The rigged game

It's only fair to share...Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Email this to someone
email

On Tuesday the Guardian reported that the Obama administration is now making Israel an offer it can’t refuse: In exchange for a government order to freeze construction for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the administration will adopt a “much tougher line with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program.”

 

 

Israel should refuse this offer.

 

 

What the Guardian account shows is an Obama administration looking to blame Israel for the failure of its policy of attempting to appease the likes of Iranian dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 

 

Come September, US President Barack Obama is going to have a difficult time of it. He set a September deadline for his strategy of diplomatically courting the mullahs. This policy involves deferring further sanctions against Teheran and all but openly renouncing the option of using military force to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations while waiting politely for the mullahs to sit down for tea with US officials.

 

 

Far from accepting Obama’s offer, the Iranians have spit on it. Indeed, they have been too busy brutalizing their own people and building bombs and missiles to even respond to him directly. Instead, they have signaled their contempt for Obama by promoting known arch-terrorists to high office. For instance, Ahmadinejad just appointed Ahmad Vahidi, the suspected mastermind of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia where 19 US servicemen and women were murdered to serve as defense minister.

 

 

In support of Obama’s appeasement efforts, both the House and the Senate Foreign Relations committees set aside veto-proof bills that would place sanctions on companies exporting refined fuel to Iran. But Congress, now on summer recess, reconvenes in September and members are anxiously awaiting a green light from the White House to put the bills before a vote.

 

 

So unless something saves him, Obama will look like quite a fool next month. His appeasement policy has given the mullahs eight precious months of unimpeded work at their nuclear installations. Their uranium enrichment facility at Natanz is now operating some 5,000 centrifuges, with another 2,400 centrifuges about to go on line. That is an eightfold increase in centrifuge activity from a year ago.

 

 

Obama now turns to Israel to avoid embarrassment. If he can convince Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the White House will only get serious about Iran’s nuclear weapons program if Netanyahu freezes Jewish building in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, then Obama can present his sudden willingness to sign on to veto-proof congressional sanctions legislation not as a consequence of his own failure, but as a result of Israeli pressure.

 

 

If Obama succeeds in getting Netanyahu on board, the American media discussion of sanctions will focus on the issue of Israeli power over US policy. The so-called Israel lobby will be pummeled as pundits argue about whether Obama was right or wrong to succumb to Israeli pressure to support congressional sanctions. No one will remember that Obama was forced to support the sanctions because he had no other choice, since next month his engagement policy will become indefensible.

 

 

On the other hand, if Israel refuses to play ball and doesn’t provide Obama with a concession which he will be “forced” to pay for with a harder line on Iran, then he will still have to adopt a harder line. In this case, however, it will be attributed to the failure of his appeasement policy toward Iran rather than to the success of his Middle East diplomacy against Israel.

 

 

Obama’s apparent interest in setting Israel up as the fall guy for the failure of his engagement policy is the same policy he will doubtless follow if matters continue on course and Teheran acquires nuclear weapons. At that point, Obama can be counted on to claim that it was Israel’s recalcitrance in the negotiations with the Palestinians or the Syrians or the Lebanese that forced the mullahs’ hands. That is, he will say it is the absence of “progress” in the “peace process” due to whatever imagined Israeli intransigence that made it impossible for the Iranian “moderates” to convince the “hardliners” to give up their nuclear weapons program.

 

 

In Obama’s defense, it should be noted that at least he worries about being embarrassed by the failure of his Iran policy. He knows that the overwhelming majority of Americans consider Iran to be an enemy of their country. In a poll of US voters taken in May, some 80 percent of Americans claimed that a nuclear-armed Iran would constitute a threat to US national security and 57% said that Israel would be justified in launching a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear installations.

 

 

Things are different on the other side of the Atlantic. Obama’s European counterparts do not face a comparable situation. They have no reason to fear being embarrassed when and if Iran emerges as a nuclear power, because their constituents view Israel as threat equal to or greater than Iran.

 

 

European politics – particularly as they relate to the Middle East – are not informed by rational interests so much as they are defined by attitude. Facts today mean little in Europe. They are easily crushed under the weight of the fantasies that dominate European political discourse.

