Obama Has to Get Tough…With Israel?

The liberal left which includes the media has grown alarmingly anti-semitic in the past decade. Their reflexive position is almost always to fault Israel. Newsweek published an opinion piece this week that really takes the cake.
The writer begs Obama to handle the Middle East situation by getting tough with Israel – you know, the country that had rockets lobbed into it as a consequence of their intent to exist. How dare they fight back!?

Jews worry for a living; their tragic history compels them to do so. In the next few years, there will be plenty to worry about, particularly when it comes to Israel. The current operation in Gaza won’t do much to ease these worries or to address Israel’s longer-term security needs. The potential for a nuclear Iran, combined with the growing accuracy and lethality of Hamas and Hizbullah rockets, will create tremendous concern. Anxiety may also be provoked by something else: an Obama administration determined to repair America’s image and credibility and to reach a deal in the Middle East.

Don’t get me wrong. Barack Obama—as every other U.S. president before him—will protect the special relationship with Israel. But the days of America’s exclusive ties to Israel may be coming to an end. Despite efforts to sound reassuring during the campaign, the new administration will have to be tough, much tougher than either Bill Clinton or George W. Bush were, if it’s serious about Arab-Israeli peacemaking.

The departure point for a viable peace deal—either with Syria or the Palestinians—must not be based purely on what the political traffic in Israel will bear, but on the requirements of all sides. The new president seems tougher and more focused than his predecessors; he’s unlikely to become enthralled by either of Israel’s two leading candidates for prime minister—centrist Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, or Likudnik Benjamin Netanyahu….
The issue at hand is to find the right balance in America’s ties with Israel. Driven by shared values and based on America’s 60-year commitment to Israel’s security and well-being, the special relationship is rock solid. But for the past 16 years, the United States has allowed that special bond to become exclusive in ways that undermine America’s, and Israel’s, national interests.

If Obama is serious about peacemaking he’ll have to adjust that balance in two ways. First, whatever the transgressions of the Palestinians (and there are many, including terror, violence and incitement), he’ll also have to deal with Israel’s behavior on the ground. The Gaza crisis is a case in point. Israel has every reason to defend itself against Hamas. But does it make sense for America to support its policy of punishing Hamas by making life unbearable for 1.5 million Gazans by denying aid and economic development? The answer is no.

Yes. They should just send a strongly worded statement instead of killing the people who are launching rockets into their neighborhood. Is it Israel’s fault that these cowards are hiding in hospitals?

The entire premise of this is so wrongheaded. I mean, what negotiating tactic do you use when the stated objective of Hamas is to drive all the Jews into the sea? OK. How about if we allow them rubber rafts?

I wonder why Newsweek would even publish this tripe. It’s lunacy on the one hand but it’s not even interesting lunacy. I’ve heard the same exact sentiments at least twice a week on MSNBC that violence in Gaza is a failure in diplomacy for America. But guess what? It’s not our fault all the time. To these guys, if a tree falls in the forest, it’s George Bush’s fault. Every time these animals blow up a bus in Israel I see the same parade of talking heads spouting that this is somehow America’s fault because we’re too much on the side of Israel. Look, Israel has a right to defend itself and we are right in acknowledging their right to exist.