U.S. president is not king of Israel

The most obvious mistake President Obama made on his statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not to run it by Israel’s democratically elected leaders first. Why, in effect, lay out Israel’s future without consulting Israel?

Israel is a nation. It is an ally. It is not the 51st U.S. state, and an American president should not jump in unilaterally to such a complicated and volatile negotiating process shooting from the hip. Who wrote that section of the speech on “pre-1967 borders with land swaps” anyway?

James Fallows, faithful Democrat of The Atlantic magazine, has been running around telling everyone that Obama’s words expressed the position held by all U.S. presidents since Jimmy Carter. The funny thing is, no one can find evidence of any other president saying anything like that.

Even if a U.S. president were willing to settle for “pre-1967 borders with land swaps,” it would be recklessly stupid to announce it. In bargaining with a party that wants you dead, you get nothing but trouble if you reveal the least you need to stay alive. Your adversary simply will offer you much less and play to public opinion for pressure to split the difference. Any split, any compromise, leaves you dead.

These are dangerous times for Israel. They’ve just been made more dangerous.

Frank Warner

Comments

[CJW]

Obama's Trusted Adviser May Cause Betrayal of Israel

President Barack Obama’s stunning endorsement of a peace process embracing Israel’s pre-1967 borders – a situation that Israeli leaders declare would leave the Jewish State “defenseless” – is prompting closer scrutiny of several left-leaning advisers long antagonistic of America’s close ally. One of them, former journalist Samantha Power, once declared that America might one day invade Israel to disarm it and support a Palestinian state along the very controversial borders Obama now embraces.

[George]

The problem, illustrated

[George]

"Leave Israel alone and roll back the U.S. Government to its 1967 size."