Middle East Post

There will be a peace faster if we will help recover the middle east economy. If every body there could afford houses, rent and food they will not want any wars.

UNCLE SAM, GET OFF MY BACK

By

Moshe Sheskin

A cartoon appeared some time ago in the International Herald Tribune showing George Bush lying on a couch at his psychiatrist’s office with his back to the good doctor. The psychiatrist is hurling darts at a Bush dartboard, and Bush saying, “You know doctor, sometimes I have the feeling that nobody in the world likes us”.

Instead of George Bush we now have Barack Obama, on the same couch and that’s where the similarity ends. . Today, with Barack Obama as President, whose popularity is on the same level as that of Jack the Ripper America is still ‘unloved’, the victim of it’s own arrogance, it’s ‘better than thou’ attitude and the mistaken idea that the whole world is their playground and every other nation on earth is a ‘Banana Republic’. It is no wonder that when traveling overseas from Canada, one is advised to pin a Canadian flag on one’s clothing so as to indicate that you are a Canadian and not an American.

To be fair with Obama, he isn’t responsible for the American superiority complex, it has plagued past administrations but never has American esteem sunk as low as when Obama bowed before the Saudi king, tried to appease the Muslim world with his grandiose Cairo visit which caused more distrust, alienated Europeans and generally showed that he wasn’t capable of placing the United States of America in the forefront of world affairs.

Israel has absorbed the brunt of Obama’s anger by not succumbing to American demands that would virtually dismember Israel. Israel, the only democratic nation in the Middle East and one of America’s staunchest allies has had to bear the insults of an inept administration. One can ask why has American policy changed so drastically toward Israel with Obama’s ascension to the Presidency? Why has he chosen advisors with known communist and leftist affiliations to advise him on matters crucial, not only to Israel but to United States generally. So here is what Obama has said in referring to Israel.

Speaking to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear arms, and that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel.

“Let me be clear, Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive and that allows them to prosper. But any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”

It is well known that the American efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear arms have been a dismal failure. But whether Israel lives or dies does not only depend on Iran but on the support of the United States, which has been backsliding from the beginning of Obama’s administration.

The announcement of 1600 homes to be erected in East Jerusalem is a decoy. The outcry by Vice-President Biden and Foreign Secretary Clinton is shameful and uncalled for. It once more proves to the world that what Obama says and what he does has no relevance.

There is no such animal as ‘land for peace’, not even ‘peace for peace’, as far as the Palestinians are concerned. There strings are being pulled by the Saudis and Iran. The Saudis in turn have a very good friend in the White House whose chain they can yank at will.

Israel has a problem with the Palestinians, one that may or may not be able to be worked out between them. Palestinian demands have been one sided and Israel concessions haven’t moved them one iota.

No matter what happens, it’s time for Israel to assert its independence and Obama to get off Israel’s back and let history take its course.