Misplaced outrage

In a move that seems right in line with the rest of American foreign policy, the obama administration is coming down hard on Israel for the decision to go ahead with the construction of 1600 homes in Jerusalem. This decision is right in line with the partial freeze on settlement construction announced by Prime Minister Netanyahu months ago. In that partial freeze construction Jerusalem was specifically exempted as the Israelis do not recognize their capital as a settlement, even though some portions of the city were under Jordanian control until 1967. Now we are treated to news articles in which unnamed administration sources call the decision to build homes for Jews in Jerusalem the cause of the greatest problem in American-Israeli relations in 50 years. This is unbelievable even for Obama and his minions.

First, it is crazy that the USA would support a policy that makes certain areas off limits to Jews. Imagine the outcry if someone tried to announce that certain areas of America were forbidden to Jews or Blacks or some other group! Imagine the apartheid outcry if Israel were to make areas of the country off limits to Moslems or Christians! No, Obama only supports limitations on Jews living in areas of their historic homeland and in Jerusalem no less. There is no other conclusion: Obama is clearly a racist in favor of apartheid for Jews in their own country.

Second, Obama is now seeing the result of his crazy intrusion into the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. Clearly, Obama favors the Palestinian side. Otherwise, there was no reason for the US to get involved in the settlement issue when it was not a problem. Israelis and Palestinians were negotiating for years prior to the insertion of the settlement precondition by the US after Obama took office. At that point, the Palestinians were essentially forced to adopt this precondition since they could not be seen as being more forthcoming and agreeable than the Americans. So now, instead of negotiations we have US-Israeli friction over an issue that did not even exist prior to Obama.

Third, the US under Obama seems to forget who our friends are. Who indeed? Are the Palestinians who danced in the street in celebration after 9-11 our friends? Or is it the Israelis who have worked to help the USA time and time again? Clearly, Obama thinks we need to be closer to the Palestinians, so he takes their side. It is just like the US tilt away from the United Kingdom in the dispute over the Falklands. It is like the removal of missile defense from Eastern Europe in a sop to the Russians for which the US got nothing in return. The list goes on, but this is enough.

One can only hope that the Israelis hang tough on this. No one, not even someone as sure of himself as Barack Obama should be able to foist upon the Israelis a freeze in construction of homes for Jews in Jerusalem.