By Dr. Arnold M. Soloway, President Emeritus and Founder of the Center for Near East Policy Research* President Obama’s publicly stated opposition to a united Jerusalem logically concentrates attention on other positions and actions he has taken that ominously diminish the U.S.-Israel relationship:
His eloquent Cairo apology to and effusive praise for the Muslim world, while implicitly criticizing Israel; his very deferential attitude in various encounters with Arab leaders, contrasted with the utter disdain and disrespect he publicly showed Israel’s Prime Minister, Netanyahu; his endorsement of a Ground Zero mosque; his repeated acerbic demands on Israel alone, while courting terrorists that Israel must contend with every day. President Obama also seems to ignore the grim prospect that the “Two-State Solution” would effectively advance the P.L.O.’s “Strategy of Stages” for the destruction of Israel.
Most disconcerting: President Obama’s diplomatic outreach to Iran has proven an abject failure; all the U.N. and U.S. sanctions will not bring Iran to give up its pursuit of nuclear weaponry, leaving us dependent on “containment”. But it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to contain a nuclear-powered Iran, the dominant power in the Middle East with growing influence beyond. And from its past experience of simply ignoring successive U.N. resolutions and U.S. opprobrium with no fear-inspiring reprisal, it will have no great fear of a U.S. or international community response to any of its future actions.
The portents of a nuclear Iran are obvious, ominous, and far-reaching. Israel, the “Little Satan” has been targeted for prompt annihilation, but the repeatedly announced threat goes beyond the Middle East, by one means or another to extend its lethal reach to the “Big Satan”, the U.S.
Although giving occasional rhetorical assurance that “the American-Israel bond is unbreakable”, judged by his actions, President Obama has shown little concern for the existential threat to Israel from a nuclear-powered Iran and how that would affect our own security interests. Rather, he has warned Israel against taking preventive defensive action to thwart Iran. But permitting Iran to go nuclear and pandering to terrorists and their state sponsors, while disavowing America’s exceptional commitment to protect and advance freedom in the world, is strategically and morally unacceptable.
Taken together, these negative perceptions are troubling to all who are concerned about our own security and future as well as that of Israel. They lead to a most disturbing conclusion. Despite a long, mutually beneficial relationship, and the rhetorical assurances, Israel’s security and survival appear less important to President Obama than his ardent cultivation of Arab-Muslim favor.
This paradigm is perceived in the Middle East and in other regions as yet another sign of America’s wavering resolve and abandonment of its historic role as a powerful moral and strategic force. That perception emboldens not just Israel’s enemies, but our own: Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Iran, and the formidable network of radical Islamist terrorists who have declared war on us to advance their own theocratic and political ambitions.
These unpleasant realities challenge the sanctimonious pretensions of the “Two State Solution”. They signal the dangers inherent in attempts at a quick, simple “fix” for a conflict that is rooted in Arab Muslim political theology, and is not simply about territory. In our own security interest, the realities instead call for a renewed, resolute American commitment to strategic and moral leadership in the war against Islamist terrorism and the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. This still is the best hope for essential stability, and ultimately a true and lasting peace in that much troubled region and the world at large.
*Dr. Arnold M. Soloway, President Emeritus and Founder of the Center for Near East Policy Research, earned a Doctorate degree in Economics at Harvard University in 1952, taught on its faculty until 1960, and was elected Chairman of the Graduate Society Council in 1982. Following his 1952 analysis of Boston’s financial problems, he was asked to and did serve on the Mayor’s Committee on Boston’s Finances from 1953-1957. From 1961-62 he served as Special Advisor on Fiscal Affairs to Governor John A. Volpe. From 1964-1966 he was Special Consultant to the (U.S.) Economic Development Administration. From 1974-1979 he was Director-at-Large, National Bureau of Economic Research. In 1978-79 he served as Chairman, Mayor’s Special Commission on Boston Public Housing. He was principal author of Truth and Peace in the Middle East, Friendly House, New York, 1971 and The Role of Arab Political Culture and History in the Conflict with Israel, Center for Near East Policy Research, April 1985.
