See introduction, Obama policy, the second term: “”Second-Term Obama Agenda: Part 1: – Why U.S. Policy Betrayed the Moderates”
By Barry Rubin
These are the new (hopefully temporary):
White House’s Seven Pillars of Idiocy in the Middle East:
{NAMED AFTER LAWRENCE OF ARABIA’S VERSION)
First pillar: Other than aid and official government rhetoric, the United States is now neutral on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and, to put it more accurately, tilting toward the Palestinian side.
This does not mean disaster for Israel–and no Israeli official will say so in public–but it is a strategic reality.
Part of the dynamic motivating this U.S. policy is that:
–The White House believes it can win over “moderate Islamists” in power, as in Egypt, Sudan, Turkey, Tunisia, Bahrain, Iran, and Syria, among other countries. This would form a pro-U.S. bloc against al-Qaida and, secondarily, the Iran-Syria bloc. Only al-Qaida cannot be won over; but the White House believes that even the Taliban, the Tehran rulers, Hizballah, and Hamas might be convinced. (I’m not kidding and can prove it.)
–Rather than mobilize active opposition to Palestinian Authority diplomatic gains in Europe, the UN, the World Court, and international institutions, the Obama Administration is either leading exploiting, or bowing to these gains.
–This of course intensifies Western cultural surrender to anti-Israel positions. Here’s an example: The highly prestigious Foyle’s bookstore in London has closed its Israel section. If you know London, you know what an intellectual earthquake that is.
–The United States will not privately pressure or publicly criticize Palestinian Authority policies or statements, but will not hesitate to do so for Israel.
–-The Palestinian Authority is not even held responsible for its total inability to deliver half the Palestinian forces, including Hamas and the Gaza Strip. Imagine a White House not thrilled to use the Egyptian coup regime to press and suppress Hamas! Their strategy would be to make a deal: Palestinian concessions to get a state in exchange for the capture of Gaza! Who has even thought of that?!
Of course the talks will not go anywhere, because the Palestinians know that they have a strong hand and they will overplay it. But, the administration’s willingness to punish Israel to win public relations points and shore up the doomed U.S. alignment with Islamists has to be reckoned with.
The problem is by no means regarding U.S.-Israel relations alone, but it is with every Middle Eastern ally and with every potentially pro-U.S democratic opposition movement.
Second pillar: The system the White House seeks to impose on the Middle East appears to be revolutionary Islamism! If many objective Iranian, Turkish, Kurdish, Israeli, and Arab observers see this as self-evident, Islamists themselves view Western policy, however, as a sign of their own victory due to Allah’s backing plus Western fear and weakness.
Consider the bizarre situation in regard to Egypt. The last time, Egypt had to join the enemy Soviet bloc and wage war on a U.S. ally to be America’s enemy; now it can do so by joining American goals, opposing terrorism, and working closely with U.S. allies!
Third pillar: conservative traditionalists, moderates, and liberals seem to be viewed by the U .S. government as enemies, because only the Muslim Brotherhood can stop al-Qaida by out-jihading them.
Instead of applauding the army coup in Egypt the White House opposed it based on the belief that the Egyptian masses were the most reactionary advocates of dictatorship and hate Christians, Jews, Shia Muslims, women, gays, and of course Americans. That’s partly true, but doesn’t mean we should want the Muslim Brotherhood in power there.
Instead, there is no notion of realpolitik or national interests but this strange foreign policy philosophy:
–Surrender is better because it avoids international friction, especially for conflicts involving America.
— There is a ridiculous notion that sharing power with anti–American radicals will bring internal stability. If you force the army to have a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood or a predictably unstable two-state solution, you will get immunity from civil conflict.
–The idea that betraying allies will make more people want to be allies.
These are the ideas that, remarkably, many pompous statesmen, much prized experts, brilliant academics, and totally ignorant (you’d be amazed how little many know despite their job titles) really believe in.
Okay, here’s just one example. A nationally leading political advisor to the government said that there were moderate Islamists. When I asked for examples, I was given two, both dead for more than a century and one a supporter of extreme radicals. I have dozens of these examples.
The bottom line is the belief that if the Muslim Brotherhood is kept happy, it won’t cause any trouble. I’m not kidding here. Why, for example, is the Sinai Peninsula heating up with violent terrorism? Because the Islamists aren’t running it!
This has been the official propaganda line everywhere in the mass media, with only the rarest conflicting view presented, despite the fact that it is just common sense.
The New York Times published four articles in one week alone complaining that President Obama was blocked by Israel from doing the right thing–opposing condemnation of the Egyptian coup because it seemed inexplicably to oppose a genocidal regime ten times its population which supported its extermination while allied to a terrorist statelet (Gaza) on its border.
One Times story claimed:
“While Israel is careful to argue that Egypt is critical to broad Western interests in the Middle East, its motivation is largely parochial: the American aid underpins the 34-year-old peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, so its withdrawal could lead to the unraveling of the agreement. More immediately, Israel is deeply worried that Egypt’s strife could create more openings for terrorist attacks on its territory from the Sinai Peninsula.”
Wouldn’t one expect that U.S. policy backed the same thing?
Part two will cover pillars 4 to 7.
Bert Said:
“And all the congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger that sojourneth among them; for in respect of all the people it was done in error.” – Bamidbar 15:26
Open up your Yom Kippur machzor. It is chock-full of many more similar examples. We need Divine pity. We are lost, pilotless, rudderless.
It is frustrating for me to read pro Israel articles that also are oblivious to Judaism. Being pro Israel for most Jews means endless political actions in the purely secular plane. Only our Arab enemies have faith in their religion while we haggle over our rights like ignorant street merchants.
The Torah is brutally clear in Deuteronomy chapter 28. If we Jews obey the Law G-d will fight for us and repulse our enemies. If we refuse then G-d will abandon us and we will suffer dire consequences. So what do Jewish leaders do? They trash the Torah and offer to amputate the heartland of Israel and hand it to our mortal enemies. Every time our leaders betray our religion we suffer new blows including international humiliation.
We keep doing self destructive things and expect different results which is Einstein’s definition of insanity.
You can fool all of the people some of the time; some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. (An idea expressed by Abraham Lincoln)
I cannot say I understand the Obama-Clinton goals for world order. Is there something I should be reading to help me place all the lies and distortions in their proper context? Is there not an Alinsky extension course or an Alinsky 2.0 publication that illuminates the sought-for outcomes of these folks? Why do I feel that I am living in the midst of a constantly present, but ill-defined conspiracy?
One would hope that America at least would refrain from blundering in the Middle East.
If it left things well enough alone, every one would be happpy!
But every one resents American interference. If the Americans took the time to listen, they’d accomplish more there.