Uneasy Alliance

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Kenneth Levin, a clinical instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a Princeton-trained historian, and a commentator on Israeli politics. He is the author of The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege.

Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com
August 17, 2009

FP: Kenneth Levin, welcome back to Frontpage Interview.

I would like to talk to you today about how and why Israelis, many of whom previously invited American pressure on their government, have responded in so unified a way -- and so negatively -- to the pressure from Obama.

But first, let’s set the stage a bit with the Obama administration’s disposition toward Israel.

A recent piece in the Washington Post noted that the only country in the world with which the U.S. has worse relations since Obama took office is Israel.

Why do you think this is?

Levin: The Post was referring to a recent poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project which found that, of 25 countries surveyed, only in Israel was the public image of the United States worsening.

The Post editorial attributes this to President Obama’s having picked a very public fight with Israel over building in settlements. He has also rejected understandings concerning the parameters of construction within settlements that had been in place under former American administrations and were defined more explicitly with the Bush Administration.

In addition, Obama has made no comparable demands on the Palestinians, even though the so-called Roadmap, advanced by the Quartet of the U.S., Russia, the UN and the EU and supposedly embraced by Obama, requires steps by the PA "at the outset." These include security measures aimed particularly at ending all anti-Israel terrorism and dismantling terrorist infrastructures and independent militias; institution-building intended to establish a "strong parliamentary democracy "; and an end to anti-Israel incitement.

FP: And the Palestinians have done what with these required steps?

Levin: There has, of course, been virtually no movement by the Palestinians on any of these steps. On the contrary, Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah, as well as Hamas, continues to promote anti-Israel terror and to praise terrorist "martyrs." It also continues to employ its media, mosques and schools to attack Israel's legitimacy and call for its destruction. Indeed, Abbas himself has refused to endorse Israel's legitimacy, demands a Palestinian "right of return" that would transform Israel into yet another Arab-dominated state in the region, and continues to honor those who died attacking Israeli civilians.

Not only has the Administration not put any public pressure on the PA to meet its Roadmap obligations, but President Abbas has demonstrated he feels under no pressure to do so. While in Washington for meetings with President Obama and Administration officials, he stated that he intends to take no steps toward accommodation but will essentially wait for what he expects will be Obama’s "delivering" Israel.

FP: Why has Obama taken this path of abandoning prior Israeli-American understandings and engaged in a high-profile attack on Israeli policy while making no corresponding demands of the Palestinian side?

Levin: The President has clearly given a high priority to reaching out to the Muslim world and particularly to the Arab states and Iran. Publicly pressuring Israel is consistent with that priority. Of course, his outreach is most focused on appeasing those Muslims hostile to America, and this inexorably involves some abandonment of those who are well-disposed to America but are also targets of that hostility, including, ironically, many Muslims.

For example, President Obama initially refused to criticize the Iranian regime for its brutal response to popular demonstrations against the apparently fraudulent "election" of Ahmadinejad to a second term as Iranian president. Obama was more concerned with reaching out to Ahmadinejad. Only after being shamed into changing his stance did the President begin to offer some criticism of Iranian actions against anti-government demonstrators. It is very likely that if the Pew poll were extended to Iran, the Iranian people would also voice diminishing esteem for the United States.

Similarly, while Obama the candidate promised to give high priority to ending Sudan’s genocidal policies against the people of Darfur, Obama the President has focused on ingratiating himself with Sudan’s allies and has done nothing to alleviate the suffering in Darfur. Even some Obama advocates have publicly condemned his reneging on his pre-election promises vis-à-vis Darfur. Democratic operative and columnist Kirsten Powers published a piece on the issue entitled "‘Bam’s Darfur Sins." In contrast, President Bush led the way in drawing the world’s attention to Sudan’s murderous policies in Darfur and labeling it a genocide. It’s fair to guess that if the Pew poll were conducted in Darfur, there, too, it would find a decrease in people’s estimation of the United States.

As has been noted by many observers, President Obama has long been close to people harboring and promoting rabidly anti-Israel views, including - to name but a few - Rashid Khalidi, Reverend Wright, and Samantha Power. He’s appointed Power to a position on the National Security Council. It is not entirely surprising that he has demonstrated a willingness to initiate a public confrontation with Israel and to abandon U.S.-Israel agreements forged by previous administrations as he seeks to appease America’s - and Israel’s - enemies in the Muslim world. Nor have other steps by Obama favoring the positions of those dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state been very surprising.

(Continue)

Related: Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege