Bloomberg News is reporting today that president Obama has been telling people in his administration that "Israel does not know what its own best interests are" and that the Israelis are actually acting against their own interests by building "settlements" in the area of Jerusalem.
Let's forget for the moment that it is incredibly arrogant for an American president to tell a democratic ally that he knows better than the citizens of that ally what is good for them. In the old days, the left would castigate any American government figure who tried to dictate to another country what they should do or how they should act. America was supposed to learn (according to the left) that we did not know better than other countries. Indeed, long ago, it was the charicature of the so called Ugly American who went abroad and acted as if he or she knew better than the people of the country where he was.
No, much more to the point is that Obama's position is one which actually attacks Israel for being Jewish and following Judaism. Christianity is not identified with any specific land. Sure, the Catholic church is headquartered in Rome, but nothing in Catholic teachings requires that Rome or the Vatican is a necessary part of the religion. Judaism is different in that regard. One essential part of Judaism is that God gave the Promised Land to the Jewish people. That is why it is the promised land. For millenia, Jews told each other that God would bring them back to the land of Israel and Jerusalem. Zionism was not just a national movement, but a religious one as well. So, a sizeable portion of the Israeli people look at the creation of Israel in 1948 and the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967 as the fulfillment of a divine promise. For Obama to now tell the world that the Israelis do not know what their own best interests are because they settle all of Jerusalem rather than just the areas that they controlled prior to 1967 is the equivalent of telling millions of Israelis that following their religion is against their best interests. In Israel, they would call this chutzpah.
For those of you who disagree, I suggest the following thought experiment. Consider the reaction if Obama were to tell the Islamic world that by travelling in the Hadj to Mecca, they did not know what their own best interests are. Suppose Obama told the Muslims of the world that they ought to stop wasting their time and money going on such pilgrimages. What do you think would be the reaction? Let me suggest that the riots that followed that stupid youtube video last September would be nothing compared to the outrage that would surely follow such an arrogant comment by Obama.
We have a president who seems never to consider the point of view of anyone other than himself. The choices he posits are always the choice he favors as opposed to some totally unreasonable alternative. That is how he negotiates with the GOP. That is how he dealt with objections to Obamacare. That is how Obama considers spending cuts in the USA. It is also how Obama deals with almost all of America's allies. Only when there is an enemy who can clearly do damage to the USA does Obama ever consider the desires of that enemy; that is why Obama never wants to offend the Islamist world or even nations like Chavez' Venezuela or Castro's Cuba.
And we have four more years of this guy. Let's hope we can survive it.
Let's forget for the moment that it is incredibly arrogant for an American president to tell a democratic ally that he knows better than the citizens of that ally what is good for them. In the old days, the left would castigate any American government figure who tried to dictate to another country what they should do or how they should act. America was supposed to learn (according to the left) that we did not know better than other countries. Indeed, long ago, it was the charicature of the so called Ugly American who went abroad and acted as if he or she knew better than the people of the country where he was.
No, much more to the point is that Obama's position is one which actually attacks Israel for being Jewish and following Judaism. Christianity is not identified with any specific land. Sure, the Catholic church is headquartered in Rome, but nothing in Catholic teachings requires that Rome or the Vatican is a necessary part of the religion. Judaism is different in that regard. One essential part of Judaism is that God gave the Promised Land to the Jewish people. That is why it is the promised land. For millenia, Jews told each other that God would bring them back to the land of Israel and Jerusalem. Zionism was not just a national movement, but a religious one as well. So, a sizeable portion of the Israeli people look at the creation of Israel in 1948 and the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967 as the fulfillment of a divine promise. For Obama to now tell the world that the Israelis do not know what their own best interests are because they settle all of Jerusalem rather than just the areas that they controlled prior to 1967 is the equivalent of telling millions of Israelis that following their religion is against their best interests. In Israel, they would call this chutzpah.
For those of you who disagree, I suggest the following thought experiment. Consider the reaction if Obama were to tell the Islamic world that by travelling in the Hadj to Mecca, they did not know what their own best interests are. Suppose Obama told the Muslims of the world that they ought to stop wasting their time and money going on such pilgrimages. What do you think would be the reaction? Let me suggest that the riots that followed that stupid youtube video last September would be nothing compared to the outrage that would surely follow such an arrogant comment by Obama.
We have a president who seems never to consider the point of view of anyone other than himself. The choices he posits are always the choice he favors as opposed to some totally unreasonable alternative. That is how he negotiates with the GOP. That is how he dealt with objections to Obamacare. That is how Obama considers spending cuts in the USA. It is also how Obama deals with almost all of America's allies. Only when there is an enemy who can clearly do damage to the USA does Obama ever consider the desires of that enemy; that is why Obama never wants to offend the Islamist world or even nations like Chavez' Venezuela or Castro's Cuba.
And we have four more years of this guy. Let's hope we can survive it.
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