Obama will have left behind a superhighway littered with abandoned allies, broken promises and disdain.
By MICHAEL D. EVANSUS President Barack Obama waves as he arrives at the Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City(photo credit: AFP PHOTO)
President Barack Obama has only a few months left in the White House. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is waiting to hear if Obama will OK a new military package that would send billions to Israel in aid. This is exacerbated by the anxiety surrounding a possible UN vote on the status of a Palestinian state. November 2016 is the deadline posed on the United Nations regarding recognition, and the threat that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would exercise “other options” if his demands were not met.With no Israeli or Palestinian representation, US Secretary of State John Kerry, along with diplomats from other European and Arab countries gathered in Paris in an attempt to breathe life back into the abandoned peace initiative.According to the French hosts, this should be seen as a means to provide a venue to discuss possible solutions to the deadlock in negotiations between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.French leaders are hopeful that it is the first step toward a global symposium before the end of the year. Unfortunately for the French, both Israel and the PA seem to think there is little to be achieved.Emmanuel Nahshon, Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson, stated the cause for his country’s skepticism: “The global community accepted Mahmoud Abbas’s demand and enabled him to continue to evade direct and bilateral negotiations without preconditions.” Also a stumbling block is the French government’s avowal that it would recognize Palestine as an independent state if Israel doesn’t kowtow to the world’s demands.At the opening of the conference in Paris, French President Francois Hollande asked the Israelis and Palestinians to make a “courageous choice.” For the PA, that will probably be another level of funding to line the pockets of its leaders.Should Israel decline to place any trust in a new round of peace talks, it will likely result in even more global censure.Never mind that over and over, the Palestinians have been offered land for peace, as well as to having the majority of their demands met. At each juncture, they have cavalierly walked away from the negotiating table.Since 9/11, Americans have seen firsthand what happens when Islamic jihadists are ignored and appeased. Can anyone actually believe that Jew-hating, oil rich Middle East dictators want the Palestinian crisis resolved? That’s a delusional fantasy.Several years ago I debated Al Sharpton on Hardball. I said to him, “You support Hamas. Put on the Mayor-of-Harlem hat and tell me that you would support the KKK if it fired thousands of rockets into Harlem from New Jersey killing scores of black Americans. Oh, and by the way, it is now unlawful for Blacks to live in New Jersey. That’s what is being demanded of Israel.”Anti-Semitism in the Palestinian territories is reminiscent of anti-Semitism in Europe in the 1930s. No Jew that values his or her life dare make a wrong turn that could take them to Gaza or Ramallah.In 2010, I arranged the Fox News Network’s interview with Iran’s infamous president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Following the meeting, I asked him what he thought was the root of the Zionist cause.He said, “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is about a Jewish world conspiracy. It’s completely true and you should read it.” This in regard to a racist work of fiction that was designed solely to fuel pogroms in Russian, and later, the Holocaust.The truth is anti-Semitism is alive and well. The UN and a large percentage of the world wrongly consider Israel a racist, occupying state.Rallying behind the Palestinians is a politically correct way of hating Israel and assisting those who seek her obliteration. Israel is a lightning rod for worldwide anti-Semitism.Rather than attack a Jew, anti-Semites can now confront the collective Jew, Israel, while hiding behind the cloak of social justice.So what, one might ask, will Obama’s legacy be by the end of January 2017? It will be eight years of having criticized Israel’s leaders and especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama will have left behind a superhighway littered with abandoned allies, broken promises and disdain. And after two terms as so-called “leader of the free world,” the only position left unconquered is that of secretary general of the United Nations.The author is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His latest book, Islamic Infidels, is available at www.timeworthybooks.org.