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I have never been to Ramat Shlomo, but as I understand it, it is in northern Jerusalem on land not disputed by the Palestinians. While Joe Biden was visiting Israel last week, two things occurred. The first was that Israel's housing authority announced approval to build some 1600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo. The second was that the PLO dedicated a town square in the West Bank to a brutal terrorist. So why should announcing new building permits in Ramat Shlomo, whether during Biden's visit or not, have elicited anything more than a yawn? And why should the PLO's incredibly provocative act have escaped even a mention, let alone the full measure of condemnation and withholding of aid it deserves?
The Obama administration has acted as if Israel, with its approval of new housing in Ramat Shlomo, just committed a major act of aggression. And unlike actual major acts of aggression - such as those by Iran, North Korea, or the Palestinians - the Obama administration is doing something about this one. They are making a huge show of castigating Israel. Someone tell me again, why do Jews largely vote Democrat?
Until now, I haven't blogged on this mountain from a mole hill created by the Obama administration, waiting to see if some rational explanation would percolate to the surface. Some have speculated that this is the natural anti-Israel anti-ally bias of Obama showing through yet again - and given the track record of these Keystone Cops of foreign policy, I find that explanation at least plausible. Indeed, such acts happen so often and with such frequency that forecasting that the Obama administration, on any given matter of foreign policy, will act against the interests of our traditional allies is rapidly attaining the degree of statistical certainty so as to qualify it as a law.
Others have speculated that there is no love loss between Obama and Netenyahu and this is Obama's way of trying to influence the next election in Israel. Again, this is something I would not put beyond team Obama. Indeed, it would be in keeping with their Chicago brand of thug politics.
Over at Q&O, McQ speculates that this may be a response to a recent briefing from Gen. David Petraeus that Arab nations are complaining that Obama is afraid or unwilling to stand up to Israel. McQ speculates that this is Team Obama reacting primarily to Petraeus's report. If so, the Arab nations must be having a great laugh at the moment.
Assuming that there is some truth to this, just how naive is Obama? To begin with, other than the Palestinians themselves, none of the other governments in the Middle East have a practical interest in the Israel-Palestine dispute. If Israel disappeared tomorrow, it would make not one practical bit of difference for all of the other Arab regimes. The simple truth is that the Muslim States' single goal as to Israel is its destruction. It is the truth against which all complaints from Muslim states as regards Israel must be evaluated. And as long as Muslim states see the destruction of Israel as even a remote possibility, they will work around every edge to make it an eventual reality - making one complaint or outrageous claim after another. And in Obama, the Muslim States have found a useful idiot indeed.
Meanwhile, Robert Avrech at Seraphic Secret points out that on the West Bank, the PLO just renamed a town square in honor of a Dalai Mughrabi. Her claim to fame came in 1978:
Let's take a look at the bloodbath these savages choose to honor:
On the morning of March 11, 1978, [Dalai] Mughrabi and her Palestinian unit of eleven members, including one other woman, landed on an Israeli beach, killed an American photographer named Gail Rubin and hijacked a taxi, killing its occupants. They proceeded along the coastal highway shooting at traffic along the way. They next hijacked a bus and later a second bus, from which the passengers were transferred to the first one. The bus was finally stopped at a police roadblock. A shooting battle ensued. Eventually, Mughrabi blew up the bus which became a large deathtrap of fire. Many of the passengers were killed. In total, Mughrabi and her team killed 37 people, including at least 10 children. Some 71 people were wounded. Mughrabi and several other attackers died.
There's a role model for Palestinian children - not to mention an act likely to further the cause of peace with Israel. Yet that gets ignored by the Obama administration. Why? What possible excuse could there be for such a double standard?
There will never be peace in the Middle East with the Obama administration pretending that Israel is part of the problem. There will never be peace in the Middle East until the problems of Iran's theocracy and Saudi Arabia's export of Wahhabism are dealt with - brutally and harshly. And there will never be peace in the Middle East until the animals that teach hatred of Jews, who honor terrorists, and who propagandize for the destruction of Israel are held to the same standards as the rest of humanity. Anything and everything else is an Arab version of Kabuki theatre. Obama is the one on stage wearing the fool's mask. He is the one who doesn't seem to realize that the destruction of Israel isn't the the end goal, merely an interim one.
