Israel does not need US aid. We pay for it in unnecessary wars, in the subservience of always having to ask permission, in obeying bad advice, in twisting our minds until we believe the advice is correct, no matter how damaging it is for us. We have convinced ourselves that we cannot exist without America as our patron. We have deluded ourselves into believing that the US has our best interests at heart and that there is a special relationship between US and Israel. This borders on insanity. There are no BFFs international politics. If there is some relationship that binds us to the United States, it is a very dysfunctional one that has more than a little resemblance to relationships between battered children and their abusers. These children almost always adopt the beliefs of those who hurting them and delude themselves into believing that if they try harder, are better, they can please whoever controls their lives and things will be fine.
Netanyahu has his faults. Nevertheless, the desperation with which pundits and MKS obsess about “US-Israel relations at an all time low” because Netanyahu angered Obama, is more than a little strange. As they say in Washington, people seem quite willing to throw Netanyahu under the bus and trade him in for someone with better manners, [who will say 'thank you' as Shelley Achamovitz says] someone with milder politics who is better at compromising. We may have to give some of Israel away but we would satisfy our Patron and know we are protected.
Do you see the insanity in this way of thinking, how self destructive and exhausting it is. Forcing yourself to believe in what down deep you know is a lie, takes a lot of energy.
Obama will never be a friend of Israel. He has proven this again and again. Americans notice; we do not. He displayed an inexcusable contempt for our leaders that other countries would not have accepted, brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt, leaked information to the press to prevent Israel from attacking Iran, fomented the Arab spring, filled high level positions in the White House [such as head of homeland security] with people who have Muslim Brotherhood ties, publicly announced that settlements on the west bank are illegal without bothering to mention this to Israel, has consistently failed to respond to anti-semitism in the US when hate crimes there are 10X as a high as any other group, sent his people on witch hunts and chastised us as if we were in grade school every time Israel dared to criticize him. At the same time Abu Mazen fed John Kerry lies [during the last round of ‘peace’ negotiations’] about UN organizations he planned to join and was treated like a statesman based on myths of how moderate he was. This granted him the credibility that allows him to hold the criminal court in Hague over our heads time and again.
In the current negotiations, the United States even tried to dump Egypt as a mediator for Qatar and Turkey. Is this the guy we should be trying to please? Consider how much power Israel’s obsession with gaining his approval gives Obama. He can manipulate Israeli elections to replace Netanyahu and his hard liners with more polite, pleasant, obedient “reasonable” Israelis. He may be succeeding.
For the future of our country, our survival and the survival of our children, it is time to stop thinking about approval and do the right thing for ourselves. The odd thing about approval, as any schoolteacher knows, is that the more you show your need, the more you try, the less you get. Approval seekers who do favors are never thanked whether in kindergarden or international politics. They get a reputation for being weaklings and attract bullies like a magnet.
It’s hard to give up the fantasy that you must have a protector and grow up but we are, after all, 65 and it’s time. We do not need their money anymore. [Even if there was a shortfall, it could be more than compensated for by arms sales the US did not permit before]
The best thing Israel could do for itself would be to graciously announce that while we are eternally grateful for all of the invaluable generous help we have gotten from the United States, we no longer feel right taking money when the US economy could use it. [What are friends for, after all! - wink]. ‘Of course,’ we say, ‘this will change nothing about our relationship, our very special relationship with the United States.’[knowing that , of course it will.] We are then free to negotiate in our own best interests, rather than the interests of an American president who sees no reason for [the moderate] Abbas , a man who would not allow one Jew into a Palestinian state if he got one, to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and who pressures Israel to negotiate with Hamas [supposedly a terror organization for the US] as a peer.
Dayenu!
Netanyahu has his faults. Nevertheless, the desperation with which pundits and MKS obsess about “US-Israel relations at an all time low” because Netanyahu angered Obama, is more than a little strange. As they say in Washington, people seem quite willing to throw Netanyahu under the bus and trade him in for someone with better manners, [who will say 'thank you' as Shelley Achamovitz says] someone with milder politics who is better at compromising. We may have to give some of Israel away but we would satisfy our Patron and know we are protected.
Do you see the insanity in this way of thinking, how self destructive and exhausting it is. Forcing yourself to believe in what down deep you know is a lie, takes a lot of energy.
Obama will never be a friend of Israel. He has proven this again and again. Americans notice; we do not. He displayed an inexcusable contempt for our leaders that other countries would not have accepted, brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt, leaked information to the press to prevent Israel from attacking Iran, fomented the Arab spring, filled high level positions in the White House [such as head of homeland security] with people who have Muslim Brotherhood ties, publicly announced that settlements on the west bank are illegal without bothering to mention this to Israel, has consistently failed to respond to anti-semitism in the US when hate crimes there are 10X as a high as any other group, sent his people on witch hunts and chastised us as if we were in grade school every time Israel dared to criticize him. At the same time Abu Mazen fed John Kerry lies [during the last round of ‘peace’ negotiations’] about UN organizations he planned to join and was treated like a statesman based on myths of how moderate he was. This granted him the credibility that allows him to hold the criminal court in Hague over our heads time and again.
In the current negotiations, the United States even tried to dump Egypt as a mediator for Qatar and Turkey. Is this the guy we should be trying to please? Consider how much power Israel’s obsession with gaining his approval gives Obama. He can manipulate Israeli elections to replace Netanyahu and his hard liners with more polite, pleasant, obedient “reasonable” Israelis. He may be succeeding.
For the future of our country, our survival and the survival of our children, it is time to stop thinking about approval and do the right thing for ourselves. The odd thing about approval, as any schoolteacher knows, is that the more you show your need, the more you try, the less you get. Approval seekers who do favors are never thanked whether in kindergarden or international politics. They get a reputation for being weaklings and attract bullies like a magnet.
It’s hard to give up the fantasy that you must have a protector and grow up but we are, after all, 65 and it’s time. We do not need their money anymore. [Even if there was a shortfall, it could be more than compensated for by arms sales the US did not permit before]
The best thing Israel could do for itself would be to graciously announce that while we are eternally grateful for all of the invaluable generous help we have gotten from the United States, we no longer feel right taking money when the US economy could use it. [What are friends for, after all! - wink]. ‘Of course,’ we say, ‘this will change nothing about our relationship, our very special relationship with the United States.’[knowing that , of course it will.] We are then free to negotiate in our own best interests, rather than the interests of an American president who sees no reason for [the moderate] Abbas , a man who would not allow one Jew into a Palestinian state if he got one, to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and who pressures Israel to negotiate with Hamas [supposedly a terror organization for the US] as a peer.
Dayenu!
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