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By emboldening the Palestinians and financing Iran, I believe Obama, Kerry and Rhodes have made another Middle East War more likely.
If I am correct, and I pray I am not, it will occur on Trump's watch and he will be blamed for their misdeeds. The sins and commissions of former presidents often result in problems which occur during the terms of their successors. Mistakes take time to fester and explode.
Every time you feed a bully you simply increase their appetite. Obama seems not to understand this because his background as a community organizer and association with radicals, during his formative years, never prepared him for reality. Furthermore, his animus toward's America's history drives his every waking moment.
In three weeks, he will be out of office but he will not leave the scene because, as I understand it, he intends to function as a shadow government remaining in D.C so he can continue to be part of the scene. His "uge" ego will never allow him to go quietly. (See 1 and 1a below.)
"The past is never dead. It's not even past.”;
— William Cuthbert Faulkner, 1897-1962, American writer, 1949 recipient of theNobel Prize in Literature, two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, and two-time recipient of theNational Book Award.
+++In the last remaining weeks of Obama's term in office, he has acted in ways that are totally out of character with the kind of weak, feckless, vindictive president he has been for almost 8 years.
First, it is evident he decided it was time to shove the knife all the way into Israel and remove any negotiating leverage they had with Palestinians who have consistently failed to appear at the bargaining table and/or accept the challenge to join in peace attempt offers made by a host of Israeli leaders.
Then, he sent his lackey to blame Israel's settlements as the primary obstruction defying reality and America's position.
Third, Obama has taken action against Russia for its interference in our recent election. He could have taken action much earlier regarding Putin's involvement in Syria but that would not have undercut Trump. By doing so now, he cuffs Trump because if Trump lightens the sanctions he is subject to being accused of cozying and if he leaves them he possibly ruptures what might be a chance to have a more co-operative relationship.
Fourth, Obama seems to be getting tough late in life in order to make the transition for Trump more complex and to demonstrate, for legacy purposes, what a tough president he really wants you to think he was.
In my opinion, it simply reveals and confirms what a petulant ass hole he was and still is. Yes, not PC language but at 83, I have become more irascible. Sue me
http://www.bostonglobe.com/
http://europe.newsweek.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-war-on-israel-never-ends-1482967111?emailToken=JRrzdP5%2BZ3yUh9M3aswg1FBtcaASTuiPA1LMNnnHPg3KuWLYu6eswakuwoLr8Tn%2BGxkjvok%3D
+++
From CUFI an organization I have been a member of for at least 10 years. (See 2 below.)
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Americans tend to vacillate between being Isolationists and Globalists. When America is domestically in turmoil, for whatever reason, attempts, on the part of any administration, to immerse itself in foreign escapades becomes more difficult. Particularly is this so if the escapade is an unpopular war and/or is an engagement that is unlikely to be easily and quickly resolved and at a high cost in money and blood.
Consequently, it is little wonder our involvement in The Middle East has been contentious. It lends itself to being intractable, we have engaged without a clear, achievable end point and has been costly in terms of economic and human cost.
One can argue the merit or demerit of our invasion in Iraq but since GW's term in office ended and Obama followed and ran it his way it is impossible to ascribe the consequences to either president. Obama inherited a mess that was on its way to possibly improving but he made it worse by his peremptory withdrawal of troops.
Since it is highly likely America will remain a divided rather than united nation for years, can we be effective by involving ourselves in the world and if not what kind of world can we look forward to if America does not play an active role?
Donald Trump understands, in order to be a world player, we need to lead from strength. The impression I have drawn from Obama's presidency is he is antiwar, believes weakness, and passivity are more likely to alter adversarial behaviour. Well, if I am correct in this belief, it is evident his mixture of arrogance and incompetence has not worked and thus, Trump is inheriting a world in flames looking for America to douse them.
Time will tell what kind of fire department Trump has assembled and how many more matches Obama is going to light and gasoline he will pour before he leaves.
===
Dick
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1) Finley: Trump must strengthen ties to Israel
By Nolan Finley
Donald Trump says it will be a new day for the United Nations when he’s sworn in on Jan. 20. And Sen. Ted Cruz is threatening to withhold U.S. funding for the international body unless it recants its vote to declare West Bank settlements illegal, a measure the United States for the first time refused to veto.
Time for a reality check: Nothing Trump or Congress can do now will undo President Barack Obama’s betrayal of Israel or of the American Jewish voters who so blindly supported him through two elections.
The deed is done, and won’t be undone. Israel’s haters in the U.N. —and they include most of the member nations —have been waiting for decades for America to stand aside and let them have at the Jewish state.
Obama waited, too — until the lame duck days of his presidency, when there were no more votes or dollars to collect — to reveal his true feelings about Israel. As if they had ever been a secret.
Obama from the beginning harbored the resentment of Israel so rampant in the faculty lounges from which he hailed. Like much of the left, he sees the Palestinians as victims and Israel as the oppressor.
He wobbled on the United States’ unbreakable relationship with Israel, continually bending it to fit his view that the responsibility for making peace rests with the Jews. Early on he conditioned peace talks on a stoppage of settlement building, and expressed his support for the pre-1967 boundaries.
What Obama considers his crowning foreign policy achievement, the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran, placed that rogue nation on a direct path to a nuclear weapon, which its leaders threaten they’ll use against Israel.
