In response to "A Pro-Obama Editorial" appearing in the Florida Jewish Journal, posted March 11, 2012, as well as posted in the New Jersey Jewish Standard, I have submitted my comments to those publications in the hope that my comments will be printed so others can see a clear distinction. My commentary is titled "Is Obama A Friend of Israel?"
IS OBAMA A FRIEND OF ISRAEL?
Arnold Karmatz
It is very interesting that the left is desperately trying to resurrect Obama as a pro Israel president and the only argument is blaming the American people for forgetting all the things he has done to put Israel in the most dangerous position in its history. The truth is that prior US Administrations NEVER put Israel's very existence in jeopardy. The same strategy, is always used by the left, e.g. the US deserved 9/11 because we supported Israel. These sentiments were expressed by Obama's mentor Rev. Wright and Van Jones his Green Jobs Czar who is an avowed communist who was forced to leave the administration because of his views.
Obama's antipathy toward Israel is real and pervasive and dangerous.
An important glimpse of an unguarded moment between Sarkozy of France and Obama is very revealing. Sarkozy, at a World Conference in Europe, in referring to Netanyahu as the mic was open, said "I can't stand to see him anymore, he's a liar". Obama with a chance to defend Netanyahu rather whined and said "You're fed up with him, I have to deal with him everyday".
Last year Netanyahu visited the White House during AIPAC. While on the way to the US, and still on a plane where he could not respond, Obama issued a statement saying that Israel should negotiate with the Palestinians starting with the 1967 Armistice Lines. It has always been the US and Israel's position that these lines would be indefensible for Israel and therefore a non starter. If Obama was a friend he would not have ambushed Netanyahu and Israel like that.
The next day Netanyahu then met with Obama at the White House. They had a short, tense meeting and then Netanyahu was left sitting in the White House for hours while Obama ate upstairs with his family. The Israeli delegation was eventually given sandwiches which were non-kosher so most of the Israeli delegations could not eat. Is this how a friend is treated?
The following day they held a joint news conference where Netanyahu took Obama to school about Israel's history and the "1967 Armistice Lines" which by the way were NEVER formal borders. Natanyahu is no fool nor would he flagrantly embarrass Obama if he did not get the feeling in their private talks that Obama was going to push Israel into an untenable and dangerous situation. Netanyahu realized that Obama's statement about the 1967 lines would be quickly picked up by the Palestinians and incorporated in their demands in peace negotiations. Sure enough it took days for this to happen.
This year at the recent AIPAC conference Obama expressed his undying support and bond with Israel and proclaimed that the US has "Israel's back" and would never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. This was in contrast to the prior 3 years where Obama made repeated overtures to negotiate with Iran only to be slapped down each time. Obama never worried about what the delay in destroying Iran's nuclear program would do to Israel. Again, when the people of Iran were demonstrating against the government because of fraudulent elections and were trying to overthrow it, Obama provided no help or support to the opposition. In contrast, he was quick to provide support to the Muslim Brotherhood when they were taking over the government of Egypt.
Obama, since he has been in office, did everything he could to stop Israel from implementing and executing plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, never mindful that Israel's time frame is more immediate than the US. Again, rather than a joint announcement Netanyahu felt it necessary to state that Israel's security would not be in the hands or whims of any country other than Israel. Why would Netanyahu go out of his way to firmly state, that if necessary, Israel would go it alone without the permission of the US? Could it be that again in their private conversations Netanyahu got the feeling that he couldn't trust Obama as a true friend even with the public statements of support and solidarity. The very next day the Europeans and the US announce they are starting new talks with Iran about its nuclear program. What this statement did was to put Israel in the position of not being able to attack Iran's nuclear facilities because the world would say, 'Look Israel did not really want peace they attacked while these talks were going on'. The worst thing for Israel was the talks had no time limit. That meant that, like the prior six years of non productive talks could go on forever. I'm guessing here but it appears to be quite evident that Netanyahu knew of these talks and was stating his claim that no matter what the US or Europe does Israel would take care of its own business and would not be boxed in by this transparent attempt at delay.
