OPINION:
Some people think Barack Obama just doesn’t like the Israelis. Others say, no, it’s just the native pettiness of his administration. Whatever, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel are under siege on several fronts, and they’re getting no love from Washington.
The traditional close collaboration of the U.S.-Israeli alliance is a bit askew, characterized by vulgar leaks from the White House and the staged absence of senior American officials at Mr. Netanyahu’s recent speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Such lapses inevitably have a damaging impact on the alliance, and the close relations between the two nations. Perhaps that’s what Mr. Obama intends.
The outbreak of violence against both civilian and military targets in Israel appears to be the work of “lone wolves” without organized guidance. In one recent case a badly prepared car bomb in Jerusalem, which would have inflicted heavy casualties, was intercepted before it could explode.
Knife attacks are often perpetrated by young suicidal fanatics “educated” in refugee schools supported by the United Nations, where hatred and violence against Jews is the invariable course of lessons. Unlike as in the two earlier intifadas, there appears to be no central direction. Muslim terrorists, however, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have tried to elbow each other out of the way to take public “credit.”
The Israeli defenders often kill the Muslim attackers, which they have every right and responsibility to do, and this is usually derided by the Palestinians and in Western newspapers and television outlets as “overreaction.” The terrorists, eager to display their manly courage, usually attack in civilian settings, where women and children abound, such as running down civilians waiting at bus stops. Some attacks inside the so-called “green line, which separated East and West Jerusalem” before the 1967 war, suggest Israeli Arabs may be helping the Muslim terrorists.
With 6 of 10 Israelis telling pollsters they fear for their lives and personal safety, the Israeli government is pushed to impose more stringent restrictions on the movement of all. This invites certain frightened Jewish fanatics to attack innocent Arabs, to which the Israeli authorities respond swiftly.
The attacks, encouraged by Arab “moderates,” are clear evidence of the disintegration of the secular Palestinian leadership, being steadily replaced by Islamic fanatics. This in turn leads to more direct linkage to the Islamic terrorists ravaging the region, particularly in neighboring Syria. Hezbollah’s growing skill with the heavier armaments supplied by Iran is already a menace on Israel’s northern border.
When Mr. Netanyahu flew to Moscow in late September for a one-day meeting with Vladimir Putin, he wanted to eliminate any possibility that Israeli interception of Hezbollah arms transfers would engage the growing Soviet military presence. He foresaw the Moscow effort to prop up the Assad regime and tighten its de facto alliance with Iran. The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, Commander Qasem Soleimani, had made two visits to Moscow himself.
The Israeli prime minister’s concern mirrors President Obama’s surprise at the sudden Russian buildup in Syria, suggesting that the Obama “deal” with Tehran, enabling its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, is eroding cooperation on intelligence liaison. Mr. Obama promises that new military aid and cooperation for Israel would be order of the day after he concluded the pact with Iran.
The lifting of sanctions, whatever else it accomplishes, will provide new financing for Tehran’s worldwide terrorist activities. The situation can only grow more grave. The Obama administration, as the senior partner in the alliance, must put aside pettiness and childish antics, such as the snub of Mr. Netanyahu at the U.N., and repair the alliance and its intelligence liaison in the face of an expanding regional crisis.
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