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Why Obama Hates Netanyahu

Obama’s foreign policy was supposed to reboot America’s relationship with the rest of the world. Old allies would become people we occasionally talked to. Old enemies would become new allies. Goodbye Queen, hello Vladimir. Trade the Anglosphere for Latin America’s Marxist dictatorships. Replace allied governments in the Middle East with Islamists and call it a day for the Caliphate.

Very little of that went according to plan.

Obama is still stuck with Europe. The Middle East and Latin American leftists still hate America. The Arab Spring imploded. Japan, South Korea and India have conservative governments.

And then there’s Israel. The original plan was to sideline Israel by focusing on the Muslim world. Instead of directly hammering Israel, the administration would transform the region around it. The American-Israeli relationship would implode not through conflict, but because the Muslim Brotherhood countries would take its place.

That didn’t work out too well. Instead of gracefully pivoting away, Obama loudly snubbed Netanyahu. A photo of him poking his finger in Netanyahu’s chest captured the atmosphere. Netanyahu delivered a speech that Congress cheered. And Obama came to see him as a domestic political opponent.

The torrent of anti-Israel leaks from the administration is a treatment usually reserved for political opponents. The snide remarks by White House spokesmen and the anonymous personal attacks on Netanyahu in the media echo domestic hate campaigns out of the White House like Operation Rushbo.

Netanyahu wasn’t just the leader of a country that the left hated. He had become an honorary Republican.

When Obama met with him, Netanyahu firmly but politely challenged him on policy. He has kept on doing so ever since, including during his most recent visit. At a time when most leaders had gotten the message about shunning Romney, Netanyahu was happy to give him a favorable reception. Netanyahu clearly wanted Romney to win and Obama clearly wished he could pull a Clinton and replace Netanyahu. But Netanyahu’s economic policies were working in exactly the same way that Obama’s weren’t.

The two men hate each other not only on a personal level, but also on a political level.

Netanyahu had successfully pushed through a modernization and privatization agenda that on this side of the ocean is associated with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. It’s likely what Romney would have done which is one more reason the two men got along so well. Obama’s visible loathing for Romney is of a piece with his hatred for Netanyahu.

He doesn’t just hate them. He hates what they stand for. That’s why Harper and Netanyahu get along so well. It’s part of why Obama and Netanyahu get along so badly.

But the bigger part of the conflict is neither personal nor political. Obama wanted to sideline Israel; instead he’s stuck dealing with it. Hillary’s lack of foreign policy ambition allowed the Jewish State to come through fairly well in Obama’s first term. For Hillary, being Secretary of State was just a stepping stone to the White House by making her rerun candidacy seem fresh. Her relationship with Israel was bad, but her first job was not to make any waves.

John Kerry ambitiously jumped into multiple foreign policy arenas. His bid for a deal between Israel and the PLO was a predictable disaster. And he took Obama along for the ride. It’s unknown if Obama blames Kerry for the mess that ensued when his proposals collapsed into war, but there’s little doubt that he now hates Netanyahu more than ever.

The war dragged Obama deep into the confusing political waters of the region. His attempt to back the Turkish and Qatari empowerment of Hamas in the negotiations ended with Egypt and the Saudis scoring a win. It was hardly Netanyahu’s fault that Obama once again chose to side with a state sponsor of terror, but it’s safer to blame Netanyahu for the humiliation than the leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

And then there’s Iran. Netanyahu remains the loudest voice against an Obama agreement to let Iran go nuclear. No matter how many talking heads defend the deal, he blows away all their hot air.

Not only did Obama fail to sideline Israel, but he’s stuck dealing with Netanyahu. And no matter how much he may view Netanyahu as an Israeli Romney, he can’t quite openly treat him like Romney because there are plenty of Jewish Democrats who still haven’t realized his true feelings for Israel.

Both men are stuck together. Egypt hates Obama more than it did before he overthrew its original government. Iraq and Syria are war zones. The Saudis are actively undermining Obama’s policies. Israel is still America’s best ally in the region and that interdependency frustrates him even more.

Obama wanted to destroy the American-Israeli relationship. Instead he’s entangled in it. He blames Netanyahu for the situation even though the mess is mostly of his own making.

Despite the myths about the vast powers of the lobby, Israel has never been at the heart of American foreign policy. And under Obama, it’s been on the outskirts in every sense of the word. Israel is back to being a major concern of American foreign policy mostly because of Obama’s massive failures in every other part of the region and Kerry’s belief that he could somehow succeed where everyone else failed.

Netanyahu’s presence reminds Obama of his own failures. If everything had gone according to plan, America would be experiencing a new age of amity with the Muslim world. Instead he’s stuck bombing Iraq and reaffirming the special relationship with Israel almost as if he were on Bush’s fourth term.

It’s not the way that the international flavor of Hope and Change was supposed to taste.

