Posted on 03/20/2019 6:17:16 PM PDT by markomalley
President Donald J. Trump will host Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House next week, displaying a significant shift in policy from President Obama.
Netanyahu will join Trump for a working meeting on March 25 during which they will “discuss their countries’ shared interests and actions in the Middle East,” according to the White House press release Wednesday. The U.S. President will then host Netanyahu at a dinner on March 26. This will be Netanyahu’s third visit to the Trump White House.
What a difference nine years makes.
It was on March 23, 2010, that Netanyahu came to the White House. He was met there with a very different reception by then-President Barack Obama.
When Obama came into office his views of the Middle East and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs had been formed by relationships with those who viewed Israel as the primary stumbling block to peace in the region.
Obama famously told a group of prominent American Jews that he intended to insert “daylight” between the U.S. and Israel. The reason given for the intentional distancing was that Obama believed no forward progress had been made during the time when the U.S. and Israel were close allies. Obama decided it was time to wield the stick instead of the carrot. But he would wield the stick only on the Jewish State, not its neighbors.
And so when Netanyahu came to the White House on March 23, 2010, Obama treated him “like an unsavory Third World dictator.”
There was no official press conference, as is de rigueur when world leaders come to the White House. No photographs were permitted of even a handshake between the two leaders.
Upon Netanyahu’s appearance in the White House, Obama handed Netanyahu a list of 13 demands. When little progress was made, Obama abruptly stood up and informed Netanyahu that he was “going to have dinner with Michelle and the girls,” and left the Prime Minister to cool his heels for over an hour.
When Obama finally returned to meet with Netanyahu, relations had not improved. A request was made by Israel for the issuance of a joint statement. The White House refused.
Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York City, was appalled by Obama’s treatment of the Israeli Prime Minister. Koch said at the time that it was “unimaginable that the President would treat any of our NATO allies, large or small, in such a degrading fashion.” Even though there were clearly policy differences between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government, according to Koch, a Democrat, that was “no excuse. Allies often disagree, but remain respectful.”
The announcement of Netanyahu’s visit to the Trump White House has come while U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Jerusalem, during a several days-long swing through the Middle East.
Tongues were already wagging when Pompeo’s visit to Israel was announced. Israelis head to the voting booths next month, and some were suggesting Pompeo’s visit would provide an unfair boost to Netanyahu’s standing.
The political party of the Prime Minister, Likud, has once again been climbing in the polls, after several hard blows including indictments threatened against Netanyahu, and the formation of a new purportedly-centrist political party.
Netanyahu’s surprise visit to the White House this close to the election will likely be seen as yet another finger on the scale to assist the Prime Minister. But what a far cry from the relations between the Israeli Prime Minister – and Israel – and the last U.S. administration.
Obozo treated him as any muzzie would. Thank God for president Trump.
nine years ago.
i tried to forget he ever existed.
like some bad ####ing dream.
But it’s what led to Trump so I think in the end we won.
Excellent.
obama was more comfortable with his bff’s like faraCON and the muzzie brotherhood. btw, there’s a reason valerie jarret lives with the obama’s.
obama, sought daylight between America and Israel.
He might want to put down the koran and pick up a Bible, he may find his itinerary in Revelations 20:11-15
he might even find his 72 virgins there, and they all may look just like helen thomas!
The differences between Dems and Reps on these issues couldn’t be more stark.
President Clinton’s most frequent visitor to his White House was Yassir Arafat.
Clinton pushed the Oslo Accords, and while maybe well intentioned was a total disaster for everyone. Giving the PLO diplomatic status, tens of thousands of guns, billions of dollars every year, and a safe place to reside was asinine. The results should have been predictable.
Bush Jr learned from Clinton’s error and pulled away from the previous negotiations realizing you can’t make a horse drink water. He put out his road map that proceeded as follows: “end the violence; halt settlement activity; reform Palestinian institutions; accept Israel’s right to exist; establish a viable, sovereign Palestinian state”.
Obama snubbed the Israeli leader. Obama and his reckless Sec of State went on a regime change rampage that destabilized the entire region, empowered Iran, cost the lives of American diplomats and soldiers, and ultimately gave Russia their long sought toehold in the Middle East with warm water ports in the Mediterranean. For all those Democrats who crow about “Russia Collusion” there was no better friend to Russia than these two Democrat leaders.
Now Trump is shaking things up. Some are complaining about the formal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol, and about the revocation of funds towards Palestinian institutions. But I don’t see this as an act of vengeance or partisanship but of a realpolitik born through his decades of negotiations. You cannot continue to placate and reward obstructionism, opportunism, and flaunting of diplomatic social norms.
I may be in the minority here, but I think there should be an independent Palestinian state. But nobody is going to give it to then. They have to unify behind the purpose and not just take decades of foreign aid to perpetuate a system of graft that only exacerbates their own national interests. They need to get a grip, become a real government, a real neighbor, build their institutions, crush all rogue militias, prevent cross-border attacks, end incitement and the perpetuation of Jew hatred in their state media, and not celebrate the murder of innocent people.
