Bibi and Barack
By Aaron David Miller
LA Times
January 2, 2012
Barack Obama has an Israel problem. Almost three years in, the president still can't decide whether he wants to pander to the Israeli prime minister or pressure him. The approach of the 2012 elections makes the former almost mandatory; the president's reelection may make the latter possible. Buckle your seat belts. Unless Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu find a way to cooperate on a big venture that makes both of them look good, and in a way that allows each to invest in the other, the U.S.-Israel relationship may be in for a bumpy ride.
The president's view of Israel is situated in two fundamental realities. The first is structural and is linked to the way Obama sees the world; the second is more situational and is driven by his view of Netanyahu and Israeli policies. Together they have created and sustained a deep level of frustration bordering on anger.
Unlike his two predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Obama isn't in love with the idea of Israel. Intellectually he understands and supports the pro-Israeli trope — small democratic nation with dark past confronts huge existential threats — but it's really a head thing.
Clinton and Bush were enamored emotionally with Israel's story and the prime ministers who narrated it. Clinton sat at the feet of Yitzhak Rabin — the authentic leader and hero in peace and war — as a student sits in thrall of a brilliant professor (some said like a son to a father). "I had come to love him," the former president wrote in his memoirs, "as I had rarely loved another man."
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Good article.
BTW … did you read that Bibi just announced that he wants Government-provided education for children starting at age 3 ? And hopefully, your readers did not miss the changes in Israeli tax rates … after the “cottage cheese” protests of this summer, the new rates raise the taxes on higher earners, lowering taxes on middle class wage-earners … increases taxes on corporations … and raises taxes on capital gains.
Oh, and don’t forget as part of the “must pass” mega-bill that Congress approved last month (and three months after the new fiscal year started), U.S. Taxpayers will provide $236 million in fiscal 2012 for the Israeli development of three missile defense programs: “Arrow-2″, “David’s Sling”, and “Arrow-3″ medium-range interceptor (gosh, I wonder how many US Jobs will be created by this “gift” … hopefully more than what was created by the American Taxpayer-funded Iron Dome project) … and that is on top of the annual $3 billion for ten years that the American Taxpayers have already committed to under the Memorandum of Understanding. ( details on the MN Political Roundtable)
Personally, I like President Obama’s world view … although it is easy to downplay the religious component of this area, don’t you have to consider the expanding Muslim population ?
It should not be forgotten that Bibi has turned off more than one foreign leader as well as Israelis …. Comparing Obama and Reagan is interesting … Chemi Shaley writes on Haaretz.com : IF Obama Treated Israel Like Reagan Did, He’d Be Impeached … by all accounts Obama’s been a great help to Israel in many security -related areas, he’s supported Israel in countless international forums, and even if he has made some bad mistakes, in comparison to Reagan’s often roughshod treatment of Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, he’s a Zionist-loving pussycat, no?
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