Obama's weakness on Middle Eastern policy is something to behold. Consider the developments in the last few weeks:
On the eve of a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Obama takes the opportunity to undermine one of Israels primary negotiating tools with the Palestinians by saying that the 1967 Israeli borders should be the basis for the borders of a Palestinian State. Yeah, Yeah, he mentioned "land swaps", but does anyone seriously believe this after thought changes his overall meaning? Rather than praising the only functioning democracy in the Middle East and one of our closest allies in the world, Obama sandbags its Prime Minister by suggesting that Israel should give up land. Keep in mind that the only reason Israel has this land is because IT WAS THE VICTIM OF AN UNPROVOKED ATTACK! Our President seems to want Israel to give back land to those that attacked them in exchange for... (wait for it) NOTHING. This is a shabby way to treat any friend but it is especially shabby in this case because by suggesting concessions from Israel, you are necessarily supporting the other side. And who is on the other side? Well as of a few days ago Hamas (you remember them, the bus bombing, kidnapping, "Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth" folks) is back in the fold with Fatah, and that is just the Palestinians. The other side also includes Hezbollah (those guys in Lebanon that periodically lob rockets at school children), and Hezbollah's masters in Damascus and their masters in Tehran. So by sucker punching our ally rather than praising them as the only beacon of freedom in the entire region, our President has sided with some of this country's worst enemies.
Not only did Obama criticize a friend, he essentially failed to offer any meaningful support for the courageous protesters in Syria that are being slaughtered. Obama's policy of bombing Libya for threatening civilians while offering up only limp-wristed sanctions against Syria for the same thing is at best incoherent but is likely worse. Libya, by all accounts, had pretty much given up on getting nukes and on terrorism. We are not saying Gadhafi is a great guy, but he was probably not a big threat to the U.S. or our allies (including Israel). Syria, on the other hand provides massive support to Hezbollah and Hamas (the bus bombing rocket lobbers for those of you with a short attention span) and is essentially a client state of Iran. It is through the Syrian regime that Iran supports both Hamas and Hezbollah (they send the rockets to lob at school children and the explosives to blow up the buses) and foments instability in Lebanon. Rather than focusing on toppling the Syrian regime in support of the protesters and thereby dealing a serious blow to our enemies in Tehran as well as the bus bombers and rocket lobbers, Obama decides to bomb Libya. As if this is not bad enough, he bombs Libya but fails to remove the regime so we are left with either an expensive stalemate enforced by a no fly zone or a dictator that has renewed interest striking back at this country and our allies.
Last but not least Obama addressed Egypt, a country in flux after successfully ousting its longtime ruler in favor of a temporary military government. It is difficult to know what to do with Egypt because it is impossible to know whether its eventual government will be pro-western and a potential ally or if the Muslim Brotherhood will take power and drag Egypt down the road of Islamic extremism. Faced with this difficulty, Obama followed his instincts.... SPEND MONEY. He proposed an additional 2 billion dollars of on top of the existing 2 billion we provide to Egypt annually. Given our country's financial condition and uncertainties in Egypt, this hardly seems like a good idea but it does provide further evidence of one thing: With Obama in charge you are better off as an unknown or an enemy of the U.S. than as a dictator that poses no threat to us in Libya or as a steadfast friend in Israel.
Hats off to President Obama. Just when we thought our Middle Eastern policy could not get any worse, he manages to weaken our friends and encourage our enemies. This will not help to bring peace to this troubled region. Well done Mr. President!
--Hand
“To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering.”
-Barry Goldwater
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