OBAMA’S TEN COMMANDMENTS: YORAM ETTINGER
Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought”
Tell me who initiates the meeting and who wants a photo opportunity, and
I’ll tell you who has the inferior position. The July 2010 meeting was
initiated by Obama, who is concerned about the outcome of the November
election and his declining support by Democrats and Independents. He hopes
that a jovial photograph with Netanyahu would obscure severe disagreements,
while enhancing his image among Israel’s friends in the USA. He presumes
that Netanyahu will not leverage his (Obama’s) political predicament and the
significant support for Israel among constituents and legislators, and will
once again commit Israel to concessions.
Obama is an ideologue, determined to change the USA and the world,
irrespective of his declining fortunes internally and externally. Obama’s
reaction to Netanyahu’s about-face on the “Two State Solution” and the
de-facto freeze of construction in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria,
demonstrates that concessions do not improve Obama’s attitude toward Israel;
they intensify pressure. Netanyahu’s concessions have not diverted Obama
from the following “Ten Commandments” of his world view:
1. End of American Exceptionalism. Obama does not believe in America’s
moral, economic or military exceptionalism. He perceives the US as a power
in retreat, which sometimes abused its super-power role. His appointed legal
advisor at the Department of State, Harold Koh, contends that the US
Constitution should be interpreted, also, on the basis of foreign legal
precedents and that even the Shariah (Muslim) law could find a home in the
US. Koh stated that some US actions classify it as a member of the “Axis of
Disobedience.”
2. Not Confrontation but Engagement. Obama is convinced that the globe is
not an arena of confrontation, but a platform of engagement with
enemies/rivals, including Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas. Hence, strategic
partners such as Israel are less relevant. Moreover, he has cut the budget
for the development of new military systems and of missile defense, canceled
the deployment of missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic
and initiated nuclear arms reduction agreements, which erode America’s
posture of deterrence.
3. The UN – the Playmaker of International Relations. Obama is the most
UN-like President since Woodrow Wilson, considering the UN as the chief
global policy-maker. Accordingly, he appointed Susan Rice – his Guru on
international relations who considers Jimmy Carter and Jim Baker her role
models – to the UN Ambassadorship with the rank of a Cabinet Member. He
expressed preference for an international investigation of the Gaza
Flotilla, supported the anti-Israel resolution by the UN nuclear
non-proliferation conference, joined the anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council
and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson, who led the
anti-Israel and anti-US UN Durbin Conference.
4. Not Unilateral but Multilateral. Obama wants to minimize unilateral –
and maximize multilateral – US policies. It subordinates US considerations
to multinational common denominator, which is dominated by an anti-US
majority. His advisor on multinational affairs is his personal friend,
Samantha Power, a leading opponent of Israel and a proponent of a dialogue
with Teheran.
5. Europe is a Role Model. Obama aspires to adopt the European state of
mind, which is critical of Israel, while appeasing terror regimes. However,
global sanity requires a “US Marshall” and not a “European Cop.”
6. Islam is a Partner, not a Rival/Enemy. Obama has instructed his
advisors to refrain from using the terms “Islamic Terrorism” and “Jihadist
Terrorism.” He has consistently pandered to Islamic audiences, claiming that
the US and Islam share a solid foundation of values. His top White House
Counselor and personal friend, Valerie Jarrett (“Obama’s second brain”)
transmits such messages to US Muslim organizations, which support Hamas.
The Quadrennial Reviews of the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland
Security do not use the terms “Islam,” Islamist” or “Islamic.”
7. No Global or Muslim Terrorism. According to Obama, Counter-Terrorism
Advisor John Brennan, National Security Advisor Jim Jones, Attorney General
Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, there is no
“Global Terrorism,” “Islamic Terrorism” or “Terrorists.” Instead, there are
“Extremists,” “Isolated Cases” and “Man-Caused Disasters.” They consider
terrorism, primarily, law enforcement rather than military challenge.
Consequently, they accord terrorists civil rights. John Brennan claims that
“Violent extremists [‘terrorists’ in common English] are victims of
political, economic and social forces.” One cannot expect operational
clarity when there is no moral clarity!
8. The Department of State School of Thought. While Secretary Clinton has
minimal impact on the formulation of foreign policy, the cosmopolitan Dovish
school of thought of the Department of State bureaucracy has been embraced
by Obama. The Department of State did not want the establishment of the
Jewish State in 1948 and has been a key critic of Israel since then.
9. The Centrality of the Palestinian Issue. Obama avers that the
less-than-100 year old Palestinian issue is the root cause of the 1,400 year
old Middle East turbulence, the core cause of anti-US Islamic terrorism and
the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has adopted the Arab contention
that the Holocaust – and not 4,000 year history – constitutes the moral
foundation of the Jewish State. It implies that Jews were persecuted by the
Nazis and were – supposedly – given land at the expense of the
Palestinians…
10. Yes, We Can!  Obama is confident that each problem has a solution,
which he is able to obtain. He assumes that pressure must be applied in
order to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, democracies (e.g.
Israel) are very susceptible to pressure, while dictatorships (e.g. the PA
and the Arab regimes) are less susceptible.
President Obama’s adherence to his “Ten Commandments” demonstrates the
unbridgeable gap between him and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Will Netanyahu
learn from past mistakes, leverage the sweeping support of Israel by the
American People and on Capitol Hill and refute Obama’s assessment that
Netanyahu is easily persuaded to transform Red Lines into Pink Lines?
Comments are closed.
