PrintJune 7, 2009
Obama's dangerous Middle East delusions
Two contradictory reports at Politico demonstrate that the bubble surrounding President Barack Obama (D) is still (dangerously) isolating him from reality--and its deadly consequences--and that most of the media seem equally dangerously encased in the same bubble, with the same deadly consequences.
Mike Allen reports that Obama arrogantly--and erroneously
took credit Friday for improving the climate for Middle East peace negotiations, and added that "if we stick with it, having started early, ... we can make some serious progress this year." "You've probably seen more sustained activity on this issue in the first five months than you would have seen in most previous administrations," Obama said. "I think given what we've done so far, we've at least created the space, the atmosphere, in which talks can restart.
On a later conference call, a State Department official made the criticism more personal to President George W. Bush: "The president made clear that the United States, under his administration in the past few months, has probably done more than it had in the previous eight years. (snip)
But what we've tried to do is to clear away some of the misunderstandings so that we can at least begin to have frank dialogue. ... We've only been in office five months, and yet we've seen extraordinary activity already on this issue. And that's sent a signal to all the parties in the Middle East that we are serious."
Apparently Obama hasn't learned that putting another down doesn't raise Obama. His gratuitous, and totally unnecessary reference to Bush (R), not only degraded himself and his work, it is false.
Someone must have the guts to tell Obama that he is not god; that American history does not begin with him and this is not Year 1 of America; that all our history that came before him was not BO, Before Obama. Bush and his staff worked hard and accomplished much; Arab intransigence and hatred prevented any kind of peace, just as happened with the eight years of President Bill Clinton (D) and despite that famous handshake on the White House lawn between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat with President Jimmy Carter (D) beaming in the distance. The freezing peace, the hatred that emanates from Egypt towards Israel and even the US, despite, Obama's pretty words in Cairo, are proof.
And now apparently Obama wants to negate the understandings and agreements worked out between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. So much for Israel trusting America as an ally; any sensible leader--and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is extraordinarily sensible--would be right to be wary of trusting any agreement reached under Obama, knowing how easily it can be discarded.
And as for "improving the climate in the Middle East" for a "frank dialogue"? Ben Smith tells of a Hebrew account by respected Israeli reporter, Nachum Barnea, in a major Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth
The Syrian did not show after hearing that a reporter from Israel had been invited. The Lebanese, Naoum Sarkis, had been sitting with us all at the front of the hall but when he realized where I was from and whom I was representing, he passed on the opportunity and fled.
If anyone should have refused to sit with the Arab/Muslim reporters it was Barnea, whose son was killed in a terrorist bombing of a Jerusalem bus. Barnea, who had escorted his son to the bus, saw it happen.
Meanwhile, Obama & Co huff and puff but they will blow down another's house.
hat tip: Jennifer Rubin, Commentary Contentions
