Barack Obama visits Israel with Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni
Pic via Ibn Kafka.
His silence spoke volumes
Barack Obama visits Israel with Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni
Barack Obama visits Israel with Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni
Barack Obama visits Israel with Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni
You expected him to revolutionize American policy on one of the most intractable conflicts in the world while the worst American president in history was still in power, I presume?
No, but he said nothing – nothing! – while giving the lame excuse that “there’s only one president at one time”, even though he commented on other issues of the day. There are two big problems with Obama: his refusal to confront Jewish supremacists in Israel and their warmongering backers in America, and his refusal to stand up to the people who caused the economic crisis and are now reaping in the bailouts. On both of these key issues his silence said a lot about him. You’re not going to get anything out of the Obama administration if you just wait for him to turn water into wine. He has to be pushed, goaded, and helped where it counts and pressured and attacked when he goes wrong.
A remark: if I’m not mistaken, Obama did say something about being worried for the population in Gaza. I remember that it triggered “disproportionate” comments in the Israeli press (sth like “Obama attacks Israel…”).
On the issue itself: that may only be what I want to think, but I guess Obama did not want to inaugurate his mandate in a confrontational way, not necessarily by lack of guts, but as a choice by default. Assuming that he does have a different view of the conflict than his predecessor and that he does want to influence Israel instead of being influenced by it, the questions he had to ask himself were not easy to answer. Was he able – assuming he was willing – to influence the events themselves, and to stop the onslaught? I would say no. But wasn’t it a good occasion to signal the end of business as usual between the US and Israel? That is surely necessary. Was it the right time? That’s where it’s difficult. Arguably, any direct criticism by Obama may have reduced his room for manoeuvre once in power, being seen as a somehow hostile US President; except if you believe, on the contrary, that Israel is compelled to get along with any US administration, and that Obama doesn’t have to care about his image in Israel anymore. But with the Israeli elections comings, I am not sure that expectations of a tough American position would have influenced their outcome for the best. In short, any move by Obama as President ELECT was politically risky and the gains probably too low.
The real test is now – knowing that influencing Israel will always be a mixture of ass-kissing and pressure, which I think is fine if it really allows for some smart moves. See Sarkozy’s policy (the context is very different, so take it as a side note): never had a French President kissed Israeli leaders’ asses so much. But in the meantime France (for what it’s worth) seems to be pushing for a less stupid stance towards Hamas. I’m still waiting to see if this dual strategy gives any result, but why not trying.
with bush the world was resigned to greed upon stupidity and mayhem. now we wait to see if hope will be crushed by pragmatism. it seems odd america has to kiss israel’s ass at all.