On what would each group depend for Israel's - and their - security, existence and well-being?
On God? On sanctions? On diplomacy? On goodwill gestures?
On an American President?
America failed the Jews in the mid-to-late-1930s when they were refugees.
America failed the Jews during World War II in not bombing Auschwizt nor letting Jews into the United States.
America failed Israel in March 1948 by seeking to push the trusteeship idea instead of statehood.
America threatened Israel in 1956, forcing Ben-Gurion to withdraw from Sinai.
America couldn't find the Tripartite Agreement which would guarabntee its shipping freedom after the Egyptians closed the the Straits of Tiran and the Suez Canal.
America delayed until the very last moment shipments of arms during the Yom Kipp 1973 war, in order that Israel 'bleed'.
Amerca berated Israel after Menachem Begin bombed the Iraqi reactor in 1981.
America castigated Israel's first Lebanon campaign in 1982.
I could go on but I think you get my point.
And now, consider Charles Krauthammer's point about
...Obama’s campaign-year posturing about Iran’s nukes. Speaking Sunday in front of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), he warned that “Iran’s leaders should have no doubt about the resolve of the United States.” This just two days after he’d said (to the Atlantic) of possible U.S. military action, “I don’t bluff.” Yet on Tuesday he returned to the very engagement policy that he admits had previously failed.
Who do we depnd on now?
Which of the above choices now sounds the more rational?
P.S. Lenny on the US during the Scuds on Tel Aviv.
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UPDATE
And now I found this (k/t=EH):
...Obama's pledges are not worth anything more than were John Foster Dulles' pledges made to get Israel to leave the Sinai after the 1956 war. Lyndon Johnson would not honor those pledges when Egypt -- in violation of the agreement with Israel 00 cut off the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping in 1967. If Egypt now abrogates the peace treaty Henry Kissinger brokered with Israel, America will not enforce the terms on Israel's behalf. George H. W. Bush did not enforce the cease fire of the 1990 Gulf War as it affected either the Kurds or the Shia of southern Iraq. The Vietnam Peace Treaty was worthless except to permit America to save face and withdraw its forces. America induced the Hungarians to revolt and sat by idly as the Russians slaughtered them.
Nations have interests, not commitments or friends. America under Obama and Israel do not have shared interests. Obama does not care about Israel's democracy any more than he cares about Turkey's growing tyranny or Saudi Arabia's monarchy.
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2 comments:
While I agree Israel must ultimately look out for its own interested, I don't think your analysis is particularly fair to the US. Especially considering how many Senators and groups were highly influential in supporting the Balfour declaration. Ultimately Truman stepped in to make sure the UN voted for Jewish statehood and was the first to recognize Israel. And while from the Israeli perspective Kissinger may have been slow to react to the Arab onslaught, Nixon sent everything Israel needed to win and then some, over objections of the military establishment and the US suffered for it in the ensuing oil embargo.
I could go on and on, but while legitimate criticism is welcome, America has been a very good friend to Israel overall.
Yes, of course. But in the examples I brought, too many times the aid you mention was after the fact, after too much damage was doen. And to be fair, a nuclear Iran is a vastly different threat that requires a much different American response, as Iraan is aiming at the US as well.
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