Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Pipes: Obama displaying "rank incompetence"



[T]he Obama administration's rapid turn against Israel, has had predictable and counter-productive results. These point to further difficulties ahead.

First result: escalating Palestinian demands on Israel. In early July, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat, insisted on Israel shrunk to its pre-June 1967 borders, a Palestinian "right of return" to Israel, and a complete stop to building by Jews in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Second result: The U.S. government takes marching orders from Abbas and passes them along to the Israelis. Abbas complained to the Americans [of] the construction of 20 apartments and an underground garage in eastern Jerusalem. The State Department promptly summoned Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren on July 17 and instructed him to halt the building project.

[T]he Obama administration displayed rank incompetence by picking a fight on an issue where an Israeli consensus exists – not over a remote "outpost" but a Jerusalem quarter boasting a Zionist pedigree back to 1891.

How long until Obama understands his error and retreats from it? How much damage will he do in the meantime?
[Philadelphia Bulletin]
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