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ISRAEL, THE U.S., AND GOLDSTONE

Dazed and Confused
ELLIOTT ABRAMS

When I visited Israel in late October, Israelis of all political hues confessed that they were amazed, perplexed, and confused by the policy ... President Obama is following.

First came an instant attitude of hostility on the part of the Obama administration toward Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, even before he had taken office on March 31 and despite his efforts to create a centrist coalition. Second came its obsession with a "settlement freeze" ... , which in fact was a demand
for something that no Israeli prime minister of any party could possibly agree to .... Third came the demand that Arab states reach out to Israel, a demand that ... predictably, was rejected immediately. Fourth came the administration's handling of the Palestinian leadership, which it pulled out onto the "settlement freeze" limb-for how could any Palestinian leader be less insistent on a total freeze than the Americans were? This meant that when the Obama team faced reality and dropped the freeze demand in favor of a call for "restraint," the Palestinians out on that limb were simply sawed off ....

The net result of the administration's approach is a massive policy failure ....

American policy under Obama has aligned itself in a curious and possibly unintended way with the worst elements of Arab policy. Like that of the Arabs, it is cold toward Israel:.Despite several visits .. to .. the region, the president has skipped Israel, and the White House's aloofness toward Netanyahu is obvious. This posture makes peace far harder to achieve. Again like Arab policy, it is warm toward the Palestinians in ways that hurt the Palestinian leaders more than help them ....

Israelis watch all of this and wonder whether it is intended, or rather the product of the Obama team's incompetence. 1 was asked repeatedly during my visit: What are they doing? What do they think they are
doing? Do they realize it isn't working? Is there a learning curve?

Meanwhile, Israelis watch Obama's handling of Iran, which for them is a deadly serious matter. They note that the administration congratulated itself on winning Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's agreement for more sanctions, but they see that there actually was no agreement. They watched as administration spokesmen
smugly said they'd gotten more from Iran in just days of talks than Bush had in eight years of hostility, but then saw Iran's "agreement" to export almost all of its low-enriched uranium evaporate over the following weeks.

These episodes ... make Israelis suspect that the administration's approach to world politics is simply naIve, and more given to selfcongratulation than to making tough choices .... Israelis want a strong, tough America, and they want to be its ally. A weak administration, whose judgment about the Middle East and about world
politics is erroneous and often naIve, and that expresses a coolness to Israel and an indifference to the threats it faces, is an Israeli nightmare.

(National Review, November 10, 2009.)

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