Normally the time to deliver strong language to an American President is behind closed doors not in front of TV cameras at an Oval Office reception in the White House, that is unless of course you are Bibi Netanyahu the Israeli Prime Minister, who delivered a blistering lecture right in Obama's face for all to see. How Obama could sit there stoically and take it I do not know. How Republicans can stand up and approve the indiscretions of the Israeli Prime Minister in demeaning the Chief Executive and Commander and Chief of their own county is even more appalling.
This is not the first time the United States has been subjected to obnoxious behavior directed against their President by a visiting foreign politician. In 1793 George Washington had to face down the French Ambassador, Citizen Genet who decided to outfit privateers in American ports to wage warfare against Great Britain which would have most likely drawn the United States into a war for which it was woefully unprepared. When Genet attempted to go over Washington's head to the newspapers and refused orders to cease and desist his efforts, became a scandal and he was disgraced and recalled.
Bibi's indiscretion has far less injurious potential to the United States than the Genet's episode could have been, but it shows how the Israeli tail wags the American dog. Obama had to sit and take it like a man. He knows who is boss. Showing an American President being dressed down does not set a good precedent especially when the video is being seen as a further example of American decline and subservience to Israel.
Republicans of course stand up for Israel first and foremost or should I say they stand for that portion of Israel that is right wing Likud or some far right religious parties that mostly control Israeli politics today. These groups desire to see Israel expand over all the lands of Israel as god decided thousands of years ago. It is no matter that Palestinians have existed there for thousands of years, they should leave and move to Jordan. They should accept their reduced status and lack of a future.
Considering the history of the Jewish people this a curious turn of events after hundreds of years of living in forced ghettos and enduring progroms directed against them. In 1492 not only did Columbus sail the ocean blue, it was also the year Spain expelled all the Jews, 200,000 of them! Martin Luther is praised in western school curriculums for his part in the Reformation, however having failed to convert the Jews he urged that their property be seized, they be afforded no legal protection and shown no mercy or kindness. More recently the Fuhrer took these words to heart forcing them into cattle cars to their final oblivion in the gas chambers.
Today we see Israel acting in much the same way towards the Palestinians. A quick flyover on Google Earth will show the Palestinian reality quite clearly. Compare the adjacent Arab towns to the resort-like Jewish communities they are adjacent to. They are certainly living in walled off ghettos much like Jews did in Europe in the 15th century. Basically, to support the 260,000 Israeli "settlers" in the West Bank the 2,400,000 Palestinians must be tightly controlled lest they demand the basic rights of human beings. In the combined Israel/Palestine the number of Jews and Arabs is almost equal at 5.3 million. The Arabs are multiplying much faster.
With the Israelis great benefactor the United States heading down the road to financial ruin, how perilous are these policies going to be for Israel over the next few decades? Encouraging the Israelis to be intransigent and allowing them to go further out on a limb might not be a good idea - unless of course you are an apocalyptic Christian that hopes the Jews will crush the Arabs and rebuild the Temple which will herald in the return of Jesus Christ.
We just had another doomsday prophecy go up in flames we do not need to base or foreign policy on one.
