by Isi Leibler
Check out my latest interview on FOX TV with Greta Van Susteren on the topic of President Obama's abandonment of Israel
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The US is Israel’s most important ally. It has provided us with
arms and only last week Congress granted us additional funds to further
develop the Iron Dome. It has also used its political clout to deflect
hostile resolutions and sanctions at the international level.
But we should be under no
illusions. The US- Israel relationship is under great strain.
Notwithstanding cryptic statements by both the Israeli and US
governments denying the veracity of extracts of a toxic telephone
conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President
Barak Obama, Israeli TV Channel One’s highly respected Foreign News
Editor, Oren Nahari, adamantly stands by his story, stressing that his
source was a reliable senior US official and not the PM’s department.
The president is alleged to have
harshly demanded that Netanyahu accept an immediate unilateral
cease-fire and informed him that the US was committed to ending the
blockade of Gaza. Netanyahu pointed out that the U.S. Administration was
undermining the cease-fire by substituting Egyptian mediation with
Qatar and Turkey, reminding Obama that the Moslem Brotherhood-aligned
Qatar finances and provides arms to Hamas and other terrorist groups
including ISIS. He could have also pointed out that Turkey’s demagogic
Prime Minister has been stoking hysterical anti-Israeli sentiment and
vile anti-Semitism, even demanding that his own Jewish community condemn
Israel.
President Obama allegedly
responded by telling Netanyahu that he was not in a position to advise
America who should act as mediators. Lending credence to this exchange
was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who, a few days later, told CNN
that the US must cooperate with the Qataris “who have told me over and
over again that Hamas is a humanitarian organization”. It is
mind-boggling that a Democratic congressional leader can describe as
“humanitarian”, a genocidal organization with similar objectives to Al
Qaeda, whose charter explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel and
the murder of Jews.
There were also tense exchanges
between the PM’s Department and Secretary of State John Kerry, now
notorious for his inappropriate comments and contradictory statements.
There have been efforts by both
parties to calm the waters. US officials have reiterated their
commitment to Israel and re-endorsed Israel’s right to defend itself.
President Obama has now, belatedly, followed the lead of the Europeans
and includes the demilitarization of Gaza as an issue to be negotiated
in conjunction with the lifting of the blockade after cessation of
hostilities.
But there is no disputing that President Obama has consciously
or otherwise shielded Hamas. This is not a conflict in which the US
should act as a mediator or even hint at moral equivalency. This
conflict was thrust upon us by a terrorist group promoting a culture of
death and martyrdom reflected in the oft quoted Hamas slogan: “Jews wish
for life and we wish for a martyr’s death”. We are not confronting an
entity seeking independence. It is a conflict between good and evil.
We would have expected our ally
to allocate the blame for the casualties to the death merchants of Hamas
who target Israeli civilians and propagate casualties amongst their own
people who they employ as human shields and then gleefully present to
the world as victims of Israeli tyranny.
Instead, President Obama has led
the pack in hypocritically supporting our right to defend ourselves
whilst blaming us for disproportionate response when we retaliate
against the source of the rocket fire whose command posts and missile
launching sites are deliberately embedded in UN buildings, schools,
hospitals and mosques. The gory scenes of Palestinian casualties
highlighted by the global media should have been presented in the
context of Hamas responsibility for deliberately orchestrating this
nightmare. Instead President Obama’s behavior has merely encouraged
Hamas to continue their barbaric strategy in the belief that the US will
rescue them from the jaws of defeat and reward them for their
commitment to terrorism.
In this context, the clearly
synchronized outbursts from the White House, State Department and even
the Pentagon, just prior to the announcement of the stillborn 72 hour
cease-fire, condemning Israel for civilian casualties, including the
shelling of a UNRWA School in Gaza as “indefensible” and “totally
unacceptable”, was clearly designed to garner the support of Qatar and
Turkey.
The US is aware of the
extraordinary lengths, unmatched in any military conflict, which Israel
employs to minimize civilian casualties. But innocent civilians die in a
war– and obviously more so in a situation in which women and children
are employed as human shields and who are deliberately housed in
locations together with missiles launchers and command posts. When under
fire from terrorists - even if they operate out of schools - Israeli
soldiers must return fire or be killed. Beyond that, accidents are
inevitable. Just recall the thousands of innocent French civilians who
were killed by the allies during the invasion in 1944.
