Obama Making Enemies With Israel

It appears that President Barack Obama’s campaign pledge for hope and change now involves making friends with past enemies and enemies of past friends. Coming from a man who regularly told the American people that our foreign policy needed to change because we were angering the world with the way we did business, has shown us his willingness to bow down to Arab leaders and turn a cold shoulder to our longtime friends in Israel causing anger among our friends.

Obama is tossing his weight around and putting demands on Israel never before seen. While Israel remains deeply troubled by Iran’s bent on nuclear weapons, Obama has decided to use this as leverage against the Israelis, telling them that if they want help with Iran, they need to start giving up land and handing it over to the Palestinians.

Coming up is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington, a time when, under past administrations, the head of Israel would be invited to pay a visit to the White House and meet with the president. Not Obama. He chose to inform Israel he would not be “in town” and that the past open door policy would no longer be in effect for Israeli prime ministers.

In return, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his trip to Washington and made an announcement that an upcoming purchase of 75 US-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets would be put on hold while Israel takes a closer look at the deal pending.

According to “TheAge.com”, the Israelis are talking about their relationship with President Obama and the end of warm relations.

According to prominent Israeli political commentator Maya Bengal, who writes for the country’s second-largest selling newspaper Maariv, the holiday is over.

“As Passover comes to an end, so comes to an end, it seems, the days of grace granted to the Netanyahu Government by the American Administration,” says the commentator.

Tel Aviv barman Meir Avraham, 30, says he can feel on the street the tensions being played out between the US and Israel.

“This is one of the the main things that the people are talking about at the moment,” says Mr Avraham, who recently returned to Israel after several months in Townsville.

Where does this leave Israel? Netanyahu has made it clear that they cannot tolerate Iran obtaining nuclear weapons – Iran being a country that promised to use them on the “Little Satan” and the “Great Satan”. If the new policies of the U.S are toward strengthening relations with the Arab countries at the expense of Israel, then Israel will be left all alone.

Tom Remington