 

 

The main fantasy governing Europe’s attitude toward the Middle East is the belief in Israeli militaristic venality, fundamentalist messianism, and territorial greed. It is this fantasy that protects European leaders from the need to account for their six years of failed appeasement toward Iran, during which Iran has made its swiftest progress toward completing its nuclear weapons program.

 

 

It is the predominance of anti-Israel attitudes throughout the continent that enables European leaders to make light of the Iranian nuclear threat even as ever growing swathes of the continent fall within the range of the Islamic republic’s ballistic missiles.

 

 

A mere glance at the daily Middle East coverage of your standard European newspaper suffices to demonstrate the depths of Europe’s obsession with hating Israel. The absence of peace is always Israel’s fault. The fact that the Arabs have never accepted Israel’s right to exist is either whitewashed or justified. So too, Arab terrorism is explained away while every act – small and large – that in any way asserts Israel’s right to defend itself is pounced upon as proof of Israel’s criminality and brutality.

 

 

Case in point is an interview Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor gave to Der Spiegel’s diplomatic correspondent Erich Follath ahead of Netanyahu’s visit to Germany this week. The entire interview consisted of interchanges like the following:

 

 

Follath: You blame Palestinian intransigence [for the absence of peace]. Western leaders are, of course, demanding that the Arab side compromise on some issues. But they are also putting pressure on Israel to make concessions, as well, especially when it comes to its aggressive settlement policy in the West Bank.

 

 

Meridor: There is no such policy.

 

 

Follath: You don’t regard new settlements in the occupied territories as being a major stumbling block in the peace process?

 

 

Meridor: That’s exactly why we aren’t building new settlements. We haven’t approved any.

 

 

Follath: You are sidestepping the issue. US President Barack Obama wouldn’t urge Israel to stop its settlement policies if he didn’t have a reason to do so…

 

 

Meridor: What you describe is neither the official policy of Prime Minister Netanyahu nor the official policy of the government.”

 

 

Follath’s questions, and his dogged determination to ignore everything that Meridor said reflect this general European propensity to embrace the fantasy of Israeli criminality over the reality of Israeli willingness to do just about anything for peace.

 

 

Israel has for years based i
ts public diplomacy regarding Teheran’s nuclear weapons program on successive governments’ assessments that given Iran’s global reach and the threat it poses to global security, states will be more willing to act to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons than they are to acknowledge Palestinian terrorism which is employed almost exclusively against Israel. What Israeli leaders – including Netanyahu – have failed to recognize is that the antipathy of Europeans toward Israel is so great that they are willing to explain away Iran’s nuclear weapons program because it is aimed first of all against Israel.

 

 

Case in point is yet another screed by Follath published in Der Spiegel in June. There he characterized Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad as “twins,” who are united in their “apocalyptic religious visions.”

 

 

As Follath sees it, both are equally responsible for the rising likelihood of war between Israel and Iran that is liable to suck in countries around the region and the world. As far as he – and his loyal readers – are concerned, Israel and Iran deserve each other.

 

 

Such views inevitably temper any propensity European leaders may have to act against the Islamic republic. This was demonstrated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her appearance with Netanyahu in Berlin on Thursday. Merkel rejected Israel’s comparison of Iran’s stated aim of destroying Israel to the German Holocaust, saying, “There is no comparison between the Holocaust and the Iranian nuclear program.”

 

 

If there is no comparison, then Germany, which she claimed is duty bound to defend Israel due to the Holocaust, has no obligation to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

 

 

But if Merkel is wrong, and as a result of the lackadaisical attitude she, her European colleagues, and the Obama administration have adopted, Iran acquires nuclear weapons and as promised, uses them to commit a new genocide of Jewry, she has no reason to worry. The anti-Israel attitude now rampant in Europe will ensure that she will pay no price, and will not even be embarrassed for her failure to heed the warnings.

