For months, Republicans derisively doubted if U.S. President Barack Obama was a true friend of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, questioning if Americans should re-elect someone who might not be on the same page with the long-time U.S. ally.
Now, it's Netanyahu facing political heat in his own country -- for his relationship with Obama.
Despite sometimes blistering attacks over where his administration stands on Israel and against Iran's nuclear program, Obama this week emerged victorious in the U.S. presidential election. But Netanyahu has months to go in his own campaign, including time to answer questions about his relationship with the American leader.
Leading the charge against the prime minister is the Kadima party, which holds more seats at 28 than any other in Israel's Knesset and which quit Netanyahu's coalition government in July. The centrist party is among those aiming to gain more power and unseat Netanyahu when Israelis go to the polls on January 22, 2013.
Comment:
I think and hope that we see the last of Bennie after the election. Israel needs to pull away from the extreme right and move back towards the center. A new PM will go a lonw way towards greater world security and increase the chance for a Middle East peace.
"Israelis applaud their leaders when they confront the Arabs or snub the Europeans, never when they so irresponsibly defy Israel’s major, and at times only, ally the United States."
- Shlomo Ben-Ami, former Sec. of State
I've always found the relationship between Israel and the US to be a case of the tail wagging the dog. The current Israeli Prime Minister put it in better words though:
"I know what America is. America is something that can be easily moved. Moved to the right direction."
http://youtu.be/RsqWLYhat7Q?t=51s
Netanyahu and Obama might not get along well on a personal level, but the Obama administration is just as ardent a unilateral supporter of Israel behind the scenes as all the other American governments, left or right, before it. Obama still writes a check for several billions of dollars of foreign "aid" to this country with an equal or higher quality of living than America every year. And he will continue to do so in the next years, because no American President can stand against the power of AIPAC.
Katarina N. wrote: "Israelis applaud their leaders when they confront the Arabs or snub the Europeans, never when they so irresponsibly defy Israel’s major, and at times only, ally the United States."
- Shlomo Ben-Ami, former Sec. of State
That's what's been playing in my mind. How is the Israel electorate going to react to their leader cavalierly dissing the well-heeled, well-muscled big brother that they depend on so much?
Justin wrote: That's what's been playing in my mind. How is the Israel electorate going to react to their leader cavalierly dissing the well-heeled, well-muscled big brother that they depend on so much?
I think Netanyahu needs to be careful not to take it too far with the chest-thumping. He's a political animal through and through, so he'll cut down on the rhetorics until after the election.
What surprises me more is that the Americans, a people proud of their indepence, so willingly do what Israel wants, they're like a domesticated cat on a leash. It's as if they can't see that Israeli goals and American goals in the middle-east are not the same and can at times even be antithetic.
The near carte-blanche support of Israel regardless of its policies is at the very heart of Muslim hatred against America throughout the world. You pay with thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars for that support, but what does it get you in return?
Has Israel sent just one single soldier to support America in Iraq or Afghanistan like the rest of America's allies have? No they haven't and they never, ever will. But they sure like you to fight their wars for them and die for them.
In that regard I find the behavior of the Republicans in the US Congress during Netanyahu's last state visit borderline treasonous and a gleeful demonstration of shilldom - twisting the knife in the back of their own President while he's wrestling with a foreign leader to get the best deal for the US.
Netanyahu loves nothing more than yanking the cat's chain by playing both American parties against each other. He's a master at this game.
It's a complex history. Frankly, America wouldn't want Israeli troops in support. It would just inflame the Islamic world that much more.
I'm not so sure of the near-fawning level of devotion, either. Charitably, I could think that we've made our friends, and we support them no matter what. On the other hand, with the USS Liberty and Jonathan Pollard, you'd think that the friendship would be severely damaged.
I could go on. There's no end to the intransigence and irrationality in that part of the world. Even what you mention, support of Israel being at the core of the Islamic world hatred, is not a rational and proportionate response.
Viking Models
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Huntington Beach, California, US
Katarina N. wrote: In that regard I find the behavior of the Republicans in the US Congress during Netanyahu's last state visit borderline treasonous and a gleeful demonstration of shilldom -
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