Obama hates Israel. He hates Netanyahu. And their continuing presence in Washington D.C. reminds him of his inability to transform American foreign policy. Their very existence humiliates him.

He knows that directly lashing out at Israel would alienate the Jewish supporters he still needs. Despite his effort to displace pro-Israel voices with J Street, the Jewish community is still pro-Israel. And so he resorts to passive aggressive behavior like snubbing the Israeli Defense Minister or anonymous officials in the administration taunting Netanyahu as a “coward” and “chickens__t” in the media.

It takes a courageous administration to anonymously call the leader of a tiny country a coward. It’s childish behavior, but this is an administration of children overseen by a man whose response to his opponent’s accurate reading of the world situation was to taunt him about the “1980s” and “horses and bayonets”.

While Obama’s people anonymously taunt Netanyahu as a coward, it’s their boss who acts like a coward, stabbing Israel in the back, slandering its leader anonymously through the media and then trying to sell himself to Jewish donors as the Jewish State’s best friend in the White House.

Comments

  1. Anonymous2/11/14

    Obama will never outsmart Netanyahu and I'm tired of his disrespect he shows Israel's P.M. America loves Israel and will always stand by her.Obama thinking himself so smart about Iran and Nuclear may force Netanyahu to take care of it himself.
    Maybe Obama should read the Bible that made the foundation of America and see that ISRAEL is here forever. God said so.

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  2. Y. Ben-David2/11/14

    I think you described Obama's original foreign policy goals quite well. As Dineesh D'Souza wrote in "The Roots of Obama's Rage" several years ago, Obama hates what America and its Allies have traditionally stood for and he is indeed trying to turn American foreign policy around 180 degrees. However, there is considerable inertia in a system that has built up for decades and American public opinion is still strongly pro-Israel so he has not been able to do what he wants and he has been forced to veto UNSC resolutions against Israel against his will. In addition, he, the first Muslim President of the US has been forced to bomb and kill ISIS people who are viewed at least somewhat sympathetically by much of the Muslim world. Thus his only way to relieve his angst is to lash out at Israel, the country he probably hates more than any other in the world.
    In addition, he will likely be humiliated in the mid-term elections this week and his likely successor, Hillary will have a very different agenda and will not be interested in continuing Obama's 180 degree shift in US foreign policy, for her own reasons (being woman she will be in a position like that Thatcher was in and she will want to show how "tough" she is). Thus, he has to destroy what he can in the time he has left we can expect more outbursts and irrational policies in the near future. The most worrying item on his agenda is his attempt to shove down all our throats an agreement with Iran which will allow them to develop nuclear weapons, which I am certain is one of Obama's prime dreams because he thinks it is unfair that America and its colonialist Allies in addtion to Israel have the bomb, while his Iranian fellow Muslims don't have it. We must be on guard.

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  3. Anonymous2/11/14

    Obama hates Netanyhu like evil hates good. Netanyhu tells the truth, speaks articulately, inspires, exposes lies, authoritatively without notes and teleprompters.

    Obama whines, lies, obfuscates, casts blame, shirks responsibility and cannot talk without a teleprompter. Yet even the teleprompter can't keep Obama from exposing his own vaccilations, nefarious ideology, deceptions, flaws and overweening narcissistic prideful personality.

    Sibyl S.

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  4. Anonymous2/11/14

    Mr. Obama puts the USA at risk with his hatred toward Israel. By cursing Israel He ensures that God will either curse him personally and/or curse diminish/destroy the USA. BTW: At least 51% of our voters deserve the President that we now have, and Congress deserves God's punishment for allowing him to remain in office. To Abraham The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob said: "Those who bless you I will bless, and those who curse you I will curse."

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  5. Anonymous2/11/14

    Obama and the twerpy smart alecs who surround him also detest Netanyahu because Netanyahu is all that they fear and envy, someone who has proven himself. Netanyahu served with valor in the Israeli special forces during the 1973 war. Obama and his friends, the real chickenshits in life, are all over schooled unaccomplished empty suits who were handed everything they have solely because of their skin color or political connections.

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  6. Anonymous2/11/14

    Netanyahu is clearly everything Obama is not. A brilliant scholar, a courageous leader in battle, a true patriot to his country, reasoned, gentlemanly, and most of all Smart. At bottom, Obama is green with envy. His petty, undignified and juvenile behavior towards Bibi is pure jealousy, and Class envy.
    My work experience showed me that there is a strong streak of anti-Semitism in the Black community, perhaps Obama is playing to his base as well.
    Yet next Tuesday, even pro Israeli Jews will stream to the polls to vote for Democrats, go figure.
    sophie

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  7. I figured once Obama got in office he would instantly try to get rid of Israel as an ally. But America will never turn her back on a small country fighting the rest of the Arab world and kicking their butts. From what I see, the Obama administration, other than their veiled an always present attempts to destroy America, has done nothing for America or any of our allies. Instead of a big stick, he drags a limp noodle of total confusion around behind him. A true confederacy of dunces, they would probably all stand up and wag their tails at the sound of a squeaky toy.

