Obama Thinks Israel’s Concerns About Iran Just “Noise”
September 24, 2012 2 Comments
On 60 Minutes Obama said he believes that Israel is “one of our closest allies in the middle east.” One wonders what nation is closer to the US than Israel. In fact, one wonders what middle eastern country even comes close to Israel. Is it Egypt, with its staged Embassy attack two weeks ago? Perhaps Saudi Arabia with its network of terrorists. Iraq maybe? No, Obama wouldn’t want to give Bush credit for something like that. So what nation in Obama’s mind is closer to the United States in the middle east than Israel. We of course got no follow up question from CBS on the matter.
It gets better though. According to Obama, Israel’s concerns about Iranian nuclear capabilities is just “noise.” In Obama’s world Benjamin Netanyahu is the annoying ankle biter across the street who won’t stop yapping. Like an ankle biter or similarly annoying barking dog, Obama has tuned Netanyahu out. We sort of knew that already since Obama is refusing to meet with the Israeli PM this week. For a nation that’s supposedly a close ally, Obama sure seems willing to ignore their concerns. Israel’s concerns aren’t exactly unfounded. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on record wanting to wipe Israel off the map. When Israel objects, that’s just noise to Obama.
Interestingly Obama isn’t the only one to use the term noise when it comes to Israel. Ahmadinejad used the same term ‘noise’ in an article published yesterday by the Washington Post. It doesn’t appear as though Obama and Ahmadinejad are copying one another. Obama gave his 60 Minutes interview a few days ago but it wasn’t released until last night. The Ahmadinejad article appeared Sunday morning. Still, it’s interesting that both Obama and Ahmadinejad use the same terminology when it comes to Israel. Obama really believes that Israel is just making noise. Ahmadinejad knows Obama doesn’t like Netanyahu and is probably taunting both the US and Israel.
Obama must think he has this election in the bag. He’s clearly not interested in whether he offends Jewish voters. Maybe he already has their money and doesn’t care anymore. Or perhaps he realizes that most Jewish voters live in New York and California which will be blue states whether Jews vote Obama or not. Evangelical voters, who foolishly believe modern Israel is some sort of reincarnation of Biblical Israel and thus support Israel without question, aren’t of much interest to Obama either. Odds are most evangelicals weren’t going to vote for Obama. So perhaps Obama doesn’t think there is any political risk in downplaying Israel’s importance and dismissing their concerns.
The problem though is that Obama seems to be looking at this from a purely political standpoint. There is more to foreign policy than Obama’s re-election. By dismissing our longtime ally, we’re sending two messages to the middle east. First, being our ally doesn’t have any perks because the President will dismiss you without cause at his whim. Second, we’re signaling to nations in the middle east who want to see Israel destroyed that we won’t do much to help them if they are attacked.
The consequences of both these messages are troubling. Why would any nation in the middle east want to be an American ally when we dismiss our longtime friends so quickly and without cause? For those nations who want to destroy Israel, they must be licking their chops. Even if Obama helps defend Israel, it’s likely to be a half hearted effort. He clearly cannot stand the Israelis. He’s basically giving countries like Iran permission to attack. After all, our President isn’t much concerned about those Jews yapping in the back ground.
Israel should not be supported without question and at all cost. But when they are threatened with nuclear annihilation by a country that we know is trying to obtain nuclear weapons, it might be wise of us to listen to Israel’s concerns. If we allow our only long time, largely unquestioned ally in the middle east to be destroyed then we will have no influence in that region whatsoever. Nations in the middle east would view the destruction of Israel as the destruction of the United States. They wouldn’t listen to us anymore, much less care to be allies with us. Obama doesn’t seem concerned about any of this but voters should be.
About Steven
If Obama really wants to start a war in the Middle East, then I suggest he continue on his current path. If Iran is allowed to build a nuclear weapon, and then subsequently threatens Israel, there will be war in the region. If there is one thing I know about Israel, it is that they will not allow themselves to be the victims they once were. They are very conscious about their security, and if they feel threatened, they will not hesitate to take the appropriate military action. They will defend themselves and will not hesitate to do so, with or without American support.
I can’t disagree here. The really concerning thing is that our troops are spread thin in Afghanistan and Iraq. Without the strong American presence we once had in Iraq, Iran could easily overrun that country. That could, along with an attack on Israel, set off a region wide war. Unfortunately we’re likely to be stuck with Obama for four more years. If I’m Iran, I’d take full advantage of it.