 

 

Case in point is the newest Swedish media blood libel against Israel, and the numerous blood libels – most prominently France 2’s Muhammad al-Dura blood libel from September 2000 – that preceded it. Stories like Aftonbladet’s fiction of IDF theft of Palestinian organs and France 2’s false allegation that the IDF murders Arab children sell newspapers and raise television ratings because the popular animus against Israel is so great that people are willing to buy newspapers and watch television networks that propagate obvious lies that feed this irrational hatred. Indeed, it pays to disseminate such lies.

 

 

France 2’s Charles Enderlain, the father of the al-Dura lie, just received France’s Légion d’honneur from President Nicolas Sarkozy. Then, too, anti-Israel activist Felicia Langer just received Germany’s Federal Cross of Honor, and Israel-hater and former Irish president Mary Robinson was just awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.

 

 

The lesson of all of this for Israel is clear. Whether Netanyahu is dealing with Obama or European leaders, the game is rigged against us. Any move that Israel makes toward these leaders will simply facilitate their further castigation of the Jewish state and support their clear intentions to do nothing to prevent Iran from acquiring the means to destroy Israel.

 

 

As we have been all too often in our history, today Israel stands alone against our enemies. We can either defeat them, or we can be defeated. The choice is ours.

 

 

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.

 

It's only fair to share...Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Email this to someone
email

11 Comments

  • Marcel 08/29/2009 at 14:37

    lone voice has awakened to a very old reality that Israel is the1 player in the Middle East chosen to lose the fixed peace game.
    What they could not do thru war the enemies of Israel have succeeded beyond imagination by peace..Israel’s enemies never figured the Jews so soon after the last final solution would be so accomodating and helpful with the second and more brazen attempt to finish what the last uniter of Europe Hitler began.
    After my first impressive visit to Israel in 1977 I came away thinking Israeli’s were smart,they have proven me wrong.
    How sad that secular Jews are so stupid as to play this rigged game since 1993.No amount of factual warnings have cause the nuts of Israel to jump from this cattle car named Road Map.
    You’ve done everything and more to appease your fake allies and still they are not satisfied with your suicidal efforts for peace with the barbarians at the gates.They now demand you stop building homes, a siren warning that the next demand will be you stop living for their counterfeit Islamic peace.
    When will you stop electing secular Jewish appeasers and losers who always bend to the slightest pressure because they have no other game to play ?
    When will you stop playing the losing game ?
    Personally I don’t believe Israel is capable of turning this around because secular Jewish politicans are exceedingly willing to bend to the slightest pressure from their cabal of western Overlord’s and are so despising and against the Holy One of Israel.
    No peace for the wicked.
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133151
    Even [previous Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert, with all of his weaknesses and failures, knew how to stand his ground, adopting the minimal strategic line… But with Netanyahu, everything breaks down.”
    It is a great danger to the State of Israel that the person placed at its head is a man who could at best be a good corporate spokesman,” the MK from Beit El said.”

    Reply
  • Marc Handelsman, USA 08/29/2009 at 20:22

    Israel has nothing to gain by agreeing to freeze construction of Jewish homes in Yesha because the Obama administration will only increase tougher rhetoric towards Iran. In the inevitable war with Iran and its proxies, Israel will prevail. The choice Prime Minister Netanyahu has is when to launch a decisive attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. The reality is that Israel is facing a grave threat, and the US and EU does not grasp it. Iran has goals of destroying Israel, ending Western Civilization, and establishing a global caliphate.

    Reply
  • Augurwell 08/29/2009 at 20:43

    R.S. / M.P. Training Film
    Dealing with Elements re. Irainians etc.
    (note – may require rewatching)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyK0y02HvVc

    Reply
  • BigB 08/30/2009 at 2:33

    Well Caroline, it seems you have discovered that which I had been writing all along. That Iran justifies its Nuclear aspirations by targeting Israel, though their millenial motivation is the world-wide Khaliphate. An exact replica of the Nazi stratagem: Preparation for conquest can be safely arranged under the blanket of Antisemitism. Europe is essentially a bunch of incompetent impotent fools, and they know it.
    Its not the ordinary Europeans through. its the media and the media-managed government. I do not see any economic divestment from Israel, neither in Europe nor the US, to say nought of India, japan and Chaina where Jewish Israeli tech knowhow and cooperation are simply indispensable. So they blab Settlements, and frown upon military intervention, but when Natantz is destroyed they will secretely cheer, and extend economic ties further.