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  8. Anonymous2/11/14

    Obama's ambitious agenda to not only fundamentally transform America but enable the Islamists to gain more power both in the Middle East and in the U.S., didn't go as planned. He thought all he needed to do was outline briefly his goals and hire the right henchmen to carry them out. Then he could hit the golf course.

    But I really don't think he need worry about the Jewish vote because 90%+ are committed Democrats. I really wonder how many actually support Israel.

    Elaine

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  9. Obama is actually good friends with Netanyahu. Obama is admired in Israel, and they appreciate all he's done for their protection. Last time he visited there they awarded him the Presidential Medal of Distinction.

    Whoever wrote this (Greenfield) hasn't a clue.

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  10. I'm happy to have God as an ally because I think American Jews are lefties first and Jews second and will jettison Israel before voting conservative.

    Forget Republicans, very few in elected office are anything but RINO's and they're worse than real lefties.

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  11. Anonymous2/11/14

    Gotta love the picture of Netanyahu looking at the Community Organized in Chief.
    It says.." I cant believe the shit they send me to deal with".

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  12. Anonymous2/11/14

    Obama has never had an original idea in his life and hating Jews is the most unoriginal idea in centuries.

    Even the apology tour to the Jihadist countries was not original. Saul Alinsky wrote in Rules for Radicals that the USA should apologize for Vietnam and that would create a change in how the world did diplomacy. I doubt that Alinsky believed it. Alinsky believed newborns were cynical. It was probably a set up to knock the USA down a peg. Obviously Obama glommed on to the idea.

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  13. Anonymous2/11/14

    Netanyahu is an accomplished adult who has proven his mettle in war and statecraft. Obama apparently cannot stand that the man he considers his inferior is in truth far superior to him in every way. His reaction isn't even JV, it's junior high. He is an embarrassment. ... Carson

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  14. Anonymous2/11/14

    I can't help thinking of the villian in Scooby-Doo: "Yeah, and I would've gotten away with it, if it weren't for that darn Netanyahu!"

    drk

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  15. Anonymous2/11/14

    Obama and his acolytes represent the culmination of most of the bad social ideas of the twentieth Century, Alinsky's included.
    sophie

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  16. Obama is an inveterate liar. He surrounds himself with liars. He hates what he knows to be true. Netanyahu is a warrior, not a squalid, mean spirited liar. So, Netanyahu has zero respect for this marxist. He has the temerity to refuse to bend his knee. He knows the emperor is naked. It's sad that American leftist jews are on their collective knees rendering adulation. I wonder what Netanyahu thinks of such sycophants?

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  17. Anonymous3/11/14

    You are missing the Gordonian Kot - look it up. Let's cut though all the hoopla - The goal of 'O' is o destroy the U.S. - in EVERY way possible. Those who read his books know this. I have not met ONE liberal who HAS read his books. They hem and haw around. 'O' told everyone just what he was going to do, and the masses didn't listen - just as they were intended to.

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  18. I think you've exposed a hitherto below-the-radar policy of the Ozymandias-on-the-Potomac (mis)administration:

    The Coward-Driven "strategery" in all its full-blown(-up) glory.

    Well done sir!

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  19. Anonymous3/11/14

    Well-written, as usual. The fact that this backstabbing, whitey-hating, affirmative action Community Organizer-in-Chief is POTUS is a blessing for Israel (because it forces the Jewish State to assert itself on the world stage and rely less on allies) and a terrible curse for the U.S. This is the price of applying affirmative action to the highest position in government. Not having a Negro dialect (ebonics), as Harry Reid observed and was impressed by, is not a sufficient qualification for being POTUS. Let this be a collective lesson---don't repeat this mistake again, America. There are African-American men and women who are superior in character and intellect to this vengeful, effeminate adolescent, and truly deserving of being elected POTUS with no need to resort to affirmative action. People such as Allen West, Alan Keyes, Ben Carson.

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  20. The fact is that Obama is quite dim despite his handlers trying to portray him as "the smartest guy in the room", and Kerry is a downright moron. The thought that either one of them can outwit canny players like Netanyahu or Putin is laughable.

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  21. What they will understand and excel at is the sound of a squeaky toy. Joe Biden is probably the best squeaky toy man.

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  22. Obama is actually good friends with Netanyahu. Obama is admired in Israel, and they appreciate all he's done for their protection. Last time he visited there they awarded him the Presidential Medal of Distinction.


    You are totally out of touch with the reality in Israel. The vast majority of the Jewish population of Israel (not the traitorous Arab 'citizens') sees Obama as the enemy that he is. Yes, the nutty leftists like former Pres. Shimon Peres worship him just like they do in the U.S., but everyone sane sees right through him.

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