If Barack Obama didn’t exist, Benjamin Netanyahu would have had to invent him.
During my recent trip to the U.S., I saw the television in the airport broadcasting Obama’s address to the nation. Obama squirmed as he explained why he is sending another 30,000 soldiers to Afghanistan. In Vietnam the Americans had one clear enemy; in Afghanistan it is hard to understand who is against whom. The Afghan mud is sucking the U.S. deeper and deeper into a war that Obama promised to end.
On the domestic front, the White House is attempting to explain to the citizens how the miniscule sum of $1.2 trillion (yes, that’s one thousand, two hundred billion!) that Obama has decided to spend on his grandiose health plan will heal the failing American economy. Fortunately for Obama, the Tiger Woods scandal has stolen the limelight from America’s pressing military and economic issues. On this U.S. visit, I didn’t hear Israel mentioned even once on the news.
There is no doubt about it. If Netanyahu would want to stand his ground, he could easily deflect any American pressure. Obama has his own troubles, and is not interested in a head-on battle with Israel’s many supporters in the U.S., particularly in Congress. But Bibi needs Obama to create the illusion of American pressure.
Ariel Sharon destroyed Gush Katif despite the fact that President Bush was opposed to the scheme. Sharon was a bulldozer and did not use Uncle Sam as an excuse for his exploits until late in the game. This is not to say that Obama is a lover of Israel. He wants Israel to retreat, and he is happy to provide Bibi with the excuse that Sharon did not need.
Will Obama act where his determined predecessor did not – and attack Iran? Of course not. Our short history shows that every time Israel has faced an existential threat, America abandoned Israel to her enemies. The Iranian threat is no different. What we will not do for ourselves, nobody will do for us.
During the 10-month building freeze – that will naturally continue indefinitely – Iran’s defense capabilities will continue to improve. We are giving up our right to our land in exchange for the resuscitation of an old principle: that for the right to live, the Jew has to pay in hard currency. After all of this, we will still be forced to act alone against Iran – just under more difficult conditions.
Will Netanyahu then regain his backbone? I doubt it. His decrees in Judea and Samaria are not only immoral; they are also illogical. In order to try to understand the rationale behind them, we must return to the days of Sharon and the Expulsion. It is not Obama, but rather the Israeli Left that Netanyahu is so anxious to please. As the existential Iranian threat closes in, we can only hope that Israeli society will elect authentically Jewish leadership that fears only God.
***
Netanyahu’s Evil Plan
It is of utmost importance that we understand what the government is planning. This will allow us to plan accordingly and take appropriate action – that will not only protest the government’s actions, but actually stop them.