    Reply
  • Bill K. 08/30/2009 at 2:47

    Why does Israel concern itself with the rabble that is Europe? Their pervasive socialism has rendered them economically, militarily and morally impotent. Appeasing the European eunuchs will only make them bray louder. Ignoring them and taking decisive military action against Iran is the only thing that will shut them up.
    Without a doubt you are correct that Obama is trying to make Israel the fall guy in the coming conflict with Iran. But it takes two to play this game. Without the sanction of the victim, in this case Israel, the game falls through. By any objective standard Obama is demanding the sacrifice of the good that is Israel to the evil that is Iran. Only the ethics of altruism would demand such a monstrous injustice.
    The only way Israel can avoid this trap set by Obama is to refuse act altruistically and righteously repudiate the self-immolation that is demanded of it.

    Reply
  • Tomer Elias 08/30/2009 at 2:52

    When everyone seems to be so willing to go against us no matter what we do why don’t we just forget about them and go ahead with whats good for us?
    Just attack Iran and just force Hizbala Hamas and the Fatah to find a new home or be eliminated from the face of the earth. destroy our enemies while we can, while everyone is against us so no matter what we do thins will stay the same and atleast we will have less problems to deal with and finally be considered strong and powerful again.
    If we show the world that we have a true way and stop always searching for ways for peace and just forcing it upon our enemies so they know that they have to be good to us or suffer the consequences of staying our enemies.
    For a long time we have seem exactly what doing what we are told has given us and it has been nothing. Now is the time to test and see what happens when we deal with our enemies as dealing with enemies should be done and that is by eliminating them.
    Just a few days ago the UN stated on there success in dealing with the “war” in darfur and they where happy to announce it seems to be over. They also stated there facts about the “war” 300,000 dead and 2.5 million where driven out of there homes.
    Are people so blind to see how wrong that is? why was there no media craziness going on to stop that killing there?? why is Israel looked at with a magnifying glass when surely nothing as dreadful as 300 thousand people being killed has happened here ever since the country has existed?
    If what we are seeing as you say caroline isn’t going to stop anyways then what do we have to lose if we just do what we know is right? and why are our leaders to afraid to just do that?
    One more thing that I have to ask is why is it so hard for Israel to gain support for its cause when all it needs to do is show facts while Palestinians gain support so easily by telling lies, when we should be the ones who have it easy since we can give proof to defend our cause but they mostly can’t?

    Reply
  • Ron Grandinetti 08/30/2009 at 12:51

    Caroline, first and foremost Israel herself has recognized she is a sovereign Jewish Nation.
    Sovereign: Independent, self-governing and not ruled by any other state having supreme authority or power.
    That being square one, the Israel leaders have to start behaving as such.
    Put Obama and his administration on notice; Israel enjoys and cherishes her relationship and love affair with the American people and we expect the U.S. government to recognize our sovereignty and treat us with due respect as a true friend and ally such as Canada, Great Britain, France and Germany and not to meddle in our affairs.
    We can handle our own internal matters and deal with those who threaten us and we will defend ourselves against any aggressor and will use whatever resources we have at our disposal including nuclear.
    If the U.S. has a problem with Iran, it is the direct result of the U.S. President and his administrations failure to deal with this rouge nation
    We will not be used as a pawn or a scapegoat as a result of this failure; however we will assist in anyway to protect the United States and her people in time of need.
    That’s what good friends are for.

