The widening divide between Israel and the Obama administration, is a calculated sacrificial jesture designed to appease the various wolves that have been circling the Jewish state since its birth. Along with Obama’s efforts to prostrate himself before many of the world’s tyrants, this is a concerted attempt to do a makeover on the ugly American. To demonstrate that the perceived bully of international relations is now the teddy bear of a wonderful new world of feel-good measures.
Both sides of this strategy will likely fail miserably. The beggar does not respect his benefactor as much as he resents him as the object of his dependency. This is no more true than it is in the relation between countries. Most middle eastern nationals may admit grudgingly that Americans are far more privileged than they are, but will nevertheless conclude that American society is inferior. When the representative of that society comes bearing gifts of apology, regret, supplication … he is loathed for his generosity and effort at condescension.
If, on top of this, the donor then indicates his willingness to lower the paternalistic defense of a prized ally, it will be like offering his daughter to the mob. The lowering of the guard is an invitation to rape the subject. The wolves circling Israel will never honestly extend an olive branch unless they can cut off the hand that reaches for it.
Let’s pretend for a minute that history had taught us none of these lessons already, and that the messianic arrival of Obama did have a clear chance of defying history’s repetitiveness. Did he know what object he hoped to achieve? Was it an unraveling of the Gordian knot of Palestine, along with its presumed calming effect on Muslim extremism? Was it a broader outcome like the hoped-for redundancy of homeland security measures? Was it a blossoming of democracy in a new middle east, suddenly stricken with reformist awe by the grand gestures of the American messiah.
Not bloody likely. If you apologize for your successes, you court failures, and Obama will be around long enough to taste a few. The appeasement of Palestine through the browbeating of Israel, will never achieve peace. If all of Israel could be relocated out of there, tomorrow, the jihadists would have no fewer reasons to hate us. Nor would we hinder the worldwide infiltration by Muslims who bear no allegiance to the states that harbour them.
America (at least that part outside the university campuses) has traditionally defended Israel from the wolves, because they share our political system. They are an oasis in a desert of oppressive states and lifestyles. An economic star amongst a constellation of national burnouts. The example of western success that Bush hoped to create with Iraq, is already there, in Israel. If Obama’s futile gestures encourage the wolves, they will eventually need to look for dessert.
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on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Politics.
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