US Elections…Cause to Worry?
By Sherwin Pomerantz

 Last week I was present at a dialogue about the upcoming US elections held in Tel Aviv. The four panel participants consisted of a former Israeli ambassador to the US, a former Economic Consul of Israel in Washington as well as two other Israeli analysts, both of whom had spent considerable time in the diplomatic ranks of Israel in Washington. After about 45 minutes of analysis, the moderator asked the panelists to tell the audience whom they would vote for if the US election was held today. (n.b. None of them were American citizens.)

All four of them, when asked, said that they would vote to keep President Obama in office for another four years. In each case the panel members were asked to give their reasons and, amazingly, the reason each gave was the same as that given by every other panel member. That is, that the level of security cooperation between Israel and the US is, today, higher than it has ever been in the history of the relationship. As such, it is important to maintain that level of cooperation as well as its chief supporter, President Obama. I was not the only one in the room who thought that reasoning was faulty.

As any student of political science knows, every government, including the US government, does what it deems is in its best interests when it comes to foreign policy. For the United States of America right now, with the entire Middle East in turmoil, it is obvious to the people at Foggy Bottom that there is only one stable country in the region with which they can engage from a security standpoint and that country is Israel. Syria is engaged in civil war, the fallout from Egypt having elected someone from the Muslim brotherhood as its president is still unclear, Lebanon is subject to the whims of Hezbollah which certainly cannot be considered friendly to the US and Jordan, while an ally, is nowhere near as stable politically as it would like to be in light of what is happening on its borders. As such, the US has increased its security cooperation with Israel because it needs to have an island of stability in this region for its own good and welfare and this would be the case regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.

You can probably figure out by now that I left the meeting (a) happy that these people do not vote and (b) depressed that such experienced diplomatic people believe that a second term for the president will be either good for America or for Israel. In my opinion he is good for neither and simply does not deserve a second term.

Earlier this year in a TV appearance, entertainer Harry Belafonte actually enunciated this better than anyone when he said:

"When I think of Barack Obama and I think about all that is at stake here I’ve really long since left talking about how many terms he will be as a president. My question is what legacy will he leave having had the opportunity to serve under such hugely dramatic circumstances that boggled the mind and boggled people’s thinking and had such a huge impact on the universal state of things? And how could he have had such a splendid opportunity to do more than most presidents would have ever been able to do and yet let that opportunity slip away from him.

"And I am very cautious of the fact of those who think that he has some hidden agenda and that if only he could be given a second term for us to see the new light new things will be revealed. A new effort will be made to take us to a place other than where we have been and where we languish.

"I just don’t trust that. I don’t think that is either a safe or accurate way to look at the scenario. I think if there was the kind of moral compass serving Barack Obama in the way we had all hoped, the moral force would have helped him make choices. The absence of that force in his equations, the absence of that barometer to guide him when he has to make those decisions which are hugely complicated, especially from the political perspective is disturbing. He should have come to the table with things that I think would have helped us in this moment of crisis."

Of course Belafonte was speaking totally in terms of America and its needs. I would add that during this time of worldwide economic and political stress, the world needed the President of the United States and the United States itself to lead, rather than sit on the sidelines and stay out of trouble. From an Israeli standpoint the last thing we need is a US President who panders to the hurt feelings of the Muslim world who, as a result do not embrace him, but see him as a weak representative of a weakened America.

 We can only hope that in spite of the less than ideal choice the Republicans are offering as an alternative, that the American people will understand the choices before them and do the right thing.