David Meir-Levi - Obama Continues His War on Israel

David Meir-Levi
frontpagemag.com
07 November '11

On November 2, the Obama administration sharply criticized Israel’s decision to accelerate construction of Israeli housing in various communities in and around Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank. The administration also had some harsh words about Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmud Abbas’ renewal of efforts to wrest recognition for his “Palestinian State” from the UN Security Council, in which endeavor he may have made some progress with the recent UNESCO vote to accept “Palestine” as a member.

It is important to recall that Mr. Abbas’ maneuvers in the UN are actually part of the PA’s political and propaganda war against Israel, which, as he told the world back in May, will not stop once the UN recognizes the state of “Palestine,” but rather will be ratcheted up for a more effective assault against Israel. Moreover, the apartments that PM Netanyahu plans to build are not on Palestinian land, but are suburbs or even neighborhoods of Jerusalem, none of which are on the agenda for land swaps in a peace agreement.

Irrationally, but not unexpectedly, the White House and State Department used identical language to express the President’s disappointment with both Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and with Abbas. The State Department spokesperson went on to chastise Netanyahu for Israel’s temporary suspension of the transfer of millions of tax dollars that Israel collects on behalf of the PA.

By using the same language for both Israel’s housing construction and Abbas’ diplomatic saber rattling, Obama creates a moral equivalence between one side’s accommodating its population growth and the other side’s efforts to ultimately destroy that population. By demanding that Israel bequeath millions upon the PA, our State Department is pretending that the PA leadership and its partners (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.) will use that money for state-building and economic development.

(Read full "Obama Continues His War on Israel")

David Meir-Levi writes and lectures on Middle East topics, until recently in the History Department of San Jose State University.

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.