65 Days to Go

Is Obama the Worst US President for Israel?

By Sherwin Pomerantz

With 65 days to go before the scheduled opening of the UN General Assembly in New York and the possible vote on Palestinian statehood former US Ambassador to the UN was in Israel this week and sat for an interview with representatives of the Jerusalem Post.

Regarding the UN vote itself he said: “Don’t pay attention to it as the General Assembly has no authority to authorize the creation of states or ratify their admission to the UN, only the Security Council has that right.”

Legally of course he is correct but even though I personally have a lot of respect for Bolton and his straight-shooting style of talk, on this one I agree with the text but not its import. For sure he is correct when he says that the UN General Assembly is not the body authorized by the UN charter to do this kind of thing. But having said that, and as I point out continually in this blog, the run-up to that event in and of itself will be problematic and deleterious for Israel’s image in the world.

Those who will argue in favor of the resolution will hurl all kinds of anti-Israel epithets as they justify the need to vote “yes.” That dialogue will probably be more harmful to Israel in the long run than the vote itself as those remarks will then be quoted out of context whenever someone needs purported validity to make a negative point about the country. It is not difficult to see Israel-bashers worldwide say, “this must be true because the UN ambassador of country X said so in public.” This is why it is so important not to sit idly by and watch this all happen.

As regards US President Obama, Bolton clearly stated “Barack Obama is the most anti-Israel US president in the history of the State of Israel.” As time goes on it is becoming clearer every day that this is the case. The US has a long Christian-based belief that Israel must be recognized as the homeland of the Jewish people in order to make it possible for the Jews of the world to come here and hasten the second coming of Jesus.

Many people believe, for example, that more than the influence of Harry Truman’s former business partner, Eddie Jacobson, it was this belief in the destiny of the Jewish people to be returned to Israel that encouraged former President Truman to immediately recognize the newly created State of Israel even over the advice of his own Department of State. After Truman, every president, some with greater intensity and some with less, supported the strong relationship between the US and Israel and saw that relationship as beneficial to the US’ interests in the region (even more so after 1967). It is only this current president that sees Israel as a problem to be solved rather than a country with which the US shares mutual interests.

Finally Bolton turned to Israel’s most serious existential problem, Iran. He said, “If Israel is not prepared to engage in a military strike at Iran, get ready for a nuclear Iran because the US will not do anything outside the diplomatic sphere.” To which he later added “Once Iran gets nuclear weapons it does not have to use them to have a problematic effect on the region as a whole. Everything you don’t like about Iran gets worse with a nuclear Iran. “

It is, of course, difficult to argue with his logic. We probably had a chance to do damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2008 when they were smaller and less developed. But today, most people admit that we could not cause sufficient damage to warrant the carnage that we would witness here in the aftermath of such an attack.

But the threat remains and possibility of a nuclear Iran unafraid of western interference is not a comforting thought. It was not an encouraging thing to see in this morning’s papers, for example, pictures of the Israeli military along with senior members of the Ministry of Defense earlier this week taking a tour of sites in the Negev desert where they intend to evacuate Israelis in the event of air strikes in the north and center of the country.

So even those who are not Bolton fans, cannot help by give some thought to his statements and the reality of his presentation.

Renowned military leader and philosopher Karl von Clausewitz once said “If the leader is filled with high ambition, and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.” Let’s hope that Israel is blessed with such leaders, but I have my reservations.