Once again, President Obama has attempted to lord over Israel demanding that Prime Minister Netanyahu get his permission before taking any actions concerning Iran and their nuclear weapons program. President Obama decided to reinforce his demands by sending Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey to Israel to present his instructions in person. General Dempsey was received with all the respect and ceremony due a man of his position with meetings with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, President Peres and Prime Minister Netanyahu. He was given a formal dinner as well as the grand tour reserved for visiting dignitaries. Despite the formal honors and great respect shown General Dempsey, his message was not as well received.
General Dempsey left Israel Friday afternoon just before the Jewish Sabbath. He returned with a message from Prime Minister Netanyahu which had been reiterated by Defense Minister Barak in order to assure there was no confusion. The message to President Obama was a polite, “No.” Prime Minister Netanyahu informed President Obama through his envoy that Israel was not intending nor required to coordinate military actions with the United States and that they would give President Obama no more than a twelve hour notification of Israeli intents to take actions against Iran. Now, as is often said in Washington, the ball is in President Obama’s court and his response should be interesting.
Many have noticed that President Obama does not take criticism or people opposing his wishes well. President Obama particularly has seemed to have a serious and deep resentment for Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the feelings may be mutual but at least Prime Minister Netanyahu has not insulted or attempted to belittle President Obama. This will be the umpteenth time that President Obama has chosen to force a confrontation with Prime Minister Netanyahu and this one does not appear to be going any better than the previous disagreements as far as attaining whatever goals it is that President Obama has been attempting to attain.
This dust up comes at a time immediately after another sign of the contentious relationship which has developed between the United States and Israel under Obama’s Presidency. Recently, Israel cancelled what was to be the largest ever joint training exercise between American and Israeli forces. This training exercise was to emphasize missile intercepting technologies, an area where Israel has some of the world’s highest expertise. Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said Tuesday that Israel’s had postponed the military exercise with the United States “solely from technical issues.” One can only suspect that the technical issues had a lot to do with the presumptuous demands attempted to be imposed by President Obama. Despite the previous dustups between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama, relations have remained strained but functional. I fear that relations are now headed rapidly into areas thought unimaginable just a few short years ago. Hopefully relations between what have been close allies since the late 1960s will not suffer permanent damage and relations can be smoothed and return to the relations we were accustomed to.
In many ways, this should be one of the major issues in the upcoming race for the White House. This should have been a race all about the place in the world we wish for the United States and what relations and with whom we desire to have as allies. Instead, this election is predicted to be all about how many jobs can a President claim to produce. I can answer that question with one word; none! Please, let us decide the coming Presidential election on the correct issues, the real problems which will not only affect our economy, but our entire way of life and the future for our children. Unfortunately, with most of the blame to be placed with the press and their guiding the debate in a direction they prefer while ignoring what very likely may be the most critical and important of issues, the election will be all about jobs and domestic promises while the world is a tinderbox with sparks threatening from numerous fronts. If the people demand, we can change their focus, but only if we recognize the potential approaching dangers.
Beyond the Cusp
