With friends like these

By YISRAEL MEDAD
No, I really mean we have friends.  That phrase, "with friends like these", can be assumed to be connotatively negative.  But read in the Jerusalem Post what a Presidential candidate says:
Republican Mitt Romney made the long-anticipated announcement on Thursday that he is running for president, launching his bid in the state that will hold the first primary for the 2012 race. On a farm in New Hampshire, the former Massachusetts governor lambasted US President Barack Obama’s policy on Israel and accused him of having “failed America.”
“He seems firmly and clearly determined to undermine our longtime friend and ally,” he said of Obama’s stance toward the Jewish state. “He’s treating Israel the same way so many European countries have: with suspicion, distrust and an assumption that Israel is at fault.”
And did you see Sarah Palin, a potential candidate, the other day:
Photo: Reuters
 
The applause at the joint session of Congress might have embarassed some of us - and our Prime Minister could have taken advantage of that and gone a bit further that just that we are not an occupying nation in Judea and Samaria.  He could have pointed out that not only is "settlement" not a "war crime" as defined by the Geneva Convention on the Protection of the Rights of civilians (here, read) but moreover, the still viable international law principle, enshrined in the League of Nations decision, confirmed by UN Charter article 80, is that, believe it or not (but you better) that Jews - and Jews solely - are awarded a special right of "close settlement" on the land which them included at least to the Jordan River:
Article 6:  The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.
We have a strong legal case.  We have allies in the political system.  Yes, we have J Street, and we also have Jewish anti-Zionists and worse, and the ranks of the BSD movement of brimming with Jews.  But in all, we do have friends.