I think Trump gets it. When he formally recognized Jerusalem he said that when the time comes to make peace he is going to place a “big ask” on Israel in return for that. We’ll see where he goes with it.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are only sliding further into the worst elements of their party... a slide that began decades ago by their previous leaders who thought foolishly that you can buy peace with money.
Very good summary1 I’d forgotten some of these things.
Oh and by the way:
1) In response to Bush’s road map (but also for its own reasons) Israel withdrew from Gaza, and
2) I shouldn’t be so surprised but Secretary Clinton was such a disaster in office I cannot believe anybody took her seriously as a candidate for POTUS. The media was completely uncritical of her tenure, accepting of her excuse-making, and covering up her foibles and the corruption all around her. She was unfit for office, should never have been allowed to fundraise for her personal charity while serving as SoS (I cannot believe that such actions are not criminal) and I am grateful she lost. I know she resigned as SoS before Russia went into Syria but that is a direct consequence of her and Obama’s mishandling the entire region. For her to then turn around and call Russia our greatest adversary is not just irony. There is a lot of slight of hand in that.
As we now know, so much corruption in the intelligence community, so much unreported cash flowing to charities she ran secretly, planes full of cash and gold sent around the world (if we really owed Iran all that money why not wire it to their bank, why pay it in paper bills and gold bars?) You have to stop and ponder the size and scope this gravy train of corruption has been since the Clintons took the White House and control of their party - the FBI files, the Chinese bribes, the Uranium One and so much more. Why would the highest reaches of the intelligence community be so hell bent to install her to office and destroy her challenger?
Wonder how Obama liked it when the Chinese didn’t even roll out the stairs to Air Force One on his final trip over there? I laughed my azz off.
I’m surprised there was no mention of how PM Netanyahu was sent out the back door after the “meeting” was over. It was the final snub of Obama’s disgraceful conduct that day.
I guess the difference now is that the Democrat HATRED TOWARDS JEWS and Israel is now unrestrained, whereas Obama (and Bill Clinton, for that matter) were able to keep the hatred pretty much under wraps.
It’s a new Democrat Party now - Jews cavort with them at their own peril.
Obamaeichmann
nobama = The Greatest Fraud Ever
“I may be in the minority here, but I think there should be an independent Palestinian state. But nobody is going to give it to then.”
Put it in Sinai. Have the entire world contribute to a new Palestinian homeland. The new Palestine will run solely on alternative energy. Buildings, factories, homes, everything. After 10 years they can have a regional airport. We can move the UN there as new Palestine will be a symbol of how the world can work together despite their differences.
At the first UN meeting, nuke the place from orbit, just to be sure.
You forgot the word “happily”, I think.
That punchline hurt. LOL
Bravo President Trump. And Prime Minister Netanyahu.
There have been serious proposals along those lines in the past. One interesting thing, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been in a low grade diplomatic dispute over ownership of some small Red Sea Islands. Recently Egypt agreed to relinquish their claims in return for a couple billion in Saudi cash. I mention this as it shows possibility for sovereign flexibility.
But even still, I don’t see Egypt really going for it. The proposals I read involved 99 year lease to land that would expand Gaza strip. And to be sure, Gaza is one of the most dense population areas on earth. One of their problems is their political leadership is Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood - enemies of Egypt.
But your vision is 100% spot on. The possibilities and potential are incredible. They have access to massive natural gas, a seaport, beautiful topography. How much money goes to Italy and Greece and France and even Israel by developing their coast lines for tourism and enterprise? None of these other countries have any vision at all. Well Lebanon did, until Arafat and the PLO showed up.
It would be a massive undertaking - literally building a country from scratch, housing and infrastructure for a couple million people. Some advantages would be it would all be built from scratch so it would be state of the art, well planned by city planners to enable trade and travel and traffic etc. Unfortunately this is almost impossible unless and until the Palestinian people themselves unite in a common vision of peace and prosperity. To this day they remain tribal and clannish, factional, with many armed militias (some are more ruthless against other Arabs than they are to Israelis) and a corrupt, weak, inept government.
Like I said which you quoted.... “nobody is going to give it to them”. They have to do it themselves. You are right they would have the support of the entire world. Clinton is said to have offered Arafat $30 billion in aid if he signed the final Oslo peace draft. Arafat refused. But this shows the world is willing to help them to help themselves.
Funny, I didn’t catch that last line. I’ll stick to the serious - I am also in the minority on the UN. I want to keep the UN here. But, each country can only get 2 diplomatic Visas. If they want to hire staff, make them hire American residents. Oh, and veto everything. The UN Ambassador can just listen to an ipod all day.
>>Obama abruptly stood up and informed Netanyahu that he was “going to have dinner with Michelle and the girls,” and left the Prime Minister to cool his heels for over an hour.<<
I vaguely remember that incident, Hussein showing how low class he was. He will NEVER have class. He is pure scum.
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