by Boaz Bismuth
ANALYSIS: From turning Iran into a regional power, to coining the surreal term "leading from behind" and letting the Palestinians believe they have claim over the Western Wall, the 44th president bids an unapologetic adieu to Israel in final interview.
U.S. President Barack Obama
spoke to Channel 2's Ilana Dayan this week
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Photo credit: Screenshot / Channel 2  |
"If we had not expressed an aspiration for
[peace], then all of human progress would evaporate, we'd be in the
Stone Age, we would be in the era of Genghis Khan, we would rape and
pillage and conquer," U.S. President Barack Obama told Channel 2's Ilana
Dayan this week in an interview that will be aired in full Monday
evening. The outgoing president laid out his worldview and beliefs,
perhaps excusing in the process his betrayal of America's friends,
including Israel, for that noble thing called peace.
Obama appears in the interview as the exact
same idealistic candidate from 2008, when he descended upon us from
above. The American people did not choose a 44th president at the time,
rather a messiah who came to save the world from itself. This, at least,
is what his disciples would have you believe. Since then, however, the
balloon has burst, and we can be thankful to receive this final
interview. Dayan allowed Obama to imagine what Obama could have been.
Had he just succeeded, which is but a minor detail to his followers. The
reality collided with the dream.
The outgoing president wanted to remind us
that he is still in office until January 20. Why make threats? In the
Middle East, on the walls of the houses still left standing, it is hard
to find room for more graffiti, to contain the desperation, as the hours
to the end of his presidency are counted down.
Obama, like many before and after him, knows
how to talk about peace. He received a Nobel Peace Prize for those
words. He should have received a Nobel Prize for literature, instead.
Dayan asked Obama to tell us about the meeting
between himself, level-headed and reflective, and the incoming
president, the extroverted billionaire. She doesn't like Trump. Obama
described the meeting with Trump as cordial and recalled explaining to
him the duty of the United States to preserve the world order. Seeing as
how Obama is a responsible president and Trump is a nutty reality TV
show host (as was implied by the answer), we should get the bomb
shelters ready. It's too bad no one told the poor Syrians ahead of time.
The truth is, in light of the mess this responsible president is
leaving behind, Trump needs to report for duty with a giant broom.
We have discussed the Obama-Netanyahu
relationship ad nauseam these past eight years. Every stink and
disagreement, every controversy and feud, were immediately linked to
their relationship. Obama in the role of messiah and Netanyahu is the
role of the devil, of course. After eight years, we understand just how
difficult it is for Obama to read the world. He is convinced he
contributed to peace by not casting a veto against U.N. Security Council
Resolution 2334, mere weeks before his departure from the White House.
He was asked if he has no issue with lumping "a few caravans near
Ramallah" in with the Old City of Jerusalem, and he answered that he
recognizes the distinction. Who does this recognition help exactly?
Much like Security Council Resolution 242,
which was passed following the Six-Day War in 1967, requiring an Israeli
withdrawal from "territories" or "the territories" -- Obama's
abstention turned 2334 into a combustible element with the potential to
perpetuate divisiveness and armed conflict. It certainly doesn't have
the potential to advance Obama's imaginary peace.
Obama promised us a different world. The
aspiration for peace, he said Tuesday, helps us ward off the next
Genghis Khan. Regarding military might and strategy, Syrian President
Bashar Assad is very far from resembling the Mongolian dictator; but
when it comes to murder, rape and pillaging, he seems to be just as
adept. At least we aspire to peace.
The world will remember Obama as one of the
worst presidents in history; as a president with many good intentions
that led to more than a few terrible consequences. He will be remembered
as the president who legitimized the Iranian revolution (another result
of the perilous nuclear deal) carried out by its Islamofascist regime,
instead of helping the Iranian people during the Green Movement uprising
in 2009, and who helped turn Iran into a regional power by putting his
signature on that deal. He will be remembered as the president who
coined the surreal term "leading from behind" during the war in Libya,
and as the president who made the Palestinians believe that their desire
for control, even over the Western Wall, has a strong leg to stand on.
The interview's bright spot was Obama's expression of
broad American support for Israel. In his words, it doesn't matter what
Israel decides regarding the settlement enterprise and other diplomatic
issues -- the Americans, Democrats and Republicans, will always support
Israel. It's good food for thought for those who promised us, morning
and night, that we lost America. Obama is convinced he was our friend,
just as he's sure his Cairo speech shouldn't be changed, despite
reality's response to it with blood and fire. Sic transit gloria mundi,
the ancient ones would say. Thus passes the glory of the world.
Boaz Bismuth
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=39489
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