DUMPING ON ISRAEL
O'S LATEST MIDEAST MISSTEPS
By: Ralph Peters, NY Post
July 28, 2009
YOU'VE sacrificed all your family had to build your modest dream home by a lake. Now a wildfire races toward you.
A former friend phones from his mansion across the water, ordering you not to call the fire brigade -- he's sending a servant to discuss things with the flames. Meanwhile, your rich buddy insists you tear down the tree-house you built for your kids: It annoys the local thugs he wants to befriend.
That's Israel's position today. Iran blazes with nuclear ambitions. Key leaders in Tehran have called, without cease, for the "Zionist entity's destruction." And Israel's former ally, the United States, implies that the situation isn't that serious.
No, what's most important to the Obama team is a total freeze on Jewish settlements on anything the State Department's Bureau of Politically Correct Geography decides is Arab land. Preventing a long-established settler from building a new room for a growing family is more important than halting Iran's weapons program.
It's true: Iran might not use the nukes it intends to acquire. But if you were raising your children in Tel Aviv, how would you like your chances?
Pick an arbitrary number. Say the odds are only one in five that Iran would actually launch nukes at Israel. In Washington, that might seem like a reasonable calculation. In Jerusalem, the "only" part would sound like pure irony.
President Obama's position may evolve as he comes to grips with reality (his views on Russia are already maturing, if Joe Biden can be believed). But he appears to have come to the Oval Office with an anti-Israel chip on his shoulder -- put there by left-wing associates over the decades.
What our president presents as even-handedness toward the Palestinians not only ignores countless facts and the lessons of history but also encourages Arab intransigence. Why compromise, when Washington's backing away from Israel?
The road to peace -- if there is one -- doesn't lead through tolerance of those who want every Jew dead.
Yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Israel. For six hours. A very good man thrust into an uncomfortable spot, the SecDef must have spent much of his time "explaining" the new Obama doctrine as expounded by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week. |
