Israel: It's Time to Stand up

Growing up in a tough Bronx neighborhood further back than I like to think, it was good to have an older tough friend. I was lucky — I did. My next door neighbor was three years older than me and always had my back. It allowed me to navigate confidently around the “hood,” as you would say, and not worry too much about the bad guys. But things changed, my friend moved away, and I was now responsible for my own security. Countries are comprised of people who collectively are faced with similar circumstances. Israel is just such a country.

Despite irritants from time to time, no nation in the world has had a more dependable friend and a stronger ally than the United States has been to Israel since her founding. Israel in turn is America’s closest ally, never once asking for one American soldier to risk his life defending her during successive wars with the Arabs. Nevertheless, it was reassuring for the Jewish state to know, if push came to shove the United States would always be there both militarily, and equally important, politically. Recognizing the political shift of the Obama Administration, Israel can no longer be sure that to be true.

From the Cairo speech; the Netanyahu slights; obsessive “settlement” cajolement; pressuring the release of murderous prisoners; referencing the pre-67 armistice lines as a given in recent talks; American foreign policy has indeed shifted.

With an acumen similar to that found in his domestic policies, Obama, with bewilderment and disregard for his allies, plods headfirst into solving both the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the Iranian nuclear issue; at once no less.

Last week speaking before a crowd in Bethlehem, Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel to limit settlement building, an issue which, according to him, is weighing on Israeli-Palestinian “peace talks.” Following a meeting with what some have described as his new best friend, Mahmoud Abbas, Kerry had this to say:

“Let me emphasize at this point the position of the United States of America on the settlements is that we consider them to be illegitimate.”