Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Here We Go: Netanyahu Coming To Town In March...

Oh, Lordy, have we seen the fur fly when these two get together.  And it's usually Barack who's made to look like the Coyote to Bibi's Road Runner.  You can go back to 2010, when Obama stormed out on the Israeli PM, then refused to take photos with him.  Or last year, when Obama decided to push the Jews back to the 1967 borders, only to be mocked and denied by Netanyahu, Congress, and the American people.

Not that Obama hasn't gotten his nasty little shots in.  He's intent on blaming Israel of the deaths of the Iranian scientists, and he's let his personal animosity towards the leader of the Jewish state known in a bitchy little aside made to France's Sarkozy that was inadvertently picked up by the mics.

So what can we expect this time? Jonathan Tobin thinks that Obama, at least for the moment, will roll over like a good puppy:

With the president fighting hard to retain the votes and the financial support of American Jews and other friends of Israel, Netanyahu can expect that Obama will be on his very best behavior when he arrives next month for a visit that was announced yesterday.

With evidence mounting that Obama and the Democrats have been bleeding Jewish support in the last year, the visit will take the president’s charm offensive aimed at convincing the Jewish community he is Israel’s best friend to a new level.
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But while Netanyahu will oblige the rpesident and say the requisite nice things on camera, behind close doors one can expect a fierce ideological struggle of what to do about Iran. Israel senses an existential threat and wants to stop the Iranian nuclear program in its tracks. Obama, on the other hand, seems only concerned about containment - of Israel.

Appearing on CNN, General Dempsey sent precisely the wrong message if the main U.S. strategic goal is convincing Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. He said the U.S. is urging Israel not to attack Iran—because Iran hasn't decided to build a bomb, because an Israeli attack probably wouldn't set back Iran by more than a couple of years, and because it would invite retaliation and be "destabilizing" throughout the Middle East. . .

In a single sound bite, General Dempsey managed to tell the Iranians they can breathe easier because Israel's main ally is opposed to an attack on Iran, such attack isn't likely to work in any case, and the U.S. fears Iran's retaliation. It's as if General Dempsey wanted to ratify Iran's rhetoric that the regime is a fearsome global military threat
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How has appeasement worked so far? Yeah, exactly...

Netanyahu is in no mood to watch the Iranians prepare to execute their long-promised Second Holocaust while Obama engages in liberal word-games and play-acting. As the president would say, let there be no mistake: There will be a deep divide between these two men on how to handle this developing situation. The only question is, will they be able to paper it over and smile nicely in public, or will Obama erupt once again in yet another fit of ill-tempered pique and spite, embarrassing himself and harming our relations with our closest ally in the process?

Here we go...

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