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Bibi, Barack and Tom Friedman

 

 

Dr. Michael Widlanski , Frontpage Magazine, May 19, 2011

    https://bit.ly/2QrUAjP

 

Reading a Tom Friedman column on Bibi and Barack is to take a step into a virtual reality show, where the director, Tom Friedman, says there will be no connection to any real facts or any real history. Rather the director, Tom Friedman, will superimpose a virtual reality of wishful thinking and pet prejudices that will serve as a new substitute reality.

In the new Tom-Friedman-directed reality, the Arabs are surging towards peace and democracy in a Barack-Obama-driven world. Arab oil prices are stable and low out of gratitude to Sheriff Barack, who drilled Osama Bin-Laden, and is about to drill for oil off-shore, perhaps in one Gulf (Mexican) or the other (Persian). And, yes, he is also about to “drill” Bibi Netanyahu, the villain who has come to town.

Tom the Director has the tough and decisive sheriff read a few lines to the world’s new outlaw — Bibi Netanyahu: “Yo, Bibi, you better get out of them thar West Bank settlements by sunset, or you’re gonna be pushing up daisies, pilgrim.”

According to Tom the Director’s script: Bibi, the black-hatted villain surrenders and leaves or gets shot down at high noon on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Arabs in the audience cheer and everyone rolls in oil and a surging economy.

Yup. You-betcha. That’s Tom’s World — flat and wishful. Barack Obama is John Wayne as the Sheriff. Tom Friedman is director John Ford, and Benjamin Netanyahu is the evil and villainous rancher-rustler-“dirty Injun” who gets “run off the reservation.”

As a virtual reality show this only nets a small audience, because most of us recall where this kind of script has gone before. But Director-Screen Writer Tom Friedman has apparently not learned or perhaps forgotten the plot line from the real world.

In the real world, Sheriff Barack Obama’s attempt in 2009-2010 to impose terms on Israel caused the worst setback in 20 years of Arab-Israeli negotiations. Obama demanded and got an Israeli settlement freeze that goaded the “moderate” PLO “leadership” of Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Marshal Abu-Mazen in some scripts) to refuse even to talk to Israel about anything. This was quite an achievement for Sheriff Barack and Director Tom. Let’s remember that other sheriffs have also had their own virtual scripts, too. Deputy Sheriff Condoleezza Rice demanded that Israel allow Hamas to take over Gaza in the 2006 “elections,” and this led to a new terror state in Gaza. But Deputy Condi cannot equal Sheriff Barack.

Sheriff Barack also tried to talk sweet to the Islamist government of Turkey, the ayatollahs of Iran and what Deputy Hillary called the “reformers” of Syria. We have all seen the success of that virtual reality script. Sheriff Barack made his first foreign speech in Turkey that was once the hope of a truly modernized Muslim community. Now, it has returned to the dark side of Islamism. Sheriff Barack even sent an ambassador to Syria where they tried to build a nuclear reactor with the help of Iran and North Korea. Iran is continuing its own nuclear weapons program.

Most of us who have seriously studied and lived in Arab countries know that Israel is a familiar excuse — but not a real cause — for any of the problems or turmoil inside the Arab countries. There is widespread Arab yearning for better government and for an end tofasaad (corruption, in Arabic). There is also a tremendous yearning for better jobs and opportunities for real careers, especially among the educated youth, and there is a search for a more normal role for women.

None of this has anything to do with Israel, and it has nothing to do with Israeli “settlements,” which (sorry about this, Tom) are completely legal (take a look at the League of Nations resolutions, San Remo documents, etc).

The only way to bring a chance for more peace and development in the Middle East is “to get real,” not to be surreal. This seat-of-the-pants analysis is not real analysis.

Israel is real. It is also a successful democratic state, though not a perfect one. In some respects, it is much more successful and democratic even than Britain, France, and the United States. For example, it has a lower unemployment rate, and it successfully absorbed more immigrants than any other country in the world.

Tom Friedman and the other surreal pundits should stop trying to bully Israel or to re-draw Israel in the image of its neighbors. Rather they should encourage Israel’s neighbors to face their own problems the way Israel has faced its problems.

Israeli prime ministers are not villains. Whenever a classroom had to be built or a water carrier or sewer needed fixing in Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, Golda Meir or David Ben-Gurion did not ride into the United Nations or the White House and claim that all the problems were caused by the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Iranians etc. Rather, they tried to fix the problem.

So, the first step for the Palestinians, the Syrians, the Iranians and Tom Friedman is:get real.

As Israel’s prime minister comes to town, Tom Friedman and his ilk should not be organizing an Obama-Osama greeting card.