One of the big problems with Israel's delay in taking out Iran's nuclear program was it gave Iran time to go underground and hide its research facilities. Israel has been requesting from the US bunker bursting bombs. The US had been delaying the delivery of these bombs for years, in effect, stopping Israel. Even worse, as the Obama reelection comes closer, and needs Jewish votes, the US relented and agreed to ship Israel some of these bombs. Lo and behold, because of the delays and allowing Iran to reinforce its facilities the US bunker busters were not powerful enough.
This week Israel just announced that they have developed their own buster bunker bombs which are lethal enough to do the job. Again, if Israel thought they had an honest partner and ally why would they have to embark on their own research program.
Israel had a 3 decade peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan. Israel got their natural gas from Egypt uninterrupted for 30 years but after Mubarak was overthrown the gas pipeline has been bombed 6 or 7 times and supply has been stopped costing Israel hundred of millions of dollars. Egypt had a strong military, backed by the US, which controlled the Sinai and didn't allow arms to be smuggled into Gaza. Obama in his infinite wisdom supported what we now call the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring turned out to be a cold shower for Israel.
Mubarak was over thrown in Eqypt with American help. He had been an ally of the US for over 30 years, not a nice guy but there was peace. The Egyptian government is now controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood who recently declared that "Israel is the top enemy of Eqypt and all peace treaties between the two countries would be nullified. What did Obama do when he heard this, he reinstated military aid to Egypt. What??? Not only did this turn a tenuous and non aggressive neighbor into an Israeli enemy but the US is going to continue military aid. This is after they held American employees of the NGO's in Egypt for ransom which we paid. One of the people held was the son of an American cabinet member. How little respect this new Egyptian government has for the US.
The Sinai which under Mumbarak's leadership was secure, is not any longer. The current Egyptian government cannot or does not want to control the arms being smuggled into Gaza. The recent missile attacks on southern Israel is a direct result of these more sophisticated weapons being smuggled in from Iran, Hezbullah and Libya ( another government controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood).
Israel is in a difficult position since the the Sinai is part of Egypt. If they try and attack the terrorists in Sinai to stop the weapons being transferred to Gaza, Israel risks a war with Egypt. They don't need that at this time. Israel is now surrounded on all sides by countries looking to destroy it. Iran, Lebanon (Hezbullah), Gaza (Hamas), Egypt (Muslim Brotherhood) and Syria. Thanks to Obama.
Another major threat to Israel, again supported by Obama is Turkey. Recep Tayyyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, based on his latest threats belies a deep hatred for the Jewish state. Remember before Erdogan, Turkey had a very close association with Israel. When Turkey and Erdogan supported the aid ship to Gaza to break the Israeli embargo in Gaza, which was supported by the UN, the Israeli commandos asked the ship to stop and be searched to make sure there were no weapons. When the ship refused and the commandos boarded the ship, terrorists were waiting for them and injured some of the Israelis with weapons and pipes. Naturally, the Israelis responded and killed some of the terrorists. This whole exercise was for publicity and international propaganda. Erdogan was trying to set himself up as the leader of the Muslims in the Middle East. If you want approval in the Middle East attack the Jews. Erdogan complained to the UN about how these poor jihadists were killed but was rebuffed. He never got the condemnation he wanted. He was furious and this started him on anti Israel policy.
Israel has found large natural gas deposits right off Cypress and together with Cypress will develop this field. This will make Israel an exporter of energy. Turkey is trying to hinder Israel's efforts to extract this natural gas by sending war ships into the area forcing Israel to send its own warships. This could be a real potential hot spot. Turkey is also the country that NATO is using to put up a radar missile defense system to watch Iran and Syria potentially launching missiles. Israel was to be a recipient of the information from this system but Turkey refused to allow Israel to get any of the information. This early warning system would be a vital tool for the safety of Israel. You would think the US would stop this exclusion of Israel but NO we are acquiescing to Turkey's demands. To top this all off Obama calls Erdogan his most trusted friend in the Middle East.
All I can say that declaring Obama is not a friend of Israel minimizes Obama's actions and deeds. He is as much a threat as any of the other countries on earth to the Jewish people.
I could go on and on because there is so much Obama has done to instigate this situation.
