Nadene Goldfoot
Adopted from Leslie Susser's article
In this official White House photograph, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden walk to the motorcade on the South Lawn of the White House for departure en route to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, for a St. Patrick’s Day lunch, March 17, 2015..Looking back 6 years ago, when Obama was the Democrat's President from January 20, 2009 with Joseph Biden as Vice President to his 2nd term ending in January 2017 with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State which brings trepidation to many of us Israel supporters, Israel was thought to be on a collision course with the USA over the Palestinians. The US wasn't shy with some well-orchestrated unprecedentedly blunt public statements of warning Israel of the consequences of a policy they thought was leading to a single Israeli-Palestinian state under their control. They thought Israel would not be able to be both Jewish and Democratic and that it would be internationally reviled. They were sure the US would be powerless to do much about that.
Warning of Iran's potential capabilities with uranium and mindset.
Benjamin Netanyahu was the Prime Minister of Israel in those days from March 31, 2009 from the Likud Party. He had also been the Prime Minister previously from 1996 to 1999 and is a true Sabra-born in Israel. He's the longest serving PM Israel has ever had. He's also bilingual in English and Hebrew, a brilliant speaker in both languages topping even Obama in my opinion. No one in Israel is a couch potato when it comes to voting. All people serve in the IDF, all realizing the dangers citizens are in. Israel also has a very high rate of literacy, so there are no fools, but there are many on the left as there are on the right. When it comes to their prime minister, they usually have voted for the person who is most likely to keep them all alive.
The USA in the bleakest of terms were sure that it would mean that a one-state reality dominated by Israel would leave the Palestinians in trouble. They painted a picture of endemic violence and severe economic costs for both the Palestinian underclass who in their opinion, would be without equal rights that were struggling to be free and for Israel. Obama's government feared the imminent collapse of the Palestinian authority, called the PA in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and leave Israel facing a huge security and economic burden. The USA were Israel's pained counsel of deeply concerned friends using harsh pejorative terms.
This caused Israel to ask themselves for how long and to what extent would America remain supportive if the government persisted with its current policies and under what circumstances would American support for Israel start to crack?
There was the military aid to consider of $40 to $50 billion in a package for a 10 year period of 2017 to 2027 that needed to be signed by President Barack Obama before he left office. Now Washington held this new more critical tone suggesting diplomatic fissures which could quickly widen leaving Israel exposed to inimical international diplomatic and economic initiatives.
As it turned out, Obama did not sign the UN position of support of Israel on his last day in office, something unlike the USA to do. John Bolton wrote on Dec. 26th: "Last Friday, on the eve of Hanukkah and Christmas, Barack Obama stabbed Israel in the front. The departing president refused to veto United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334—a measure ostensibly about Israeli settlement policy, but clearly intended to tip the peace process toward the Palestinians. Its adoption wasn’t pretty. But, sadly, it was predictable. This was done by Samantha Powers. "He had showed much contention with Netanyahu, even having Netanyahu to enter the White House by the back door when in town on meetings one time with his team.
The turning point had been with US Secretary of State's John Kerry. He had made a late November visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah with the aim to put a damper on Palestinian violence and to rebuild trust between the parties. His plan was to have Netanyahu make economic concessions to the Palestinians. He expected Abbas to take action to end his Palestinian incitement and terror against Israel in return for this. Kerry expected this to lead to conditions for re-engagement on a 2-state solution.
Netanyahu had suggested economic moves to help the Palestinians in a meeting with Obama in early November in Washington. Abbas refused to go along with Kerry's plan. 20 months later, Kerry left the region deeply dismayed and decided to ratchet up the warning rhetoric. One week later, Kerry was at the 2015 Saban Forum sponsored by the Brookings Institution in Washington and told the gathering that he found Abbas so despondent and that he felt hopelessness because of the failure to deliver on the peace process and that the PA was in serious danger of collapse.
Mahmoud Abbas, also known by the kunya Abu Mazen, is the president of the State of Palestine and Palestinian National Authority. He has been the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization since 11 November 2004, and Palestinian president since 15 January 2005. It's now January 2021-president for the past 16 years and 85 years old. Like the old sayings, He's in like Flynn. Not to worry.
Kerry said this would cause horrible consequences for Israel, leaving the door open to ISIS (Daesh) and jihad and Hamas who could all take over. He also spoke of the 30,000 Palestinian security forces who maintained order and would no longer be around. He said that then the IDF could be forced to deploy 10s of thousands of soldiers to Judea and Samaria and how bad this would be for the soldier's children and grandchildren He then spoke of the financial costs to Israel and how much they needed the PA. Israel would be forced to pay for basic services. (Israel had been paying for their electricity for years without any compensation). They would have to maintain their schools, hospitals, law and order that covers a billion dollars a year in assistance and another billion in development-related assistance for Judea-Samaria?
