Posted on 03/26/2013 11:28:25 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
President Obama's first journey to Israel as president comes amid earth-shattering change in Middle East, much of it for the worse. The Arab Spring, which once raised hopes of freedom and dignity, has diverged onto the dark path of Islamist authoritarian rule. In Syria, tens of thousands of people have died in a bitter civil war that might have recently seen its first use of chemical weapons. And Iran continues its march toward nuclear weapons capability, heedless of international condemnation. Obama's effort to seek peace between Palestinians and Israelis is in tatters.
That's why the White House has been lowering expectations for Obama's trip to Israel all this week. He will announce no new peace plan, grand design or major foreign policy initiative. His advisers are calling the trip a "listening tour." That is what you call a state visit when you have little to say.
Failed beginning
Despite downgrading the trip, many see Obama's arrival as the sequel to his 2009 visit to Cairo, where he announced a "new beginning" with the Muslim world. Four years later, that doesn't auger well for renewed efforts in Israel and the West Bank. According to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, confidence in Obama in Muslim countries dropped from 33% to 24% in his first term. Approval of Obama's policies declined even further, from 34% to 15%. And support for the United States in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Pakistan is lower today than it was in 2008 in the closing year of George W. Bush's administration. That collapse of support has not happened elsewhere.
In his Cairo speech, Obama pledged a relationship between America and Muslims around the world "based on mutual interest and mutual respect." But in 2013, interests are diverging, and respect is in short supply.
Of all the strained relationships in the Middle East, the partnership with Israel is the most important and potentially the most easily repaired. Obama is not popular in the country. A poll released last week showed he had a scant 10% approval rating in Israel, with an additional 32% saying they respect but don't like him. But the president is making significant symbolic gestures to heal the breach, such as visiting the grave site of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. It's being interpreted as showing support for the Jewish people's historic connection to the land of Israel, something Obama avoided in his first term.
Unpopular in Palestine
If Israelis don't like Obama, Palestinians are even less favorable.Washington's perceived failure to take a harder line with Israel over the final status of Jerusalem, and U.S. opposition to President Mahmoud Abbas' successful campaign for higher Palestinian status in the United Nations, have engendered a deep sense of frustration. Passions spilled over in Bethlehem this week, when young Palestinians defaced a billboard with Obama's image and burned pictures of him in the streets. Obama's symbolic nods to Israel's history are likely to raise Palestinian ire even further.
The hope that Obama will say the right things in Thursday's speech at Jerusalem's convention center is negated by doubts he will follow through. The president has to assure Israelis and Palestinians that he is still engaged if the peace process has any chance of moving forward. In part, this means convincing them that he still matters.
James S. Robbins is a senior fellow in national security affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council.
The Arab Spring, which once raised hopes of freedom and dignity, has diverged onto the dark path of Islamist authoritarian rule …No, this is not a divergence. This is exactly what Mubarak and many American conservatives said would happen. Even worse, Obama deliberately backed the Muslim Brotherhood instead of the secular liberals, foolishly trying to paint these Islamist authoritarians as themselves secular and liberal.
Obama is King. What difference does it make?
It’s funny how these self-styled policy experts can’t think outside the box. Obama’s objective isn’t to have Israel, or the palestinians or anyone else like him. His job is to destabilize long standing aliances and foment the conditions for the establishment of iran friendly, muslim brotherhood backed terrorist governments. In that, he’s done swimmingly, and to add insult to injury, it’s all been largely financed by the US taxpayer to boot.
The act like royalty, live like royalty and are treated like royalty by their worshippers and the press.
If you mention Obama and dignity in the same sentence, your tongue should spontaneously combust.
Honorius was Western Emperor when Rome was sacked by the Visigoths back in the year 410.
No problem, Obama always knows what he’s doing.
Yes, everything he touches is bad, bad, bad.
He has done absolutely nothing that is good.
King Shi’ite..
Obama had a policy?
There are no tatters. Obama delivered exactly what was proscribed by his authors, and proffered by his own mouth. He has done well.
Fomenting violence and revolution is not a policy, it is a criminal activity.
And not a victimless crime, either.
But who shall prosecute this criminal behavior? There are simply too few with the gumption to stand up and say, “This is wrong.”
Especially when one of the thrusts of the criminal deeds is to silence critics.
Barry Goldwater said it back in 1964 - “None Dare Call It Treason”.
The playbook was never discarded, but the methods and tools have been refined and sharpened over time.
What Bronco Bama is doing may be covered with a thin veil of “legality”, but it is neither moral nor just. And even the legality is ultimately in question.
Tatters? TATTERS?!?
yAGOTTABEKIDDINGME!!
Quasi-friendly, or at least non-hostile quasi-dictatorships are ALL GONE!
The Muslim Brotherhood has taken over—EVERYWHERE!
Turkey has turned hostile.
Syria is about gone.
Muzzie POTUS has done quite well, thank you—for the Muzzies, that is.
You’re right. I’d settle for tatters rather than the total takeover by the radical Muzz that 0bumble delivered.
How odd it seems that Palestinians wouldn’t want Obama as
their President, but he’s been elected twice over here.
When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - you know your nation is doomed.
-Ayn Rand
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