The present U.S. administration is an enemy of Israel. Netanyahu must recognize this and act accordingly. But is he capable of recognizing it?

In the same week in which Obama carried out a coup against the Big Satan, he pushed the Little Satan to the wall. He has made demands on Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu that the latter cannot reasonably accept. But if Netanyahu refuses to accept them, Obama can hurt Israel is serious ways, including, says Paul of Powerline (citing Noah Pollock in the Jerusalem Post):

1) U.S. support for a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood, 2) active U.S. opposition to a strike on Iran, up to and including the Brzezinski threat of shooting down Israeli aircraft, 3) Israel’s diplomatic isolation in the UN and Europe, and 4) an escalating administration campaign to portray Israeli “intransigence” as a threat to the United States’ regional and international security.

When I read that list, I was knocked back for a moment from the view I had had prior to reading the Powerline piece, that Netanyahu should declare to the world that the president U.S. administration is hostile to Israel, and that Israel will not regard the U.S. as a Mideast peace broker so long as Obama remains president. Now I thought that Israel was in an impossible bind.

But Paul of Powerline—who I’ve always said is the most conservative and the most astute of the Powerline writers, and who evidently agrees with the first two sentences of the title of this entry—saw farther than I did. He writes:

Obama may be willing to play some or all of these cards. But if he is, then he will be willing to play them to enforce his next set of demands too. Thus, unless Israel is prepared to let the U.S. dictate the terms of its national security, as well as its housing policy, Netanyahu should not be deterred.

Moreover, Obama is likely to oppose a strike on Iran under any circumstances. And Israel should not fret too much about ongoing White House criticism, particularly since Obama lacks the support of even congressional Democrats in his feud with Israel. A recent CNN poll showed that 80 percent of Americans consider Israel a friend or an ally. Thus, Obama is likely to be a party of one here in the U.S. in any ongoing feud.

Nonetheless, I expect Netanyahu to attempt to reach some sort of accommodation with Obama. I fear that Netanyahu has been unable to process the fact that Obama isn’t playing by the old rules under which Israel was considered a U.S. friend and ally. Thus, I’m not confident that Netanyahu is prepared to play by new rules under which Israel largely ignore the U.S. president and goes it more or less alone, at least for a while.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 27, 2010 08:26 AM | Send