free and open as Israel? Right now, when I see poor Arab souls being killed for protesting on the street, and the looming threat that one Egyptian leader may be replaced by an even more oppressive one, I've never felt more proud of being a citizen of the Jewish state.
Based on article by David Suissa