I nearly fell off the treadmill in laughter as I watched respectable foreign policy analysts struggle to keep a straight face as they defended President Obama’s weak excuse for snubbing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Obama claimed Mr. Netanyahu’s March 3 visit is too close to the Israeli elections, so he must avoid him so that Israeli voters don’t get the wrong impression.
Mr. Netanyahu is a leader with some big cojones. As he addresses a Joint Session of Congress about Iran’s nuclear program, he will no doubt call on us to forge a unified fight against Islamic extremism. Yet, Mr. Obama desperately wants to avoid any serious discussion about this. That’s what this is all about. I hopped off the treadmill to quickly post my thoughts on Facebook.
Boy, did I swat a hornet’s nest!
I asked my Facebook friends who support Mr. Obama to explain the reasoning behind this hypocritical excuse. After all, in 2012 he and Gov. Christie strolled like lovers along the Jersey Shore after Hurricane Sandy — just one week before our general election. Further, Mr. Obama’s top campaign advisers are in Tel Aviv campaigning against Mr. Netanyahu. Doesn’t that give Israeli voters the wrong impression? If the president is concerned about interfering in foreign
elections, why hasn’t he called for them to return home? And how do his supporters justify the childish behavior of our most senior Democratic leaders, such as Vice President Joseph R. Biden, who claim to be strong supporters of Israel, yet are boycotting Mr. Netanyahu’s speech?
Immediately my phone started dinging like a pinball machine as comments and private messages poured in. How dare I compare the devastation from Hurricane Sandy to a partisan war? How dare I expect our commander in chief to host a man (Mr. Netanyahu) who refuses to help us in our campaign against ISIS? I’m just a mean Republican. (That is a favorite goto zinger used when a
position has no merit resort to name calling.)
My comment about Hurricane Sandy was not meant to downplay the devastation, but rather to point out Mr. Obama’s own hypocrisy. Hurricane Sandy was a natural disaster after which the governor of the affected state and the president surveyed the damage together. In 2012, I took flack from my fellow conservatives for my saying that any governor should welcome the president of the United States if his state has been hit by such a tragedy.
Unfortunately, this appropriate act of two leaders coming together in a time of tragedy was turned into a partisan photo-op. Yet the act alone is not wrong. So wouldn’t the devastation and evil caused by Islamic extremism also be an appropriate reason for two world leaders to come together? Is beheading children and lighting people on fire any less a tragedy than a hurricane?
Were the 911 attacks any less of a gutwrenching blow than Superstorm Sandy?
Natural disasters can not be prevented, only prepared for. Yet, the wicked acts committed by Islamic extremists can be prevented, or at least we can and should do everything in our power to try to prevent them.
Islamic extremism is merely an ideology until evil acts are committed in its name. How do you fight an ideology with weapons? It’s like shooting a ghost. For analogous purposes only, let’s use the KKK as an example. If a citizen of South Carolina claims devotion to the KKK, there really isn’t anything anyone can do. Yet, if that citizen starts terrorizing the state in the name of the KKK
and recruits others to take over their government by force, it would be wise for South Carolina to join forces with neighboring states who are also fighting attacks from white supremacists. (Again, please do not over analyze this. This is not a commentary on race relations in the south. It’s simply an illustration.)
In this analogy, Israel is South Carolina and Hamas is the KKK. Islamic extremism is white supremacy. The United States and Western allies are the neighboring states. While Hamas isn’t directly attacking the Western allies, other Islamic extremist groups are. The intelligence Israel has shared with us has been invaluable. Why are we turning our back on one of our most powerful allies in the Middle East?
By doing so, we are enabling terrorist expansion. The Islamic extremists want to erase all political borders and geographical lines in order to gain more power.
And we are playing right into their hands.
Let me explain: ISIS was al Qaeda until they expanded into Syria and changed their name to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS.) By calling them ISIS, we affirmed their expansion into those states. Now they are calling themselves ISIL, the Islamic State of the Levant, which is the entire region. Every time our president repeats that term “ISIL”, he is acknowledging and affirming the terrorists’ expansion into that region. It would be as if I continually referred to myself as the most brilliant and beautiful political commentator in the world. And then suddenly Rachel Maddow started referring to me as the most brilliant and beautiful commentator in world. She may still hate my views, but she is now affirming my claims!
In order to contain the expansion of Islamic extremism, all of the affected countries need to re-assert their geopolitical borders. No one leader can do that alone. Mr. Netanyahu is right to call for more from his western allies. Why is our president is shunning him? Why are dozens of Democratic congressmen following suit, threatening to boycott the prime minister’s speech to a
joint session of congress? That’s low, even for Mr. Biden!
Maybe we can nullify their silliness by having Congress quickly pass a law that allows seat fillers to occupy the empty floor seats, you know, like they do at the Grammys. I’d sign up for that! It would be an honor to be there, front and center right next to Brian Williams.
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