*Dr. Michael Widlanski, who has studied and worked in several Arab countries, teaches Arab politics and communication at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is a former reporter, correspondent and editor, respectively, at The New York Times, The Cox Newspapers-Atlanta Constitution, and The Jerusalem Post, serving as a special advisor to Israeli delegations to peace talks in 1991-1992 and as Strategic Affairs Advisor to the Ministry of Public Security, editing secret PLO Archives captured in Jerusalem. He is currently completing a book on Arab-Islamic terror

 

 


 

 




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Congress – the co-equal and systematic ally of Israel

Presidents propose and Congress disposes

On September 23, 2021, the US House of Representatives voted 420:9 to replenish the Israeli-developed defensive “Iron Dome” missiles, which are increasingly manufactured – and eventually exported – by the US defense company Raytheon, that benefits from the battle-tested “Israeli laboratory.”

The overwhelming vote reflects Congressional realization that the “Iron Dome”:

*Enhances Israel’s posture of deterrence, which is critical to the survival of all pro-US Arab regimes and minimization of regional instability;
*Reduces the need for full-scale Israeli wars on Palestinian and Islamic terrorism;
*Provides an alternative to Israeli military ground-operations against Palestinian terrorists, which would entail substantial Israeli and Palestinian fatalities;
*Represents joint US-Israel interests, militarily and technologically, in the face of mutual threats (e.g., Islamic terrorism) and mutual challenges (e.g., developing world-class, game-changing technologies).

*Constitutes another example of the systematic support by Congress of enhanced US-Israel cooperation.

The decisive role played by Congress in the replenishment of the “Iron Dome” underscores the cardinal rule of the US political system: The President proposes, but Congress disposes.

The involvement of Senators and House Representatives in foreign policy and national security-related issues has surged since the Vietnam War, Watergate and Iran Gate scandals, the dismantling of the USSR (which transformed the world from a bi-polar to a multi-polar) and rapidly-expanding globalization.

In fact, former Secretary of State, Jim Baker, complained about the growing congressional assertiveness in the area of foreign policy: “You can’t conduct foreign policy with 535 Secretaries of State….”  Former Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, criticized Congress for micromanaging the defense budget: dictating how much to spend on particular weapons, imposing detailed requirements and programmatic restrictions, venturing into policy-setting and requesting that the Department of Defense submits mountains of reports.

Congressional muscles 

The US Congress is the most powerful legislature in the world, and it has demonstrated its co-equal, co-determining muscle in the areas of foreign and defense policies on many occasions, such as:

*Imposing sanctions against foreign countries in defiance of Presidents Clinton, Obama and Trump (e.g., Egypt – 2012, Iran – 1996-97 and 2013, Russia – 2017);
*Non-ratification of the 2015 JCPOA, which enabled withdrawal by the US;
*The 2009 non-closure of the Guantanamo Detention Camp was led by Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (NV-D), in defiance of President Obama.
*The 2009 non-confirmation of Charles Freeman to the Director of National Intelligence was led by Senator Chuck Schumer (NY-D);
*The 1999 non-ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in defiance of President Clinton and the international community;
*The unprecedented expansion of US-Israel strategic cooperation took place despite stiff opposition by President Bush and Secretary of State Baker;
*The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act overrode President Reagan’s veto;
*The 1984 Boland Amendment aborted President Reagan’s financial and military aid to anti-Communist elements in Nicaragua;
*The 1983 blocking of President Reagan’s attempted coup against the Surinam pro-Soviet regime;
*The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act mandated congressional authorization of surveillance of persons and organizations, which may threaten national security;
*The 1975/76 Tunney (CA-D) and Clark Amendments stopped financial and military covert support of the opposition to the pro-Soviet regime in Angola;
*The 1973 Church-Case Amendment ended funding of military involvement in Southeast Asia;
*The 1973 War Powers Act overrode President Nixon’s veto;
*The Jackson-Vanik Amendment preconditioned aid to Moscow upon free immigration.

Congress empowered by the Constitution

As documented in the aforementioned paragraphs, one is advised to note that while Congress is preoccupied with District and State issues, it has the power to both propose and dispose in the areas of foreign and defense policies.

The US Constitution aspires for a limited government and a non-monarchical president, and therefore does not limit Congress to overseeing the budget. It provides the Senate and the House of Representatives with the power to act on strategic issues and policy-setting.

The Constitution accords Congress ”the power of the purse,” oversight of government operations, ratification of treaties, confirmation of key appointments, declaration of war, funding of military operations and cooperation with foreign entities, creation and elimination of government agencies, imposing sanctions on foreign governments, etc.

In other words, the President is the “commander in-chief” within constraints, which are set by Congress.




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