Final Dissolution

Interesting article over at Atlantic regarding Israeli and United States diplomatic relations being at their absolute nadir. Last week the American's foreign policy staff refused to meet with the Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Ya'alon and his counterparts, still sore for comments about Kerry's "messianic" attitude.

Obama is said to be trying to force a nuclear deal through with the Iranian mullah's, Israel be damned, and he plans on circumventing Congress to do it. A congress, by the way, that imposed the most stringent sanctions ever placed on Iran in 2010, by a 99 to 0 vote. Google John Kerry and Hamas and see what kind of cover and love he is providing his new bff. Kerry, of course, blames Israel for the rise of the Islamic State group.

 An anonymous senior administration source thinks that Netanyahu is a, well, "chickenshit."

“The good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars,” the official said, expanding the definition of what a chickenshit Israeli prime minister looks like. “The bad thing about him is that he won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states. The only thing he’s interested in is protecting himself from political defeat. He’s not [Yitzhak] Rabin, he’s not [Ariel] Sharon, he’s certainly no [Menachem] Begin. He’s got no guts.”
I ran this notion by another senior official who deals with the Israel file regularly. This official agreed that Netanyahu is a “chickenshit” on matters related to the comatose peace process, but added that he’s also a “coward” on the issue of Iran’s nuclear threat. The official said the Obama administration no longer believes that Netanyahu would launch a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to keep the regime in Tehran from building an atomic arsenal. “It’s too late for him to do anything. Two, three years ago, this was a possibility. But ultimately he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. It was a combination of our pressure and his own unwillingness to do anything dramatic. Now it’s too late.”

While I appreciate the Israeli Prime Minister's penchant for duplicity and intransigence, especially on the settlement and "two state" issues, I think that the current state of relations is both scary and a harbinger of a deeper problem with the Obama administration. They are either not thinking clearly or they simply don't care.  And they obviously think that they can play nice with Iran, clearly the largest sponsor of state supported terrorism in the world.

Inside America’s intelligence agencies, the biggest concern is that Iran, concluding that its existing facilities are under too much scrutiny, would once again turn to covert means to obtain nuclear technology — buying it from the North Koreans, or building it in one of hundreds of tunnels.“We have not seen much lately,” a senior intelligence official said. “But over the past 10 years, we’ve uncovered three covert programs in Iran, and there’s no reason to think there’s not a fourth out there.”

From Jerusalem Post:

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett quickly came to Netanyahu's defense, issuing a statement saying that the prime minister of Israel is not a private person, and that cursing him is "an insult not just to him but to the millions of Israeli citizens and Jews across the globe."
"The leader of Syria who slaughtered 150,000 people was not awarded the name 'chickenshit'," he wrote. "Neither was the leader of Saudi Arabia who stones women and homosexuals or the leader of Iran who murders freedom protesters. If what appears in the press is true, then it seems that the current US administration is throwing Israel under the bus."
Bennett called on the US administration to "immediately reject these gross comments."

With double dealing friends like Barack Obama, the Israelis have every right to guard their flank. And I wouldn't tempt Bibi. It might not work out exactly like you had planned. Barack Obama may be naive enough to trust the Iranians, the Israelis are not, nor should they. This guy crowing about backing the Israelis into a corner is obviously an asshole, proving the doubts that many had regarding the sincerity of this administration.

The Iranian problem is somewhat academic for the constitutional scholar from Chicago. It is a grave existential matter for the Israelis, who the Iranians have repeatedly pledged to annihilate. I think that we should take the Iranians at their word.

It makes me think of the old saying about commitment being like bacon and eggs. The chicken is committed but the pig is all in.

Israel is all in. Remember Never again? You want to dare them into turning Tehran into a parking lot?

An excellent article by David Horovitz on the state of the United States, Israel relationship, Obama and Netanyahu: A fractured alliance becomes open conflict.

Is the U.S. tipping off Iran and Hamas?