Kerry painted a picture alluding to the apartheid word. Kerry followed up his devastating critique in the December issue of THE NEW YORKER. What he was doing was showing Israel a shift in official American thinking on Israel.
Obama then delivered a similar message in a lower key. He told Israel's President Rivlin that it difficult for him to block international peace efforts Israel had opposed. Where the US had traditionally shielded Israel, there were now holes in the plans. Preceding Obama had been George Walker Bush, a Republican president. Peace plans were now being worked on by France and New Zealand for submission to the UN Security Council that might escape a US veto-unless Israel played along with the US.
Samantha Powers abstaining-a move against Israel. Samantha Powers was Washington's UN ambassador who also joined Kerry in his tough talk to Israel. She argued that continued settlement raised questions about Israel's long-term objectives and excoriated both Israeli and Palestinian leaderships for lack of commitment from either side to bring about peace. She wanted a 2 state solution NOW.
The worry was that Democrat Hillary Clinton would be no different if elected. She wasn't different at all. Her statement warned that if the PA collapsed, the alternative could be the black flag of ISIS. Then she praised Abbas for his stalwart commitment to security cooperation with Israel and insisted that he was the best option around. She was ready to take the US-Israel relationship to the next level-whatever that meant.
What she seemed to be doing was saying that she expected a different Israeli government to agree with her and would get rewarded for doing so.
Somehow, Israel has managed to do very well with Trump's Republican attitude, in fact much better. The Abrahamic Initiative has brought in 4 countries that have made peace with Israel with Jared Kushner's advice without threats to Israel. ISIS seems to be contained or stopped and is not the worry; Iran is. Iran continues to threaten Israel with their possible atomic warheads in missiles that could reach both the USA and Israel who is so much closer. Yet the USA never did see the danger with them. Kerry thought the plan was great. The fear now is that Biden will again sign on and trust Iran.
Who knows what is best for both Israel and the Palestinians? One has to understand the motivation and differences in both peoples. No one knows better than Israel does. No one knows what has been going on daily to the Israelis caused by the Palestinians than he does.
Israel's original plan was to live in peace with the Arabs but have been stymied by their attitudes and actions for the past over 73 years, but hope looks like it's on the horizon through the Abrahamic Accords and this change towards Israel. it took some time to build up hatred towards Israel where people were conditioned from birth to do so, and now it's taking time to change. Have White Americans changed their feelings towards Blacks since the Civil War yet? That happened over 157 years ago and Blacks feel forced to remind Whites that Black lives matter. A lot of conditioning has to change. Religious differences have always brought out more violence against Jews from Christians and Muslims than racial differences in the USA, except maybe the Watts riots in California.
John Bolton had continued to write that the White House has abandoned any pretense that the actual parties to the conflict must resolve their differences. Instead, the president has essentially endorsed the Palestinian politico-legal narrative about territory formerly under League of Nations’ mandate, but not already under Israeli control after the 1948-49 war of independence. In other words, he's gone along with the Palestinian narrative!
When I think of all the moves Israel has taken to make peace with the Palestinians, it makes my head throb. The Palestinians have had one goal-to put an end to Israel and take it over for themselves. The reason they have succeeded as much as they have is because they've had the backing of all the Muslim countries surrounding Israel. But this is changing. The Palestinians themselves are tired of such a game. Israel does not one a one state solution with millions of Arab citizens, either. It's a Jewish state, the only one in the world. There are at least 48 Muslim majority states already in the world as it is.
Europe has kicked Jews around throughout history and didn't help all that much during the Holocaust when 6 million Jews were slaughtered and too many Europeans were only too willing to aid and abet the Nazis in doing the evil deed. They've been only too eager to attack and blame Jews. it's time they listened to what Israel has to say about a problem only Israel is suffering under and has been since before 1948. They haven't been successful in keeping Jews safe in their countries. Look at France and Sweden!
Leslie Susser of Hebrew University in Jerusalem Leslie Susser who also wrote for Jewish Telegraph Agency in 2011, educated at Hebrew University and Oxford in England. Resource: The Jerusalem Report of January 11, 2016-ON A COLLISION COURSE by Leslie Susser :
SUSSER-Leslie. 67, on December 11, 2004. Beloved father of Elizabeth, Andrew, Robert and Philip. He is also survived by nine grandchildren and devoted friend Robin Schiff. Services Monday, December 13, 11:45 am, at ``The Riverside,'' 76 Street and Amsterdam Avenue. In lieu of flowers please send donations to the American Brain Tumor Association, 2720 River Road, Des Plaines, IL 60018; 800-886-2282. Since this person died before the article was written, he may be his father or uncle.
https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/on-a-collision-course-438338
https://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-parting-betrayal-of-israel-1482795616
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu
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