Change of leadership will help....Leadership can ruin a country for which it stands. Wake up America! Wake up people!
___________________________________________________________________________________________
IS OBAMA A FRIEND OF ISRAEL?
Arnold Karmatz
It is very interesting that the left is desperately trying to resurrect Obama as a pro Israel president and the only argument is blaming the American people for forgetting all the things he has done to put Israel in the most dangerous position in its history. The truth is that prior US Administrations NEVER put Israel's very existence in jeopardy. The same strategy, is always used by the left, e.g. the US deserved 9/11 because we supported Israel. These sentiments were expressed by Obama's mentor Rev. Wright and Van Jones his Green Jobs Czar who is an avowed communist who was forced to leave the administration because of his views.
Obama's antipathy toward Israel is real and pervasive and dangerous.
An important glimpse of an unguarded moment between Sarkozy of France and Obama is very revealing. Sarkozy, at a World Conference in Europe, in referring to Netanyahu as the mic was open, said "I can't stand to see him anymore, he's a liar". Obama with a chance to defend Netanyahu rather whined and said "You're fed up with him, I have to deal with him everyday".
Last year Netanyahu visited the White House during AIPAC. While on the way to the US, and still on a plane where he could not respond, Obama issued a statement saying that Israel should negotiate with the Palestinians starting with the 1967 Armistice Lines. It has always been the US and Israel's position that these lines would be indefensible for Israel and therefore a non starter. If Obama was a friend he would not have ambushed Netanyahu and Israel like that.
The next day Netanyahu then met with Obama at the White House. They had a short, tense meeting and then Netanyahu was left sitting in the White House for hours while Obama ate upstairs with his family. The Israeli delegation was eventually given sandwiches which were non-kosher so most of the Israeli delegations could not eat. Is this how a friend is treated?
The following day they held a joint news conference where Netanyahu took Obama to school about Israel's history and the "1967 Armistice Lines" which by the way were NEVER formal borders. Natanyahu is no fool nor would he flagrantly embarrass Obama if he did not get the feeling in their private talks that Obama was going to push Israel into an untenable and dangerous situation. Netanyahu realized that Obama's statement about the 1967 lines would be quickly picked up by the Palestinians and incorporated in their demands in peace negotiations. Sure enough it took days for this to happen.
This year at the recent AIPAC conference Obama expressed his undying support and bond with Israel and proclaimed that the US has "Israel's back" and would never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. This was in contrast to the prior 3 years where Obama made repeated overtures to negotiate with Iran only to be slapped down each time. Obama never worried about what the delay in destroying Iran's nuclear program would do to Israel. Again, when the people of Iran were demonstrating against the government because of fraudulent elections and were trying to overthrow it, Obama provided no help or support to the opposition. In contrast, he was quick to provide support to the Muslim Brotherhood when they were taking over the government of Egypt.
Obama, since he has been in office, did everything he could to stop Israel from implementing and executing plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, never mindful that Israel's time frame is more immediate than the US. Again, rather than a joint announcement Netanyahu felt it necessary to state that Israel's security would not be in the hands or whims of any country other than Israel. Why would Netanyahu go out of his way to firmly state, that if necessary, Israel would go it alone without the permission of the US? Could it be that again in their private conversations Netanyahu got the feeling that he couldn't trust Obama as a true friend even with the public statements of support and solidarity. The very next day the Europeans and the US announce they are starting new talks with Iran about its nuclear program. What this statement did was to put Israel in the position of not being able to attack Iran's nuclear facilities because the world would say, 'Look Israel did not really want peace they attacked while these talks were going on'. The worst thing for Israel was the talks had no time limit. That meant that, like the prior six years of non productive talks could go on forever. I'm guessing here but it appears to be quite evident that Netanyahu knew of these talks and was stating his claim that no matter what the US or Europe does Israel would take care of its own business and would not be boxed in by this transparent attempt at delay.
