Sharona Schwartz
The Blaze
3/3/2014
President Barack Obama is warning Israel of a bleak future characterized by international isolation and less security should Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not agree to a U.S.-proposed framework peace agreement.
Speaking to Bloomberg View’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama suggested that time was running out for Israel to agree to a deal or else otherwise face international isolation and the prospect of losing its Jewish majority.
Goldberg wrote that he took Obama’s remarks “to be a veiled threat” that the administration might not be able to continue to defend Israel at the United Nations and other international forums where the Jewish state faces attacks on its policies.
Obama called the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security “rock solid” and “not subject to periodic policy differences.”
“But what I do believe is that if you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction — and we have seen more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time — if Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited,” Obama said…
The article continues at The Blaze.
Related: Netanyahu’s Lesson from Ukraine: Don’t Trust Obama on Iran
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in the United States this week, he will no doubt have taken heed of President Barack Obama’s weak response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. President Vladminir Putin crossed Obama’s “line”—just as Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russia, crossed Obama’s “red line” on the use of chemical weapons, without consequences. Though Ukraine is not as close an ally as Israel, the lesson for Israel is clear. Under President Obama, American security guarantees cannot be trusted…
Glick to Obama: “You’re Not Scaring Us”
…”More than three quarters of the Jews of Israel believe in incorporating all or parts of the West Bank into Israel on a permanent basis,” she added. “We know the two-state peace plan is a lie. We know the PLO wants to destroy Israel more than it wants a Palestinian state. And we know that we will not lose our Jewish majority if we incorporate the West Bank into Israel.
“He says, beware and we say, ‘Bring it on. We aren’t afraid of you.'”
Update: “Don’t worry, the president will probably have a strongly worded statement for this too.” Iranian president, regime officials threaten ‘defensive’ missile attacks against West
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatened on Sunday to use his country’s missile system against the enemies of the Islamic Republic…
Update 2: WaPo: “President Obama’s foreign policy is based on fantasy”
…FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces. Other leaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world. Invasions, brute force, great-power games and shifting alliances — these were things of the past. Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, “It’s a 19th century act in the 21st century.” …
Unfortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not received the memo on 21st-century behavior. Neither has China’s president, Xi Jinping, who is engaging in gunboat diplomacy against Japan and the weaker nations of Southeast Asia. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is waging a very 20th-century war against his own people, sending helicopters to drop exploding barrels full of screws, nails and other shrapnel onto apartment buildings where families cower in basements. These men will not be deterred by the disapproval of their peers, the weight of world opinion or even disinvestment by Silicon Valley companies. They are concerned primarily with maintaining their holds on power…
Update 3: Obama’s Goldberg Variations
…Horovitz calls it an “earth-shattering interview.” He concludes with the observation “that Obama chose to have his real say about Netanyahu before the prime minister had arrived, and it constituted something akin to political assassination.” …
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