    Reply
  • Baruch 08/30/2009 at 23:54

    Please understand that when you say ‘Obama’ you really mean the U.S. mainstream media, which has propped up Obama the individual.
    One must realize that the leftist, albeit communist, U.S. mainstream media is heavily invested in an imaginary race war so as to sell advertising intended to placate and satisfy people with goods and services for an itch they will never be able scratch.
    Provided that this charade is understood, there are many in the United States, both Jew and non-Jew, who understand the importance of Israel’s security as being non-negotiable. By and large, however, these Americans are not being represented properly by the media.
    The reason for the tilt in influence away from Israel by the American administration is for seemingly practical reasons. Witness the release of the Lockerbie bomber by Scotland in return for nothing more than oil.
    Once again, the survival instincts of the Jewish people are called upon to rise to the surface, which despite the overwhelming numbers pitted against it, Israel’s obligation to the world is to represent the unbroken chain of history.
    In times like these, it is important to understand the past in order to predict the future. Mr. Obama and the Iranians are locked in a dance of mutual disrespect in which both are portraying unfounded civility. Both have vested interests, which are not rooted in historical logic. They are both playing to an imaginary base, which has been created for them by influence peddlers in their respective media camps. In many ways, some have pointed out the similarities between the sycophancy of the media in Iran toward the regime there and the media’s ‘slobbering love affair’ with Obama in America.
    It is senseless to try to analyze America’s relationship with Iran at this point. The only way for Israel to succeed at this game is by reverting to its historic roots, which have carried the day for millennia. Shedding light in a world of darkness has always been Israel’s cornerstone in the marketplace of truth.
    As I have commented before on your site, educating people as to the historic relationship of Israel to the continuity of world history is absolutely necessary now more than ever in terms of countering the pop cultural influences, which are nothing more than passing shadows in the night.
    A Jewish education is necessary now more than ever, and an Israeli perspective on that education is an inherent requirement for anyone who aspires to understand the world and how it works. Resisting influences of the media is almost as important as learning the negative lessons from them.
    Israel finds itself at the forefront of this epic battle that runs far deeper than mere posturing and rhetoric. At some point, Israel’s actions vis-a-vis Iran and the U.S. will take on more importance than ever before because historically the truth always wins, and Israel’s place in history is secure. It is simply a matter of choice as to how and when Israel chooses to act.
    Meanwhile, however, the Obama administration seeks to limit the influence of this unique perspective by seeking to arrest the heartbeat of Jewish educational influence located conspicuously in Judea and Samaria. To Obama and his media handlers, educated Jews are a direct threat to the failed policy he and his ilk are proposing, which is that of revising history.
    Thank you very much for the opportunity to express my opinions on your site.

    Reply
  • Bill Narvey 09/02/2009 at 19:52

    Netanyahu is a puzzle.
    He resolutely declared after his election that he did not support the emergence of a Palestinian state. He had the support of the majority of Israelis. After a brief meeting with Pres. Obama, he comes out saying he supports an independent Palestinian state, but on some conditions.
    What threats did Pres. Obama make to PM Netanyahu in that meeting that obviously rattled and frightened Netanyahu enough to ignore the mandate he had on the issue from Israelis and try to accomodate Pres. Obama?
    No one seems to know and no one seems to be delving into finding that out.
    On the issue of settlements, again Netanyahu had the support of his electorate in continue construction, in existing settlement areas and east Jerusalem against the demands by Pres. Obama to halt all settlement construction.
    Again Pres. Obama obviously threatened Netanyahu and again he bowed to Pres. Obama, but proposed a 6 – 9 month halt to construction and again that was against the will of the people of Israel.
    Again, no one seems to know what threats were made and no one seems to be looking to find that out.
    Netanyahu is not talking, probably because he was threatened with dire consequences by Pres. Obama if he breathed a word about the threats Pres. Obama was making against Israel.
    Big secrets have a way of finding the light of day. With a little help from journalists who give a damn about what Pres. Obama is threatening Israel with, the secret of those threats will be revealed that much quicker.
    Finally, with the outcome of the recent Bethlehem Palestinian Congress where Abbas and his slate of old and new leaders re-affirmed all their positions that are and anathema to peace discussions and a declaration of ongoing war with Israel with the Palestinian goal of destroying Israel and taking all the land for Palestinians, Netanyahu had the perfect opportunity to say an emphatic non-negotiable NO to all of Pres. Obama’s demands and to tell Pres. Obama his anti-Israel words, thinking, policies and actions will not be accepted.
    What did Netanyahu do? Nothing. He let the opportunity pass as if the Palestinian Congress declarations never happened.
    Someone has got to get through to Netanyahu that if he has any hopes of staying in power, let alone building an even stronger unity government, he had better stop screwing up right now and start doing what he was elected to do, which is to protect Israel and advance Israel’s best interests!
    If he does that, the first order of business is to tell George Mitchell when they meet to carry a message back to Pres. Obama that:
    1. Israel will pursue construction of settlements as she sees fit,
    2 Israel will not support a Palestinian state which already exists in Jordan
    3. Israel will not negotiate with Abbas/Fatah for they are the same wolves as Hamas, but in sheep’s clothing which they made clear in their Palestinian Congress;
    4. Since the Palestinians have nothing to offer Israel and clearly want war, not peace, Israel has nothing to discuss with Palestinians, save a way to keep hostilities to a minimum;
    5. Israel will not make more concessions, but instead Israel will resile from past agreements and will demand back concessions given in agreements that the Palestinians paid for with lies and broken promises,
    6. The Road Map peace paradigm is no longer relevant or feasible, given the realities, not to mention the reality that it was conceived before Hamas entered the picture and the Road Map took no cognizance of that fact,
    7. Israel knows what her own best interests are far better then Pres. Obama and it is Israel’s best interests that Israel will pursue and not America’s.
    Netanyahu of course would not do so in such polite diplomatic circles, so perhaps a terse message of the streets to Pres. Obama would be in order and you can just imagine what those two words would be.

