A Right Is A Right is Right

Moshe Arens continues in this article, Obama sweet-talks dictators, yet strong-arms Israel, the theme I dealt with on Sunday (here):

..."The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements... It is time for these settlements to stop," he declared in Cairo. To leave no room for doubt, Clinton emphasized that Obama was referring to all settlements, including Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem...Obama has targeted all Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria as well as East Jerusalem's Jewish neighborhoods, and he does not intend to let go easily.

Netanyahu made a serious error of judgment in trying to parry Obama's opening serve by explaining the need for additional settlement construction due to the "natural growth"...

...The right of Jews to live in Judea and Samaria is a basic principle not subject to negotiations...Britain tried to abrogate these rights in the infamous MacDonald White Paper of May 1939...The Arab Legion tried to deny this right from 1948-1967, after destroying the Jewish settlements in the area, only to be driven out in the Six-Day War. And today, too, no coalition of friends or foes is going to succeed in this endeavor. The Israel prime minister has to make this crystal clear. The gauntlet has been dropped and it has to be taken up.

Succumbing to the pressure that is being applied on the settlement issue will only result in additional pressure on other issues...This is not going to be easy, but Israel's staunch supporters in the U.S. will stand by it. It will be a test for the American Jewish leadership - and for the people of Israel.

Jennifer Rubin over at Contentions has this comment to Misha's article:

He is right; this is a test. But as far as the organized Jewish community in America is concerned, those “staunch supporters in the U.S.” are failing it. We have a growing existential threat to Israel paired with a U.S. president openly antagonistic to Israel. He denies or ignores the Iranian nuclear threat, and tries to warn Israel not to do much about it. We are told “No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons.” Hmm. Who might he have in mind?

Instead of addressing the greatest threat to Israel in a generation (or more), Obama engages in a public-pressure campaign against Israel, going as far as to deny past U.S. commitments and creating an exception to his “no dictates, no meddling” rule, solely applicable to the Jewish state.

Where is the outrage in the U.S. — especially among the 78% of Jews who voted for Obama? Where are the major Jewish institutions that in the past offered rhetorical and political support for a vibrant pro-Israel policy? Yes, Marty Peretz is pretty peeved these days, but an irate column or two from a previously enthusiastic Obama defender are less than what one would expect when Washington decides to launch this sort of policy. One wonders what those offering themselves as official representatives of the American Jewish community and friends of Israel think they are accomplishing by their relative silence.

The sliver of American Jewry originally wary of Obama who had warned of just this result is outraged, but not surprised. They however remain perplexed that their fellow Jews, who swore up and down that Obama would be “fine” on Israel, remain in denial about the person they helped put in the White House. Now is not a time for meekness. We are, as Arens says, being tested.