THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 91, June 1, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OBAMA, ISRAEL, & AMERICAN JEWS: THE CHALLENGE
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
CAN BARACK OBAMA'S JEWISH, ZIONIST, & OTHER PRO-ISRAELI SUPPORTERS IN THE U.S.A. ACT IN A WAY THAT WILL
CHANGE THE DIRECTION OF CURRENT U.S. MIDDLE EAST POLICY EMINATING FROM THE WHITE HOUSE? WILL
AMERICANS OF PRO-ISRAELI PERSUASION ACCEPT PRESIDENT OBAMA'S VIEW THAT THE STATE OF ISRAEL BEARS SOME
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE LOSS OF AMERICAN "BLOOD & TREASURE" IN THE MIDDLE EAST? WILL THEY CONTINUE
TO EXTEND THEIR SUPPORT TO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION & THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
FULL STORY:
Under the title "Obama, Israel & American Jews: The Challenge — A Symposium," the Editors of Commentary
Magazine asked the following questions:
The open conflict between the Obama administration and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has created tensions
between the United States and Israel of a kind not seen since the days of the administration of the first President Bush.
And those tensions are placing unique pressure on American Jews, who voted for Barack Obama by a margin of nearly
4-to-1 in 2008, after being assured by Obama himself and by his supporters in the Jewish community that he was a
friend and an ally of the State of Israel, despite his long association with, among others, the unabashedly anti-Israel
and anti-Semitic Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
We argue that American Jews are facing an unprecedented political challenge, and at a crucial moment, with the need to
address the existential threat to Israel — and by extension to the future of the Jewish people as a whole — from a
potentially nuclear Iran. How will American Jews handle this challenge? Can Obama's Jewish supporters act in a way
that will change the unmistakable direction of current American policy emanating from the White House? Will American
Jews accept Barack Obama's view that the State of Israel bears some responsibility for the loss of American "blood and
treasure" in the Middle East? Will they continue to extend their support to the Obama administration and to Barack
Obama's political party?
My answer follows below:
The U.S. leadership came down hard on Netanyahu.
The geniuses in the Obama administration have now twice provoked and twice lost the same gratuitous fight with the
Netanyahu government. Unfortunately, these defeats don't deter them from persisting with their misconceived goals.
The first fight began in May, 2009, when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded an ending to Israeli building
activity on the West Bank and in Jerusalem. Four months later, after figuring out that this policy obstructed the
Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy they fervently sought, the geniuses backtracked and returned to Democratic Party
policies-as-usual, meaning good relations with Jerusalem.
In March, 2010, Vice President Joe Biden, Clinton, and Obama then picked the same fight with Israel all over again, now
over Jerusalem specifically. This time, the administration needed only six weeks to retreat from its foolishness, as
signaled by James Jones' speech at the Washington Institute and Elie Wiesel's lunch at the White House.
Notwithstanding these tactical retreats, the policy of "linkage," belief that the well-being of the Middle East depends
primarily on an Israeli-Palestinian accord, remains very much in place and will bedevil U.S.-Israel relations at least
through the next 2½ years of Obama's Presidency.
At this difficult time, three facts console me. First, Israelis take more "risks for peace" and offer more "painful
concessions" – i.e., they make more irreversible mistakes – when U.S.-Israel ties are warm and strong. In contrast, tense
U.S.-Israel ties render such bad decisions less likely. This is one silver lining of Obama's missteps.
Another silver lining lies in the apparently permanent damage these fights have inflicted on Obama, who, in the eyes of
many American Zionists, is seen as insufficiently supportive of Israel.
Third, Obama's fights with Israel occur at a moment of particularly strong American popular support for Israel; one
recent poll, for instance, shows a 10-to-1 preference for Israel over the Palestinians. Add to this the deep fabric of
U.S.-Israeli religious, family, commercial, and cultural ties — as symbolized by the just-signed bilateral open skies
agreement — and it appears that a president, especially one who has cascaded in the polls and must be deeply
concerned about the forthcoming midterm elections, can only go so far to antagonize the very large body of pro-Israel
American voters.
Thus, I am worried, but not acutely so.
The title and questions in this symposium focus on American Jews. But the Arab-Israeli debate in the United States
has changed to the point that "Jews" no longer adequately defines the actively pro-Israel camp. As Jewish defamers
of Israel grow more prominent and organize themselves (think J Street), so do ardently pro-Israel non-Jews (think
Christians United for Israel). I therefore suggest rephrasing the discussion, substituting "Zionists" for "Jews."
© Daniel Pipes 2010
Originally Published in Commentary, June, 2010
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, June 1, 2010
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/8448/obama-israel-american-jews
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
Founder of Campus Watch, Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a
signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a former
adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the U.S. Committee for a Free
Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology, and a
former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for National Review Online, Front Page
Magazine, the New York Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and
developments in the Middle East have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington
Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network
television, as well as at universities and think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the
U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately
twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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