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Obama further undermined by Israel’s acts of defiance
14 March 2010 By Tom McGurk
The Obama presidency is in terrible trouble. Ironically, the most significant signal of the depth of the crisis comes, not from the United States, but from the Middle East.
Last week, the Israeli government delivered the US administration a diplomatic insult of extraordinary proportions, given the unique nature of the relationship between the two countries Last Tuesday, vice-president Joe Biden and special Middle East envoy George Mitchell, dispatched by Obama, arrived in the Middle East to begin a new series of talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
On arrival, Biden was moved to comment that a new beginning was possible and that he was delighted both sides were going to be available for talks. In fact, Biden even congratulated Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ‘‘taking risks for peace’’.
The next day, as talks were about to begin, Israel’s government suddenly announced that it intended to build 1,600 new homes in east Jerusalem, probably the single most disputed patch of grass or concrete in the Middle East.
Even worse, Israel’s interior ministry announced approval for a similar number of new apartments in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-orthodox Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem, where all settlements on occupied land are already illegal under international law.
The timing of the announcement was astonishing. Short of welcoming their American guest with a bucket of cold water, the Israelis could have hardly humiliated Bidenmore. Only hours earlier, he had tried to banish Israeli concerns about Obama’s support for Israel by proclaiming Washington’s ‘‘absolute, total, unvarnished’’ commitment to the country’s security.
The previous day, Mitchell declared that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to ‘‘proximity talks’’ that would restart the Middle East peace process.
The reaction was predictable, and probably intended by Israel. Within 24 hours, the Palestinians pulled out of the proposed talks.
In reality, the consequences of the Israeli announcement could not have been otherwise. Early last year, Obama asked Israel for a settlement freeze to help kickstart new settlement talks. Instead, Netanyahu would agree only to a temporary halt. Importantly too, the announcement about the new settlements seemed to be targeted at Israel’s increasingly powerful ultra-orthodox community which is being settled in east Jerusalem, which it regards as part of its biblical inheritance.
So, within mere days of its beginning, Obama’s long promised and long-awaited new Middle East initiative was in trouble.
There are two reasons why Israel could be so cavalier towards the government of its major international ally. In the first instance, there is compelling evidence the Obama presidency, just 14 months old, is already in deep political domestic trouble.
Secondly, and far more important in the longer term for Israel, is the Iranian nuclear power issue.
There are other straws in the wind too. The news last week that Obama had to intervene personally to stop internal rows among his own personal staff is another indication of how rapidly his popularity is waning.
There have already been reports - apparently sourced from his kitchen cabinet - appearing in the press which are critical of his inability to make up his mind - a sure sign of an administration in disarray.
Only Ronald Reagan had higher approval ratings for his first 100 days in office but, after 14 months, nobody has had lower ratings at this stage since Dwight Eisenhower.
In the normal course of events, the party that wins the White House loses seats at the next mid-term elections. But Democrats are bracing themselves for a wipeout in November that could conceivably see them lose control of both House and Senate.
It appears that independent voters who, in November 2008,boughtObama’s message of change and renewal, are now abandoning him in disillusioned droves.
The president’s healthcare ambitions are also in shreds. With the senate vote on the issue looming, Democrats are abandoning him and he is now even suggesting that a crucial revenue-raising provision - a tax on higher-end employer sponsored schemes - be deferred to 2018. This would be long after he leaves office.
The tax deferral strongly suggests Obama is becoming increasingly desperate In the meantime, growing numbers of Americans are wondering have they been part of some sort of fairytale or were they all swept away in a political hype that became unstoppable?
Was it that, post-Bush, Obama seemed the ultimate political temptation they couldn’t resist, despite deep concerns?
If his election fundamentally changed Democratic politics, it is also evident that the reaction to him has also provoked fundamental change in Republican politics.
As the economic crisis deepens and as unemployment grows, a considerable section of the political right is swinging dangerously close to extremism.
Public opinion is being whipped up by Fox TV and the new so-called ‘Tea Party’, an ad-hoc political concoction that runs from avowed racists to self-proclaimed patriots to ‘birthers’ (those who claim Obama was not born in the US and therefore cannot be president).
It all means the Republican Party is also immersed in a tidal flow of political reaction.
The battle for its mid-term nominations is already throwing up players that make Sarah Palin look a moderate political intellectual.
Of course, Obama can claim that Bill Clinton came back from disastrous first term opinion polls. However, back then the economic subtext wasn’t anything like this.
In the Middle East last week, Biden was also reassuring Israel that the US does take the perceived Iranian nuclear threat very seriously, but in the background, there is an elephant in the room.
To some observers, the weaker the Obama administration may seem in Israeli eyes, the greater the risk of the Israelis taking unilateral action against Iran’s nuclear power installations The global consequences - not to mind the domestic US consequences - of such an action are totally unpredictable. But Israel’s entirely subjective attitude to any global crisis is very familiar - its interests come first.
After razing Gaza, and with its massive security wall successfully deterring suicide bomb attacks, Israel is increasingly more concerned about the long term Iranian nuclear crisis.
The state of the Obama presidency forms a central part of that calculation. In that context, Israel’s humiliating treatment of theUS vice-president deserves serious examination and is a deeply worrying sign.
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