One of the big problems with Israel's delay in taking out Iran's nuclear program was it gave Iran time to go underground and hide its research facilities. Israel has been requesting from the US bunker bursting bombs. The US had been delaying the delivery of these bombs for years, in effect, stopping Israel. Even worse, as the Obama reelection comes closer, and needs Jewish votes, the US relented and agreed to ship Israel some of these bombs. Lo and behold, because of the delays and allowing Iran to reinforce its facilities the US bunker busters were not powerful enough.
This week Israel just announced that they have developed their own buster bunker bombs which are lethal enough to do the job. Again, if Israel thought they had an honest partner and ally why would they have to embark on their own research program.
Israel had a 3 decade peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan. Israel got their natural gas from Egypt uninterrupted for 30 years but after Mubarak was overthrown the gas pipeline has been bombed 6 or 7 times and supply has been stopped costing Israel hundred of millions of dollars. Egypt had a strong military, backed by the US, which controlled the Sinai and didn't allow arms to be smuggled into Gaza. Obama in his infinite wisdom supported what we now call the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring turned out to be a cold shower for Israel.
Mubarak was over thrown in Eqypt with American help. He had been an ally of the US for over 30 years, not a nice guy but there was peace. The Egyptian government is now controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood who recently declared that "Israel is the top enemy of Eqypt and all peace treaties between the two countries would be nullified. What did Obama do when he heard this, he reinstated military aid to Egypt. What??? Not only did this turn a tenuous and non aggressive neighbor into an Israeli enemy but the US is going to continue military aid. This is after they held American employees of the NGO's in Egypt for ransom which we paid. One of the people held was the son of an American cabinet member. How little respect this new Egyptian government has for the US.
The Sinai which under Mumbarak's leadership was secure, is not any longer. The current Egyptian government cannot or does not want to control the arms being smuggled into Gaza. The recent missile attacks on southern Israel is a direct result of these more sophisticated weapons being smuggled in from Iran, Hezbullah and Libya ( another government controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood).
Israel is in a difficult position since the the Sinai is part of Egypt. If they try and attack the terrorists in Sinai to stop the weapons being transferred to Gaza, Israel risks a war with Egypt. They don't need that at this time. Israel is now surrounded on all sides by countries looking to destroy it. Iran, Lebanon (Hezbullah), Gaza (Hamas), Egypt (Muslim Brotherhood) and Syria. Thanks to Obama.
Another major threat to Israel, again supported by Obama is Turkey. Recep Tayyyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, based on his latest threats belies a deep hatred for the Jewish state. Remember before Erdogan, Turkey had a very close association with Israel. When Turkey and Erdogan supported the aid ship to Gaza to break the Israeli embargo in Gaza, which was supported by the UN, the Israeli commandos asked the ship to stop and be searched to make sure there were no weapons. When the ship refused and the commandos boarded the ship, terrorists were waiting for them and injured some of the Israelis with weapons and pipes. Naturally, the Israelis responded and killed some of the terrorists. This whole exercise was for publicity and international propaganda. Erdogan was trying to set himself up as the leader of the Muslims in the Middle East. If you want approval in the Middle East attack the Jews. Erdogan complained to the UN about how these poor jihadists were killed but was rebuffed. He never got the condemnation he wanted. He was furious and this started him on anti Israel policy.
Israel has found large natural gas deposits right off Cypress and together with Cypress will develop this field. This will make Israel an exporter of energy. Turkey is trying to hinder Israel's efforts to extract this natural gas by sending war ships into the area forcing Israel to send its own warships. This could be a real potential hot spot. Turkey is also the country that NATO is using to put up a radar missile defense system to watch Iran and Syria potentially launching missiles. Israel was to be a recipient of the information from this system but Turkey refused to allow Israel to get any of the information. This early warning system would be a vital tool for the safety of Israel. You would think the US would stop this exclusion of Israel but NO we are acquiescing to Turkey's demands. To top this all off Obama calls Erdogan his most trusted friend in the Middle East.
All I can say that declaring Obama is not a friend of Israel minimizes Obama's actions and deeds. He is as much a threat as any of the other countries on earth to the Jewish people.
I could go on and on because there is so much Obama has done to instigate this situation.
Change of leadership will help....Leadership can ruin a country for which it stands. Wake up America! Wake up people!
___________________________________________________________________________________________
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