Israelis and supporters of Israel are angry over Barack Obama's treatment of
Israel. A
poll shows that only 6% of Jewish Israelis think that Obama is pro-Israel, about 50% think he is pro-Palestinian, and 36% think he is neutral.
Despite Obama's talk about the "unbreakable bond" between Israel and the United States, it appears to Israelis that he and his administration are going out of their way to snub
Israel and to isolate Israel as an "obstacle to peace." Obama did not stop in
Israel on his recent trip to the
Middle East. Obama administration policies seem to exert pressure unilaterally on Israel. The administration offers no solution to the problem of
Hamas domination in Gaza other than encouraging Palestinian unity and
pressuring Israel to reward
Hamas by opening Gaza to importation of cement and other materials that will allow them to rebuild their underground bunkers. Obama did not ask Palestinians to give up their demands for right of return, nor did he confront their refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish people to self determination. Obama did not even try to bring off the symbolic gesture of getting Red Cross visitation rights for kidnapped soldier Gilead Schalit, let alone getting him freed.
All the pressure is on Israel, and it is exerted in often ugly and in-your-face ways by administration officials, especially the supposedly pro-Israel Hillary Clinton. If Barack Obama is trying to project an image of "even handedness" in order to win over Muslim and Arab opinion, he certainly succeeded in Israel. Whether or not he succeeded in the Arab and Muslim worlds remains to be seen. Is it likely Muslims will forgive
American bombing of civilians in Afghanistan if
Israel implements a settlement freeze, or that
al-Qaeda will approve of democracy, gay marriage, teaching of evolution and Bikinis if
Israel gives up
Jerusalem?
The Israeli government has done its best to minimize the rift, because it understands the full and ominous implications of a break with the United States. The rift is exaggerated by media that are not too sympathetic to Israel and always eager to report a fight. It is exploited by anti-Zionists. But those who are contributing most to the problem, needlessly, are certain self-appointed Israel advocates. Israelis and their Zionist supporters abroad are angry. But being angry does not justify losing your cool, being rude, or stooping to racist
ad hominem attacks. That sort of performance should be left to people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Nasrallah.
Palestinians and their supporters have always been anxious to drive a wedge between
Israel and the United States, and they are exploiting the current rift in an effort to break the "unbreakable" bond. It is working. About 49% of American voters call themselves pro-Israel, down from 69% last September, according to a
poll. A lot of this lost of popularity is regrettably due to supporters of Israel who have lost their cool, and to advocacy or 'Hasbara,' that hurts.
The best pro-Palestinian propaganda has been supplied by over-zealous and injudicious Israel advocates. Articles and blogs that are disrespectful and racist, insist that Barack Obama's policy is "silly" or worse, that he is a Muslim practicing Taqiyya and as bad as Ahmadinejad, posters of Obama with a Kaffiyeh, calls to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas. All these serve the enemies of Israel well and are amplified and rebroadcast many times by all the usual culprits. What possible purpose could be served by all this vile, vicious, hysterical, baseless racist ranting? Will that convince America or the world that Israelis and Zionists are reasonable and peaceful people, friends of America? The
piece de resistance was created by anti-Zionist Jews who filmed drunken, ignorant, American Jewish students in a Jerusalem bar, cussing out Obama and Arabs, insisting that Obama is ineligible to be president. The "expert" who offered this opinion did not know who
Benjamin Netanyahu is.
Barack Obama was elected by over half of the American voters and enjoys the support of 63% of Americans as President. He is the most powerful person on earth, and one of the most popular presidents around the world. People will not take kindly to those who insult him. What can be the possible gain for Israel from assertions like the following?
In Cairo Obama said he was a Christian, but his audience knew he is a Muslim having been born of a Muslim father. They knew he is skilled in "taqiyya," the art of dissimulation. Jews had better take the Quranic world more seriously, because Obama's assertion "no settlements" is a euphemism for Ahmadinejad' s vow to wipe Israel off the map.Untruths, smears, and innuendo are all there in one lovable package. Obama is not a Muslim. Obama never said "no settlements." He is not like Ahmadinejad. He is not trying to wipe out Israel. Israel existed without settlements in the West Bank before 1967. Even if, one day, America really elects a Muslim president, Israel would have to live with that, just as Arabs and Muslims have to accept Jewish envoy Dennis Ross and would have to accept a Jewish President of the United States.
How about this poster below, is that going to endear Zionists or the cause of Israel to Americans?
The poster and the rhetoric are very effectively sabotaging Israel's cause and disgracing Zionism and Zionists. They are serving the cause of the enemy. The people who generate this sort of hateful propaganda are not doing "Zionist advocacy." They are shaming Zionism and betraying the cause in a very dangerous way.
The conflict has always been an Israeli-Arab or Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel and its supporters must do everything possible to prevent it from becoming an Israeli-American conflict, because Israel could not survive a determined confrontation with the United States. Not just some settlements in the West Bank would be lost. Not only East Jerusalem would be lost, but all of Israel, everything we have built here in the last 120 years. Perhaps Tel Aviv and Rehovot and other unromantic places are not important to Greater Israel advocates, but to Israelis they are important.
Ami Isseroff
Original content is Copyright by the author 2009. Posted at ZioNation-Zionism and Israel Web Log, http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000701.html where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Disributed by ZNN list. Subscribe by sending a message to ZNN-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please forward by e-mail with this notice, cite this article and link to it. Other uses by permission only.
Replies: 2 Comments
B"H
Hasbara Co-dependence on what the goyim think. Who cares?
Israel must stop taking money from the U. S. and Xians. We must do things for ourselves for once, including cleaning own streets and digging our own ditches.
We must worry about what we think of ourselves,...gee, and perhaps also what God thinks of us.
Ben-Yehudah, Sunday, June 28th
Israel is not the side that instigated the confrontation with the US. It is the US that seeking a confrontation with Israel and is seeking to impose its will upon the Jewish State. Israel is looking to prevent a complete break but if the US forces Israel to give up its vital national interest, the Jewish State may have go it alone. Not because most Israelis want a break with the US but because most Israelis view their national survival comes ahead of pleasing the US. The US can decide if its worth rupturing more than six decades of relations to be left in the end with no real leverage upon Israel's government. 94% of Israelis do not want such a rupture but they also want their government to safeguard the country in the event the US continues to pursue policies that endanger Israel's existence.
NormanF, Saturday, June 20th
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