To appreciate the double
standards and hypocrisy employed against us, the US should take note of
the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians killed by allied forces
in the course of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the carnage in
Serbia incurred by NATO’s indiscriminate bombing of civilians in
Belgrade to force Milosevic to step down.
The tragic casualties among
Palestinian innocents sadden us all. But it is revolting when the US
President expresses more outrage over the deaths of 1500 Palestinians, a
large proportion of whom are bloody terrorists, than the butchered
180,000 Syrians in the ongoing civil war.
It is utterly unacceptable to
condemn a long standing ally. How can the US justify their focus on the
loss of innocent lives without regard to the context and avoid directing
the blame to Hamas who exult in both killing Israelis and the killing
of their own people whose suffering they openly exploit to discredit
Israel and divert attention from their terrorist activities? It brings
to mind Golda Meir’s oft quoted quip that peace will only be achieved
when our adversaries love their children more than they hate us.
Israel must stand firm. The
public shock over the discovery of the myriad of terror tunnels and the
extent of the missile range capability - which now covers the entire
country - has united the people in a manner reminiscent of the Six Day
War. Close to 90% are adamant that Israel must not stop until Gaza is
demilitarized or Hamas completely smashed, despite the terrible toll in
casualties. Even the dovish Labor Party opposition is demanding this of
Netanyahu.
Although it is not reflected in
the extraordinary tsunami of global anti-Semitism and the double
standards formally adopted by Western countries, there is a clear
consensus that this war was imposed on us and there is a greater
appreciation of the terrorist nature of Hamas and its contempt for human
life.
There is also the radical
reversal in the approach of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Palestinian
Authority and most of the Arab League who endorsed the Egyptian
ceasefire proposal and whose fear and loathing of the Islamic
fundamentalist extremists far exceeds their traditional hatred of
Israel. The Egyptians and other moderate Arab states maintain that since
his initial Cairo speech in 2009, President Obama has emerged as a
supporter of the Moslem Brotherhood - the creator of Hamas - and which
they regard, justifiably, as an Islamic fundamentalist terror
organization.
They consider the undermining of
the Egyptian ceasefire proposals and turning towards Qatar and Turkey –
supporters of the Moslem Brotherhood and Hamas - as another example of
the US betraying its allies and engaging with its enemies. This was
reflected in Kerry’s initial Qatar/Turkey sponsored ceasefire proposal,
unanimously rejected by the Israeli Cabinet, which could have been
written by Hamas.
As of now, Israel has largely
achieved its principal objectives of destroying the tunnels and
substantially neutralizing the missile capability. But Hamas remains
intact and unless demilitarization is imposed we face inveterate
Jihadists who will not relent from their openly expressed objective of
destroying us or at least eroding our morale by ongoing terror attacks.
The prime responsibility of any
government is to protect its citizens. This is a time for Israel to
stand firm and take whatever steps are necessary to defang Hamas and
demilitarize Gaza. The responsibility for the fallout on innocent
Palestinians rests exclusively on Hamas.
The brazen Hamas breach of the
72-hour ceasefire has led to a temporary global backlash against Hamas.
Having neutralized those tunnels which the IDF was able to detect, the
ground forces are being redeployed. However PM Netanyahu has made it
clear that the operation is not over.
The cabinet must speedily decide
on one of two options. It can expand the ground campaign and conquer
Gaza, which the majority of the nation would probably initially endorse
but which would likely entail massive casualties and provoke concerted
international pressure that would probably force us to withdraw
unilaterally or face sanctions. It would appear that without ruling out
this option, Prime Minister Netanyahu - at least in the short-term -
intends to continue degrading the rocket launchers and attacking Hamas
from the air, thereby limiting Israeli casualties and providing greater
leverage to achieve demilitarization.
The outcome rests largely with
the US. If it rewards Hamas for its aggression by seeking to “lift the
blockade” or provide them with funds without demilitarization, it will
be betraying us. The US will thus have destroyed whatever little global
credibility they retain and will be seen as abandoning its long standing
ally and groveling to those who support fanatical Islamic terrorism.
Will the US support Israel’s
just cause against genocidal terrorism or act as a shield to protect the
barbarians at our gates, effectively paving the way for a far more
brutal war in the near future?
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom
Isi Leibler’s website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com. He may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com.
Source: http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=5183
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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