…or risk ‘strained ties with Washington.’* (Via AoSHQ Headlines)
Israel to Obama: No.
Executive summary: last year, Israeli blockade enforcers stopped the so-called Gaza ‘peace flotilla’ (which is what ordinary, decent people call ‘a pro-terrorist blockade running fleet’). In the process of said stopping, the peaceful members of the peace flotilla did their level best to peacefully murder the blockade enforcers; to give you some idea of the double standards involved here, Israeli forces felt forced by international pressure to try to secure the blockade-runner using nothing more lethal than paintball guns. Fourteen attackers died; nine were apparently Turks, which has the current Turkish government – led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who hates Israel anyway – to demand an apology. The Obama administration, using Secretary of State Clinton as a proxy, has duly ‘backed up’ this demand; and the Israelis have politely told both the Obama administration and Turkey where they can head in.
Expect this all to please the antiwar Left, as they have been already responding – in ways both serious and silly -to this intolerable affront of Jews defending themselves; they will no doubt feel a certain amount of relief that at least this administration apparently agrees with them on something. I can almost understand that, actually: if there’s been a more betrayed faction in American politics than the antiwar movement, I do not know its name**. So I can see how having even a crumb of support might seem a feast; if I was in their situation, I might even be grateful for a little executive branch backup, no matter how mild. Not that this would be the thing that I’d want executive branch backup for; but then, I happen to have a functioning soul.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*By the way: “Washington” does not actually equal “America.” Heck, these days it does not even equal “DC.”
**There’s also not faction that’s more deserving of that betrayal than the antiwar movement, either. I mention this mostly out of sheer sadism.
I guess Israel still hasn’t received the memo about how their place in the peace process is to die out. And the White House spent so much money writing it out on that beautiful stationery.
If I was Israel, I would have literally told Obama to “go pound sand.” If I was Perry, I would issue a strong statement of support for Israel.