Saturday, March 16, 2013

HE'S HERE -- NOW WHAT?


By Schmoel Yitzhak

With all the fuss and fanfare accompanying the impending arrival of His Royal Highness, Barack Obama, I'm reminded of a line once offered by a relative.

The beauty part of this one is that: A. It perfectly fits the president's persona and, B. It's half-Hebrew and half-Yiddish. 

As uttered it comes out Bahrooch Cha Boo -- Ich Bin Due. 

Loosely -- very loosely -- translated it comes to this: Blessed Be The One Who Is Coming -- I Am Here!

And so he is, the flighty resident of the White House. Flags are fluttering and Israelis are talking. And -- no surprise here --  columnists are predicting everything from a major breakthrough in terms of Netanyahu-Obama relations down to a trivial ceremonial visit of no more consequence than a mosquito bite.

Bibi's agenda is clear. It's three major points are as follows:

1. Halt Iran's nuclear development.

2. Do it sooner rather than later.

3. And if Uncle Sam is not going to help, give Israel the green light to get it over with, big-time.

And should a postscript be necessary, the Prime Minister might add something about ensuring that the Syrian mess does not spill over to contaminate the Jewish State. 

Furthermore, If Mahmoud Abbas sticks his nose into the visit -- which he indubitably will -- then Bibi should tell Mister President with absolutely no equivocation: "You must understand that the Arabs are unwilling to accept a Jewish state of any kind. Land for peace will never work."

Despite all the columnist seers, from the Jerusalem Post to the pro-Arab Haaretz,  guesses are flying like Egyptian locusts as to the real meaning behind Obama's royal visit. 

What's he up to and how does he intend to deal with Netanyahu?

This much is certain; Obama dare not be as rude to Bibi on Israeli soil as he was to the Prime Minister on Netanyahu's earlier visit to the White House. The pompous president must have learned from that egregious mistake. 

No, nothing mean-spirited is expected to emerge from the talks; but as far as Iran is concerned you can bet that the emissary from Pennsylvania Avenue will play the same game as the mullahs in Teheran. 

The name of Obama's game can be summarized with three little words -- stall, stall, stall. 

A president who treats the Muslim world with the worst kind of obsequiousness will insist that Israel wait-wait-wait for more sanctions to work.

Already Obama has stated that Iran is a good "year away" from developing a nuclear warhead; as if he really knows. And based on the endless errors committed by American intelligence, any Israeli leader who believes this American president is sadly mistaken; and I don;'t mean maybe either.

The endless stall has been part and parcel of Obama strategy since the Democrat took office and nothing tangible that he's done would suggest that he'll meaningfully help Israel. In fact, all he will do is mouth his cheery homily -- "I have Israel's back" -- while simultaneously stabbing it in the back by appointing cabinet members who blatantly denigrate the Zionist cause.

If Obama really cared about Jews of the Middle East he'd pay less attention to his Arab-loving advisors and more to what the creation of Israel was all about. In advance of Obama's visit, Israel Hayom columnist Dror Eydar issued a cogent message to the White House.

"The truth," Eydar writes, "is that the Jewish people have come back home. We did not come back because of the Holocaust, but because of the ethos on which we were brought  up over many generations. To come back home means primarily to come back to Jerusalem and to the mountain ridge in Judea and Samaria where we transformed from a nomad society to a nation even before a king ruled in Israel and before David entered Jerusalem.

"That is the document of our identity, the identity that was stolen from us by the Arabs of the region."

Obama should tread carefully. Should the issue of Israel-Arab peace surface in the talks, beware Obama, beware: There already is an automatic dead end, established by Abbas. 

Eydar: "The Palestinians have never agreed to share the land. Doing so would be tantamount to recognizing the Jewish people's right to the land. -- at least that part still in its possession."

A two-state solution?

Humbug. Abbas long ago closed the door on that issue at least a dozen times asserting that he would never recognize Israel for what it truly is; the Jewish people's national home."

Forget Palestine. The front-and-center subject must be Iran and you can bet your bottom shekel that Uncle Sam's leader will urge patience which is Obama's way of saying appease, appease, appease.

The poor, misinformed man knows no other way!

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