Resentment grew to open hostility toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Obama snubbed and worked to defeat in Israel’s last election —a favor Netanyahu returned.
So going out the door, Obama got what he wanted: the marginalization of both Netanyahu and Israel.
It was a jerk move aimed at limiting the foreign policy options of the incoming president. And it will do just that.
It also forces the new president to take assertive steps. The Israelis view it as an affront that the United States, in deference to Arab sensitivities, keeps its embassy in Tel Aviv rather than in the capitol, Jerusalem. Trump says he favors moving the embassy. He should. Right away.
Keeping the U.S. embassy outside the Israeli capitol is an insult to a loyal ally, and plays into the contention of its enemies that Israel is an illegitimate state. Trump could erase any perception that failure to veto the U.N. vote is evidence of a break in U.S./Israel relations by immediately announcing the embassy will go to Jerusalem.
He should also make Israel his first foreign visit as president. Obama didn’t visit Israel until the fifth year of his presidency, as he carefully distanced himself from the Jewish state. By contrast, he went to Egypt the summer of his first year in office to deliver a major speech aimed at healing relations with the Muslim world.
Eight years later, Islamic extremists continue to torment America, while Israel, despite Obama’s slights, remains a strong friend. Trump should demonstrate straight off that he’ll mend the tears in that friendship.
Nolan Finley’s book “Little Red Hen: A Collection of Columns from Detroit’s Conservative Voice” is available from Amazon, i Books, and Barnes & Noble Nook.
1a) How Pro-Israel Dems Lost The Party
Large numbers of Democrats still count themselves as strong backers of
Israel. Yet Obama was able to count on their silence or acquiescence as
he went from ginned-up spats with Netanyahu to a rapprochement with
Iran and now to a sea change in U.S. policy. Obama’s latest move leaves
the Jewish state isolated on the world stage at a time of growing anti-
Semitism.
One year ago, I wrote in COMMENTARY about what we termed the
“Democratic Divorce from Israel.” In the last 12 months, concern about the
Democrats’ abandonment of their former stance as a uniformly pro-Israel
party has only grown.
The split among Democrats was put on display during the Democratic
primaries, when Clinton’s support for Israel’s self-defense contrasted with
Sanders’s UN-style canards about the 2014 Gaza campaign. But while
Clinton won the nomination, Sanders’s position was embraced by the
party’s liberal activist base. Clinton’s defeat will only accelerate the left’s
march to ascendancy. That a virulent foe of Israel like Keith Ellison has
received support(including the backing of Schumer) in his campaign for
the DNC post indicates which way the wind is blowing among Democrats.
Obama’s UN betrayal was not so much a turning point as the logical
conclusion of a long-term trend with inevitable consequences. Nor does Obama’s exit from the White House leave the way open for a comeback for
pro-Israel Democrats. Even in retirement Obama will be the party’s most prestigious and popular figure and could continue with his vendetta against
Netanyahu and Israel (think Jimmy Carter on steroids). Additionally, the
leftist faction that despised Clinton and seems likely to be calling the shots
in the coming years is sympathetic to attacks on Israel.
It would be a tragedy both for Israel and the United States if support for
Israel became one on which partisan affiliation determined opinions. But
the problem here is not the lockstep support for Israel that has become
nearly universal among Republicans and which is manifesting itself in the positions taken by the incoming Trump administration. Rather it is the ease
with which Obama was able to abandon Israel without significant
push back from his party. And an ascendant left wing will only continue the
trend. It remains to be seen whether what’s left of the pro-Israel faction in
the party—both among elected officials and its major donors—have the will
or the numbers to reverse what seems now to be an inevitable slide toward hostility to the Jewish state.
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2)
2)
John Kerry's Alternate Reality
On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech outlining his vision for peace
between Israel and the Palestinians. This speech made clear why Kerry is merely talking
about peace instead of achieving it. This confused man simply does not comprehend why his prior peace efforts -- and all prior peace efforts -- have failed.
The reason why there's no peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is not
because of settlements, Israeli intransigence or Israel's "right wing" politicians. The Israelis
have repeatedly offered the Palestinians their own state in Gaza, East Jerusalem and almost
all of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). The Israelis have made this offer as long ago as
1937 and as recently as 2008. In 2014, Prime Minister Netanyahu accepted John Kerry's
peace initiative and agreed to resume negotiations with the Palestinian with no preconditions.
The Palestinians have turned down every single one of these offers. And they refused to
resume negotiations under Kerry's peace initiative. They have made clear in both word and
deed that they will not agree to any peace deal that requires them to recognize Israel as a
Jewish state and end their conflict with Israel.
Simply put, the only real barrier to peace in the Middle East is the Palestinian refusal to
recognize a Jewish state in any size, shape or form. Instead, Israel's supposed partner for
peace -- the Palestinian Authority -- is busy making cash payments to terrorists and their
families while naming town squares, streets and parks after the worst of these terrorists.
Having educated their citizens to hate Israel, Palestinian leaders cannot now turn around and
make peace with her -- not if they want to survive.
Secretary Kerry's words will reward this Palestinian intransigence and embolden these
Palestinian terrorists. But they will do nothing to bring peace.
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