What Would Obama Do If His Only Concern Was Israel?

[Meshuga]

What Would Obama Do If His Only Concern Was Israel?

MJ Rosemberg


The Middle East story line this week is that President Barack Obama is getting tough on Israel. He is insisting on a total settlement freeze (with no exceptions) and expects Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to endorse the two-state solution (with no conditions). In his groundbreaking speech in Cairo, Obama made it clear that just as the right of Jews to their own state cannot be questioned, neither can the right of Palestinians to theirs.

Observers have noticed that President Obama frames his policy toward Israel in the context of U.S. interests. He eschews sentimentality in favor of rationality: the recognition that the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict damages U.S. interests throughout the Middle East. He also believes that the perception of America as utterly one-sided in its approach to Arabs and Israelis fuels anti-American sentiment among Arabs and Muslims in general.

In short, President Obama’s Middle East policy is primarily about American interests, which is as it should be, and not domestic politics, which it has long been.

But what if President Obama’s primary concern in Middle East policy-making was Israeli, not American interests? Suppose that he, like some critics of his policies, only thought about the Middle East in terms of what is considered best for Israel.

That is, in fact, how the neocons of the Bush administration approached U.S. policy.

It was out of that concern that they promoted the Iraq war, rebuffed any dialogue with Iran, blocked U.S. aid to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that would have helped him defeat Hamas in the 2006 election, and supported Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in his determination to leave Gaza unilaterally rather than negotiating the withdrawal with Abbas.

It was out of that concern that they torpedoed efforts by Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Senator George Mitchell, General Anthony Zinni, and others to produce an Israeli-Palestinian agreement before Hamas came to power.

In short, it was their professed, but utterly wrong-headed, concern for Israel that produced a set of policies that did more damage to Israel (and produced more Israeli victims of terror) in the period 2001-2008 than ever before in Israel’s history.

(...)

If Barack Obama suddenly abandoned his activist policies—his call for a settlement freeze and the two-state solution—would that make him a better friend of Israel?

The answer is obvious.

Barack Obama’s friendship with Israel is demonstrated by his determination to help it out of the disastrous fix it is in.

(...)

He knows about Israel and he empathizes with its people (as was evidenced in the Cairo speech where he explained to the world’s Muslims the nexus between Israel’s creation and the Holocaust). He understands what it needs to survive and thrive. And that, along with our own security interests, is why Obama is not backing down on settlements, the two-state solution, or on his determination to achieve a final status agreement in his first term.

He is not doing any of this exclusively to help Israel. But if that was his only goal, his program would be exactly the same. The pro-Israel community understands that, which is why Obama has its support.


http://israelpolicyforum.org/commentary/what-would-obama-do-if-his-only-concern-was-israel

[LeftishBrit]

1. I was going to reply...

'Pretty much what he's doing already!' - and I see that the author makes exactly the same point.

Obama's efforts, if successful, will lead to great benefit for both the Israelis AND Palestinians!