UPDATES
4 pm Israel time, Wednesday, April 8 2015
**A major terrorist incident took place this morning at the Sinjil Junction near Shiloh in northern Samaria.
The scene at the Sinjil Junction this morning (picture: Flash 90).
A terrorist armed with a knife stabbed one soldier in the neck who was inside a military vehicle, and proceeded to stab another outside the vehicle–a paramedic– in the back. The paramedic managed to fire his weapon and kill the terrorist.
The soldier stabbed in the neck remains in critical condition at this hour. The paramedic has been treated for his wound and released from the hospital.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Iran’s terror activities extend to South America, North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia–this is a partial map of some of its most recent terrorism (source: PMO).
In an amazing interview published yesterday, the American Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, reaffirmed that not only has the Obama Administration taken Iran and its proxy Hezbollah off the U.S. “terror” list, the U.S. is now actively working with Iran and its Hezbollah to fight terrorism.
Say what? The Obama Administration is colluding with the chief state sponsor of terrorism in the world and its chief terror proxy to fight terrorism?
Are we living in an Orwellian world or not?
Shapiro went on to declare that “Hezbollah does not endanger Israel.” This is despite the fact that Hezbollah has an estimated 150,000 Iranian-made missiles pointed at the heart of Israel, regularly attacks and kills Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese and Syrian borders, and daily threatens Israel from its headquarters in Beirut.
Unbelievable.
But actually not unbelievable at all given “the Obama doctrine”.
In Monday’s blog, your humble servant referred to the recent Thomas Friedman article in the New York Times entitled “The Obama Doctrine and Iran” in which President Obama laid out his policy in an interview with Friedman.
Forgetting the fact that Friedman did a terrible job in asking questions in the interview, Friedman’s reconstruction of the interview and Obama’s own words as quoted by Friedman deserve to be discussed in detail today because of what is revealed about Barack Obama–and how his policy mortally threatens Israel.
To begin with, Friedman identifies what he calls the “Obama Doctrine”–a doctrine of what Obama describes as engagement based on overwhelming U.S. military power:
“What struck me most was what I’d call an “Obama doctrine” embedded in the president’s remarks . . . Obama said his view was that “engagement,” combined with meeting core strategic needs, could serve American interests . . . far better than endless sanctions and isolation. He added that America, with its overwhelming power, needs to have the self-confidence to take some calculated risks to open important new possibilities — like trying to forge a diplomatic deal with Iran that, while permitting it to keep some of its nuclear infrastructure, forestalls its ability to build a nuclear bomb for at least a decade, if not longer.”
According to Obama, the U.S. has nothing to fear:
“We are powerful enough to be able to test these propositions without putting ourselves at risk. And that’s the thing … people don’t seem to understand . . . You take a country like Cuba. For us to test the possibility that engagement leads to a better outcome for the Cuban people, there aren’t that many risks for us. It’s a tiny little country. It’s not one that threatens our core security interests, and so [there’s no reason not] to test the proposition. And if it turns out that it doesn’t lead to better outcomes, we can adjust our policies. The same is true with respect to Iran, a larger country, a dangerous country, one that has engaged in activities that resulted in the death of U.S. citizens, but the truth of the matter is: Iran’s defense budget is $30 billion. Our defense budget is closer to $600 billion. Iran understands that they cannot fight us . . . You asked about an Obama doctrine. The doctrine is: We will engage, but we preserve all our capabilities.”
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In Obama’s delusional world, the U.S. has nothing to fear despite the fact that Iran has “engaged in activities [read terrorism] that have resulted in the deaths of U.S. citizens”–thousands of U.S. citizens. For Obama, it just a question of money–the U.S. spends more money on its defense budget than does Iran so Iran “understands” it can’t do anything to hurt the U.S.
And, unsurprisingly, Obama believes that his doctrine of engagement should continue despite the fact that he knows that Israel has everything to fear:
“Now, what you might hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu, which I respect, is the notion, ‘Look, Israel is more vulnerable. We don’t have the luxury of testing these propositions the way you do,’ and I completely understand that. And further, I completely understand Israel’s belief that given the tragic history of the Jewish people, they can’t be dependent solely on us for their own security.”
But so what?
Obama’s legacy is at stake, and he is determined to plow ahead with his “once-in-a lifetime” deal with Iran because he will make sure that Israel can defend itself if the Iranian deal goes south and the Iranians really do get a nuclear bomb:
“But what I would say to them is that not only am I absolutely committed to making sure that they maintain their qualitative military edge, and that they can deter any potential future attacks, but what I’m willing to do is to make the kinds of commitments that would give everybody in the neighborhood, including Iran, a clarity that if Israel were to be attacked by any state, that we would stand by them. And that, I think, should be … sufficient to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see whether or not we can at least take the nuclear issue off the table.”
News flash for Obama: if Israel were attacked by an Iranian nuclear bomb, it would be too late for the U.S. to stand by us. It only takes one Iranian nuclear bomb dropped on Tel Aviv to wipe out half of the Israeli population.
And finally Obama reveals what the Iranians and we on israelstreet always knew–that there never was a military option on the table with Iran:
“What I would say to the Israeli people is … that there is no formula, there is no option, to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon that will be more effective than the diplomatic initiative and framework that we put forward — and that’s demonstrable.”
How it is demonstrable Obama doesn’t say; however, we Israelis must just take what Obama says on faith.
Finally, on top of all of this, we must feel sorry for Obama because people–especially Republicans in the U.S. and Israelis–accuse him of being anti-Israel:
“This is an area that I’ve been concerned about . . . Look, Israel is a robust, rowdy democracy. … We share so much. We share blood, family. … And part of what has always made the U.S.-Israeli relationship so special is that it has transcended party, and I think that has to be preserved.
There has to be the ability for me to disagree with a policy on settlements, for example, without being viewed as … opposing Israel. There has to be a way for Prime Minister Netanyahu to disagree with me on policy without being viewed as anti-Democrat, and I think the right way to do it is to recognize that as many commonalities as we have, there are going to be strategic differences.”
How surreal is this?
It was Obama who just actively interfered in Israeli democracy by trying to get Herzog and Livni elected, and it was Obama who tried to get U.S. Democrats to demean and degrade Netanyahu into not coming to the U.S. to express his opinions about the Iran deal.
But Obama blithely ignores having done any of this (and of course Friedman refuses to ask him about it). And did anyone hear Obama say anything like this before Netanyahu came to Washington?
And poor Obama takes being accused of being “anti-Israel” personally:
“This has been as hard as anything I do because of the deep affinities that I feel for the Israeli people and for the Jewish people. It’s been a hard period. It has been personally difficult for me to hear … expressions that somehow … this administration has not done everything it could to look out for Israel’s interest — and the suggestion that when we have very serious policy differences, that that’s not in the context of a deep and abiding friendship and concern and understanding of the threats that the Jewish people have faced historically and continue to face.”
Your humble servant wants to throw up.
Remember that this blog started with the White House no longer even considering Iran and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations–and claiming that Hezbollah does not endanger Israel.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.