Will Obama Betray Israel?

Jeff Robbins wrote an interesting review and commentary on a new book in The Wall Street Journal. Robbins' comments are particularly relevant at a time when the Obama Administration, Democrats in general, and most of the media are taking a studied know-nothing approach to policy regarding Israel and problems in the Middle East.

Despite decades of history and abundant facts, they insist that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are the primary obstacle to resolving Israel-Palestinian problems and achieving the nirvana of a two-state solution. But the true obstacle to peace in the Middle East lies elsewhere, as Robbins illustrates:

And just last week, despite yet more stories in the western media that Hamas was at last "moderating" its position on Israel, Hamas informed former President Carter, whose credulousness on the conflict is a source of some wonderment, that as it had previously made clear, it would never recognize Israel's right to exist under any circumstances.

The Obama Administration seems committed to a policy line in the Middle East that may have dire consequences for the prospects for peace in the region, and worse, the very survival of Israel and its people. As Robbins states:

The Administration's purposeful distancing of itself from Israel is likely to empower those who have always believed, and who continue to believe, that in the fullness of time, American support for Israel can be degraded, and with it Israel's ability to survive. Those in the Arab world who have counseled that that is the case --- and there are many of them --- will take the Administration's insistence that it wishes to be "an honest broker" as evidence that, at long last, American support for Israel has begun to erode, and that it is only a matter of time before it is no longer necessary for them to pretend that it is a two-state solution in which they are interested. If this proves to be the case, the Obama Administration, while intending to be helpful, will have inadvertently dealt whatever prospects exist for Middle East peace a serious blow.

American liberals continue to promote fraudulent moral equivalency arguments between the actions of Palestinian terrorists and Israel's defense of its people. With the advent of Obama, they've gone further and decided that Israeli settlements are the main source of the problem. This position ignores the history of the region and obfuscates the true motives of the Palestinians and their supporters in the Arab world and elsewhere. From Robbins' review:

In his new book, "One State, Two States: Resolving The Israel/Palestine Conflict," historian Benny Morris recounts the lugubrious history of Palestinian refusal to actually accept Israel as a Jewish state in the heart of the uniformly Muslim Middle East. Morris examines the widespread rejection by Palestinians in particular and Arabs in general of a two-state solution that, he points out, has been "a constant refrain of Palestinian leaders ... throughout the history of the Palestinian national movement," up to and including the present.

The refusal of Palestinian politicians, academics and clerics to stipulate that they accept a permanent Jewish state existing next to a Palestinian state is, of course, at once a dirty little secret and the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to the debate over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

For a detailed review of past Palestinian rejections of a two-state solution, read the entire article.

President Obama's Middle East policy is leading to what can only be termed a betrayal of Israel. Whether caused by ignorance, bias, or incompetence, the tragedy that may result will be the same. It's time for the Obama Administration to step back and re-think its actions.

(This is an edited version of an article also posted at Opinion Forum.)

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