Oh Boy, Obama

...there was a desire for Barack Obama to be a super-president. There was a hope - because the entire world would benefit - that he would deal with some of the world's major dangers with determination and wisdom...

...But what happened? Darfur can wait. Our outposts interest him more, as does removing the roadblocks. They are not pleasant, but what are they compared to the atrocities in vast parts of Africa and Asia? But they are more important than his other humanitarian concerns.

It's not merely a humanitarian problem. The outposts, according to the Americans' political beliefs, are obstacles to peace. Not the North Koreans' insult to America with its nuclear and missile experiments, or even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disdain for Obama's words of rapprochment. And also not the falling apart of nuclear Pakistan, with all that implies for Asia and the Middle East. Only the outposts.

It seems we are dealing with a president who makes fateful decisions without studying the material as he should, especially that of international relations. Obama started off on an ambitious ideological path, full of goodwill, but also had plenty of preconceived views. An idealistic president who tries to change the laws of nature in a situation soaked in evil plots, like those of Iran, North Korea and the Taliban, can have his head handed to him. And when it is an American president we are referring to, that head could be the head of the entire world.

This disproportionate American insistence on an utterly insignificant issue should worry peace-loving people throughout the world. In return for dismantling outposts - National Security Adviser James Jones reveals his knowledge and worldview - they will take care of Iran. After all, not more than 300 people live in all the outposts combined, some of them not even permanently. Anyone who equates them with Iran's nuclearization betrays an extreme lack of sense of proportion. How can one rely on him for matters that are a thousand times more serious?

Israel Harel