Power Shift for Israel

There’s an old saying in politics- Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line. This is really instructive given what’s going on now in Israel.

At the time of this writing, Israel is engaged in a full assault on Gaza. They are bombing enemy targets and planning a ground invasion of 10,000 troops in the coming days. Thousands of soldiers are being called-up for the campaign. It’s the worst fighting since 1948, when Israel first became a nation.

International leaders are calling for a return to the cease fire that had been in place over the last six months. Of course, Hamas has not been honoring that agreement. They have launched thousands of rockets into Israel throughout 2008, and have been increasing their attacks since mid-December. Now they have declared a third Intifada. It seems, only when Israel responds in self-defense do we see the world call for a truce! Should this new counter-offensive come as a surprise? Not if you’ve been paying attention.

Republicans rallied around their candidate this year begrudgingly. McCain was not the idealistic candidate for Conservative principles, but then again, Conservatives are not overly idealistic. They go into elections with both eyes open and vote pragmatically for the lesser of two evils.

Democrats, on the other hand, “fall in love.” Unfortunately, love is often blind. There’s nothing wrong with imagining a better future, but “hope” and “change” without specifics doesn’t make for good, practical policy in an evil world.

Jesse Jackson said the most important “change” we would see from Obama is in the Middle East. Obama’s church embraced the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, made “diplomatic trips” to Qaddafi’s Libya and printed Hamas propaganda in their church bulletins! Leaders in Iran praised and endorsed Obama while Israel clearly preferred McCain in all of their polls. But, if you’re in love with your candidate and you have a fawning media,
it’s easy to get confused.

Samantha Power has been an advisor to Obama since 2005. She left the campaign last March after calling Hillary a “monster.” Despite that credential in her favor, she represents a “change” in the wrong direction for America’s foreign policy. A couple of weeks ago she was brought back to join Obama’s transition team. She will be advising Obama on appointments and strategic policy. Power’s views, if implemented, would mark the first time America has turned its back on Israel. This is something very serious for those who believe in the biblical admonition regarding the treatment of God’s “chosen” nation. There have been numerous times over the years where America’s vote in the UN was the only thing preventing the world from ganging-up on Israel.

Power, unbelievably, has expressed doubts about Iran’s nuclear threat. In addition, she conveniently ignores Iran’s stated policy of genocide towards
Israel. “Wiping Israel off the map” and declaring Israel a “rotting corpse” are not serious threats in Power’s view. She believes the U.S. should send forces to the Middle East, not to protect Israel, but to impose a settlement favorable to the Palestinians currently governed by Hamas terrorists. She also supports giving billions in aid to bolster the Palestinian military. Her advocacy, known as the Walt-Mearsheimer view, discounts Israel’s own security assessments.

Power has referred to the “long-standing structural and conceptual problems in U.S. foreign policy” as being too unilateral and too dependent upon the Israel lobby. Similar to the opinions of George Soros and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Power believes Israel is guilty of war crimes. Sound familiar? It should. The same language has been used by the Left to condemn the war in Iraq. Power believes that it was the Israel lobby that provoked us into that war. Thus, all geopolitical sins reduce to a simplistic, anti-Semitic foundation for Power and company.

The Bush administration issued a statement declaring Hamas the villain in this latest round of violence. The policy wonks soon to take office with Obama, however, take a contradictory view!

Could this have been predicted? Yes. Israel is naturally acting in her best interest of self-preservation. It is clear, the geopolitical landscape will be shifting with Obama and Israel is taking precautions now to prepare for the worst. Those who view the world with a rational expectation of human frailties understand it. Those who naively believe in fairy tales of utopian fantasies, never will. Too bad we have to live now with the consequences of the latter. (Send comments to WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)