I have no beef with those who argue President Obama did nothing wrong by sliding in a reference to Israel returning to the 1967 borders, albeit with land swaps, in his major address on the Arab pro-democracy movement at the State Department. To be sure, I believe it ruined the President's otherwise impassioned insistence that America would support the Arab yearning to be free of its tyrannical dictators by inserting an inflammatory and highly controversial distraction that dominated the headlines.
Still, the President is entitled to his view even as it remains to be seen if pressuring Israel will lead to a lasting peace. What I do have a problem with is the large number of commentators -- the vast majority Jewish -- who say that in defying Obama on the '67 borders Netanyahu has provoked the President's wrath and Israel will now suffer the consequences.
As an American I have a visceral distaste for anyone arguing that we ought to fear our government or our President. I do not live in Russia. I do not live in Syria. President Obama is nothing but the elected representative of the American people. He has absolutely no power other than that which we, the American people, grant him. He is not a king and he is not an emperor. He cannot pursue his grudges and he cannot avenge his personal honor. He is a servant of the people. The idea that Israel, as a sovereign nation and most trusted ally of the United States, ought to fear the American president for not kowtowing to his every foreign policy whim when it feels he is desperately wrong, is distasteful in the extreme.
Worse, it is an incalculable insult to President Obama. What these commentators are implying is that Obama is a man so petty and immature that as pay-back to Netanyahu and Israel for defying him he will throw both under a bus. I do not believe this about Obama. I believe him to be a mature and dignified leader even as I disagree with him profoundly on so many substantive issues of policy.
But there were some of America's top writers arguing that Bibi had pissed off Obama and now Israel would pay. Leading the charge was Time magazine's Joe Klein who titled his attack on Netanyahu, "Bibi Provokes Obama," and ended his column with these words: "Given his congressional support, Netanyahu may be able to get away with playing so bold a hand -- but it is inappropriate behavior for an American ally, and you can bet that Obama won't forget it." Won't forget what? That an Israeli Prime Minister actually had the courage to tell an American President -- finally! -- that the sovereign State of Israel will not be pushed into compromising its security? And what is Klein suggesting Obama will now do. Retaliate against Israel and spitefully take the position of the Palestinians? Does he really believe Obama to be that frivolous? I most surely do not.
The Bibi-undermined-Israel's-security-by-getting-on-Obama's-bad-side argument continued with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic -- normally one of my favorite writers -- who titled his piece, "Dear Mr. Netanyahu, Please Don't Speak to My President That Way." Goldberg wrote, "And if President Obama doesn't walk back the speech, what will Netanyahu do? Will he cut off Israeli military aid to the U.S.?" Perhaps Goldberg has confused the American political system with that, say, of Libya. Our President does not give any economic aid to Israel.
It is the American people who, in their overwhelming support of the Middle East's sole democracy, repeatedly elect leaders who share their pro-Israel posture and who in-turn vote to continue foreign aid to Israel. Whatever the tension between Bibi and Obama the American people are not now questioning why we give our most trusted ally $3 billion a year in military aid, but why we gave Pakistan, where Bin Laden was hiding, a total of $20.7 billion in aid from 2002 through fiscal 2011.
Goldberg continues: "Prime Minister Netanyahu needs the support of President Obama in order to confront the greatest danger Israel has ever faced: the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran. And yet he seems to go out of his way to alienate the President." The inference is that by Netanyahu throwing what Goldberg called 'a hissy fit,' President Obama may withdraw his support for Israel on Iran. This is an unwarranted and unjust criticism of our President who knows darn well that a nuclear-armed Iran is as big a threat to the United States as it is to Israel. Last time I checked 'The Great Satan' label bandied about by the Iranians was a reference not to Israel but to America.
But the sentiment of Bibi's foolishness in 'provoking' Obama was heard even in major Jewish publications. New York Jewish Week publisher Gary Rosenblatt, one of the most erudite and insightful of all writers on the Jewish scene, said,
This is more than a personal grudge match; it can affect strategic policy and the very future of the Jewish state. Israel, of course, has a lot more to lose here than the U.S., so the onus is on Bibi to make the relationship better... Bibi has chosen confronting Obama rather than working at restoring their relationship. I hope it's not a permanent mistake.
Follow Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RabbiShmuley
Parties See Obama's Israel Policy as Wedge for 2012 - NYTimes.com
Obama calls for Israel's return to pre-1967 borders - CNN
Romney: Obama 'threw Israel under the bus' - Yahoo! News
Obama Says Israel's Security Is 'Paramount' : NPR
What Obama did to Israel - The Washington Post
Obama Speech Backlash on Call to Reinstate 1967 Mideast Borders ...
You seem to forget who's sitting in who's lap. My obvservation that every president since Eisenhower has been a grovelling sycophant to the demands of Israel lest they anger the pro-Israel vote in the US.
Every whim. Every action. Every demand from Israel has been indulged by our goverment for the past 60 years. We've vetoed every UN resolution that dared to hold Israel accountable for any of it's actions. We've excused every war, every incursion, every settlement, the destruction of Palestinian homes and communities has gone unchallenged with anything but limp rehtoric.
We've pumped vast amounts of treasure into Israel and we've shed US blood at home and the middle east for our unwavering support of Israel.
Please feel free to list the benefits we've recieved in return. Go ahead. Please explain how the presence of Israel has done anything to further democracy in the middle east or to advance US security or interests.
Of course we support Democracy wherever it is found. But don't pretend that Israel is some kind of blessing or partner with the US. They are a heavy and ungrateful burden.
http://www.gush-shalom.org/generous/generous.html
Rabbi-
The US has used this basis for negotiation for decades. You are either being ignorant or disingenuous with your accusation that this is something new from President Obama.
Please STOP continuing this falsehood. I lost respect for Netanyahu when he continually referred to it as "indefensible." Was it indefensible when Bush, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan, Carter, etc. used the same points- verbatim?
I expect such deliberate ignorance from politicians, but not from a religious man. Correct your article, please.
...US congers does. 29 standing ovations for Netanyahu
Read the following article to understand how Israel will get marginalized, even though President Obama is trying his hardest to convince Netanyah and the Israeli hard-liners to compromise for peace.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=222889
Yet it is hard to ignore the abuse and stoning of women, children being used as suicide bombers, and that civil rights and free speech is a Western ideal, which will not gain ground in many Arab countries, no matter the leaders.. .
We give far more money to Muslim countries that hate us, than we do to Israel. The Palestinians have repeatedly refused to recognize Israel and are openly aligned with Hamas.
Westerners often fail to realize that the rest of the world, particulary the Mid East, Asia,and Asia Minor do not view life or anything else, through the same lens we do.
Until we grasp that fact, there will continue to be misunderstandings, killings, and a vast waste of lives, time and money. A perfect case in point, is Afghanistan, they seem to like living in the 14th century as long as it includes at minimum, 20th century weapons. We should let them have at it. Losing America's best in these god forsaken places is a huge national tragedy.
Bibi was right, ideals crash on the rocks of reality, not just in Israel, but in the region.
http://www.newser.com/story/117587/taliban-use-child-suicide-bomber.html
JOhn Smith and Chris Colombus had a similar view of Native Americans... genocide was ok as long as they were not in our zip code.. enslavement was ok because we need to develop our respurces.. and guess what ..we are still paying fo rour sins... if we know that this conflict is morally going to bankrupt our history and theirs why wouldnt we work for a just solution? They are people too.. and besides we know how awful the Jewish people were treated in Europe... why should anyone ever be treated as different again...we saw what that led to before.. the horrors placed on one people is one people to many.. we cant go back and save the past..but we cant go forward without saving the future.