The outburst from Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the so-called Shanghai Cooperation Organization should close the chapter on the much bandied about “outreach” to Iran voiced by candidate Obama in 2008. Events in Syria, despite the administration appellation of Assad as a “reformer,” likewise ended another chapter in the supposed reset diplomacy of reaching out to illiberal Middle East regimes that might not have been so illiberal had Bush & co. just given them a chance.
I don’t think the outreach to Russia is paying any dividends; they were silent as Ahmadinejad went on his rampage, have been sounding off about missile defense and U.S. ships in the Black Sea, and are clearly not “helping” to curtail the Iranian nuke project.
We hope for the best in Egypt, but for now the military interim government is jailing more people than did Mubarak and a plebiscite would probably elect an Islamist government that would reject the Camp David Accords with Israel. Pakistan just arrested those who helped us kill bin Laden, most likely in fear that someone would leak information that its own intelligence services were involved in shielding him for a decade. The Europeans are leaving Afghanistan despite the presence of a new multilateralist in the White House. Given that the Bush administration followed the War Power Acts by obtaining congressional decrees to go into Afghanistan and Iraq, one waits for the liberal anger at Obama for following in the footsteps of Clinton in the Balkans and not consulting Congress; all that is academic, since the Anglo-French and the lead-from-behind U.S. are still flummoxed by 6-million-person Libya.
Pressuring Israel has led nowhere; since the apparent Palestinian coalition government-to-be that includes Hamas includes de facto a charter calling for Israel’s destruction. And the subtext behind much of this administration’s foreign policy abroad and redistributive plans at home — emulation of the soft-power, socialist European Union — has imploded:
Taking off from Victor Davis Hanson’s remarks about Israel and Hamas, I just will note this:
Obama pointed to the supposed unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas as part of his demand that Israel act boldly to negotiate with this unity government.
Well, what is Hamas doing?
Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan says they are setting up ”summer camps,” to increase their efforts to indoctrinate Palestinian children and train them to use violence and terrorism to destroy Israel.
(Note from the near past:
In 2010, the United Nations (certainly no friend of Israel) tried to set up competing summer camps to counter Hamas’s indoctrination and radicalization efforts. Hamas responded by burning down the camps. In an irony of ironies, the UN asked Hamas to investigate the arsons.)
By setting up these camps Hamas has answered President Obama.
Now it’s time for President Obama to tell Hamas that the United States does not negotiate with terrorists and that he will fully support Israel’s decision not to negotiate with Hamas until it truly renounces and stops using terror and violence.
Obama is a weak, dithering hater of Israel.
So, will he step up and act like a decisive man?
It seems unlikely.
Israel should act boldly…bomb the shit outta them now.
CURT, HI, I wonder if RUSSIA DECIDE TO HELP GADAFI ‘s demand for help,AND START TO BOMB THE REBELS,
while our guys are bombing GADAFI’S WEAPONS EQUIPMENTS,
how will that play out, we dont have nucleor, our secret have been given to RUSSIA,
our military are in a weaken position so much that the older one are denied retirement,
and spread in the MIDDLE EAST, again in a vulnerable position of being surrounded, each in their
different DEPLOYEMENT, WHERE THE ENTRY OF BORDER ARE WIDE OPEN TO THE OTHER NEIGHBORDS, WHILE HERE IS THE SAME BORDERS OPEN FOR THOSE WHO CAN
FIT 500 ILLEGALS IN A TRUCK FROM ALL DIFFRENT COUNTRY WHO HATE AMERICA, ENOUGHT TO TRY A COUP
ON UNEXPECTING CITIZENS,
THAT IS SHOWING THAT SOME IN LEADERSHIP ARE NOT TAKING AMERICA’S INTEREST AND PUTTING HER AND THE MILITARYS IN GREAT DANGER
WHILE THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO SAVE THEIR PARTY FROM THE CHICAGO MACHINE IN OBAMA’S CHAIR