    Reply
  • Marcel 09/03/2009 at 7:43

    ‘Once again, the survival instincts of the Jewish people are called upon to rise to the surface, which despite the overwhelming numbers pitted against it, Israel’s obligation to the world is to represent the unbroken chain of history.’
    Baruch
    Hezbollah’s Chemical Weapons
    A terror analyst for the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) revealed on Wednesday that an Arab government official recently told him. “You’re going to be reporting a lot on Hizbullah in the future. They already have people on the ground in Europe and elsewhere. They will be making front page news soon. They are just waiting for the orders to act – they are not in a hurry.”
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133258
    The Sampson Option is now in play
    Outlawed chemical weapons are aimed at Israel from South Lebanon under the watchful eyes of UN Forces who do nothing but aid Israel’s enemies.
    Remember ,the UN is a creation of America Babylon and it sits in the heart of the beast.
    You know if Israel had these weapons aimed at Arab/moslem countries the earth would be shaking and Israel would be attacked non stop by the global governments and their biased media .
    Because Jews are targeted with outlawed weapons by moslems the evil,satan led world system is very quiet.
    They are quick to rise up against Israel for the most contrived of reasons though.
    This is why Israel will wipe Damascus off the face of the earth along with nuclear strikes against Lebanon and Egypt.
    The fulfillment of Isaiah 17:1 is very close.
    I hold the U.S. directly responsible for weakening Israel with it’s fake peace scam and restraining her from defeating Hizbollah in 2006 and Hamas in 2009.
    Tiny outnumbered and surrounded Israel will have no other choice,the Sampson Option is in play.
    Only a suicidal nation would fire chemical weapons at Jew’s who saw millions of their families gassed by the German’s.
    Islam does have that demonc inspired insanity and love for death suicidal quality.
    The only thing holding all of this back is President Obama’s move for harsher sanctions against Iran.
    They promised years ago to respond and they’re ready.
    http://averyheavystone.blogspot.com/2009/09/hezbollahs-chemical-weapons.html

    Reply
  • Blake 09/06/2009 at 16:25

    When Israel became a nation in May,1948 many nations supported her. Today many nations are against Israel including it appears, the United States.
    Israel turned a vast dessert into a land of honey in a very short period of time. God gave this land to the Jews. He will NEVER allow anyone to destroy or take it away from His chosen people.
    When Obama or any other world leader attempts to cut up Israel to appease those sworn to destroy her they will FAIL!
    Over thousands of years many nations have attempted to erase Israel from the face of the earth. All these nations have been ‘erased’ from the face of the earth. God said that when He returned His people to the land He gave them (after being scattered throughout the world) they will be there forever!

    Reply

Leave a Comment