“Im going to the residential wing to have dinner with Michelle and the girls,” the U.S. president told Israel’s prime minister, according to Hebrew-language daily newspaper Yedioth Acharanot. Then he reportedly just got up and left, adding, “I’m still around. Let me know if there is anything new.”
There wasn’t — even after dinner — so the screws were turned a little tighter. No photographs of the meeting for news media. No joint statement from the two leaders issued following the meeting.
The bad blood continued with intermittent attempts by political advisers to make it look good for the cameras and the press.
A “hot mic” story emerged in the first week of November 2011, revealing a muttered conversation between Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy about having to “put up” with Netanyahu.
Sarkozy: “I cannot stand him. He is a liar.” Obama: “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!”
And now — in late October 2014 — comes along journalist Jeffrey Goldberg claiming the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is at “the worst it’s ever been, and it stands to get significantly worse after the November midterm elections,” he writes for The Atlantic.
One wonders whether Goldberg is issuing a threat on behalf of the White House, or if he is simply panicking.
“By next year, the Obama administration may actually withdraw diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations, but even before that, both sides are expecting a showdown over Iran, should an agreement be reached about the future of its nuclear program.”
Really?
Gee, that’s news to me and a whole lot of other people who I bet have never heard before that the Obama administration might withdraw diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations.
Like, for example, when the U.S. outright attacked Israel earlier this year? The U.S. State Department went to town over Israel’s military having the temerity to allow its soldiers to defend themselves and their citizens this summer against terror attacks emanating from United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) facilities in Gaza, during the IDF’s counter terror Operation Protective Edge.
“We were horrified by the strikes that hit UNRWA facilities,” State Department spokesperson Marie Harf sanctimoniously told reporters in September.
Of course, it has not yet been verified that Israeli shells actually did hit any UNRWA facilities while they were occupied. The investigation is far from complete. But why should that matter?
“The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians,” Harf claimed.
And in a sterner warning: “Israeli authorities say they’re investigating. We expect these to be investigated thoroughly and promptly, and we’ll continue pushing them to do so.”
Israel’s activities during the war are also under investigation by the UN Human Rights Commission – a bona fide enemy of the Jewish State which never fails to find an opportunity to condemn Israel at least once per session. The actions of Hamas are generally not questioned since the UN has yet to determine whether Hamas is a terror organization or not.
Note that similar standards are not even mentioned, let alone applied, to the U.S.-led coalition air strikes being carried out against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist guerrillas in both Iraq and Syria.
Numerous civilians have been killed in those attacks by American bombers and their allies, and not a peep from the Obama White House – not even an apology, let alone an honorable mention from the United Nations Human Rights Commission. How odd.