USA and Israeli Relations Fraying...

by:Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

America's relationship with Israel has always stood on solid bedrock. Our relationship with the state of Israel has insured it's survival in a hostile and predominately Muslim region. Most states in the region would prefer if Israel simply were vaporized.

Standing strong in support of Israel also insured we had a strong (strength built with American military hardware) ally in the region. While there have been ups and downs as there always is in relationships between allies from time to time the present relationship between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu administration is the worst USA/Israeli relations have ever been.

This certainly does not bode well for Israel and may, over the long run, have undesirable consequences for the USA if differences are not ironed out and the relationship improved. Pressure being put on Israel by the Obama administration over the West Bank settlements and the "Palestinians" may be warranted, but given the constant threat Israel faces from those who refuse to recognize her right to exist and those who desire her destruction gives weight to Netanyahu's positions.

A perspective from left leaning The Atlantic. Worth contemplating while recognizing that neither Obama or Netanyahu are completely right nor totally at fault for the icy relationship.

The Obama administration's anger is "red-hot" over Israel's settlement policies, and the Netanyahu government openly expresses contempt for Obama's understanding of the Middle East. Profound changes in the relationship may be coming.

The other day I was talking to a senior Obama administration official about the foreign leader who seems to frustrate the White House and the State Department the most. “The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” this official said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by his nickname.

This comment is representative of the gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors, and is yet another sign that relations between the Obama and Netanyahu governments have moved toward a full-blown crisis. The relationship between these two administrations— dual guarantors of the putatively “unbreakable” bond between the U.S. and Israel—is now the worst it's ever been, and it stands to get significantly worse after the November midterm elections. By next year, the Obama administration may actually withdraw diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations, but even before that, both sides are expecting a showdown over Iran, should an agreement be reached about the future of its nuclear program.

The fault for this breakdown in relations can be assigned in good part to the junior partner in the relationship, Netanyahu, and in particular, to the behavior of his cabinet. Netanyahu has told several people I’ve spoken to in recent days that he has “written off” the Obama administration, and plans to speak directly to Congress and to the American people should an Iran nuclear deal be reached. For their part, Obama administration officials express, in the words of one official, a “red-hot anger” at Netanyahu for pursuing settlement policies on the West Bank, and building policies in Jerusalem, that they believe have fatally undermined Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process.

Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and “Aspergery.” (These are verbatim descriptions; I keep a running list.) But I had not previously heard Netanyahu described as a “chickenshit.” I thought I appreciated the implication of this description, but it turns out I didn’t have a full understanding. From time to time, current and former administration officials have described Netanyahu as a national leader who acts as though he is mayor of Jerusalem, which is to say, a no-vision small-timer who worries mainly about pleasing the hardest core of his political constituency. (President Obama, in interviews with me, has alluded to Netanyahu’s lack of political courage.)

“The good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars,” the official said, expanding the definition of what a chickenshit Israeli prime minister looks like. “The bad thing about him is that he won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states. The only thing he’s interested in is protecting himself from political defeat. He’s not [Yitzhak] Rabin, he’s not [Ariel] Sharon, he’s certainly no [Menachem] Begin. He’s got no guts.”

I ran this notion by another senior official who deals with the Israel file regularly. This official agreed that Netanyahu is a “chickenshit” on matters related to the comatose peace process, but added that he’s also a “coward” on the issue of Iran’s nuclear threat. ...

Maybe one day the realization will strike usb and the rest of the world the Palestinian "government"ghas no interest in peace nor do the other antagonists aligned against them.

More BELOW THE FOLD.

Via: Memeorandum