With the primary season for the 2012 election fast approaching, U.S. foreign policy is certain to be an issue with which would-be Republican candidates will have to grapple. And this is particularly true regarding policies touching on our relationship with Israel. (This applies to Republicans who have declared their candidacy as well as to those who have not.)
For example, I recently watched Gov. Sarah Palin responding to questions on Israel while a guest on Greta Van Susteren’s show on FOX NEWS. And as Palin spoke, I couldn’t help but notice the stark contrast that exists between her approach to Israel and that which we’ve seen from Barack Obama.
Let’s face it, Obama has a growing problem with Jewish voters in America largely because he’s spent his presidency coming across as a “leader” who has a problem with Israel itself.
Apart from when he was running for president and trying to appeal to broad swaths of voters, Obama has turned a cold shoulder to Israel (at best). Like a high schooler who’s tired of the girl he’s dating but not yet ready to risk missing out on her benefits, Obama gives Israel and her leaders the cold shoulder until he needs Jewish voters to show up for elections.
Because of this, Obama can give speeches in which he compares Palestinian settlements to the holocaust and then turn on a dime, after suffering a blistering loss in NY-9, and try to convince Jews he really loves them.
But polls increasingly show that Jewish voters have Obama figured out. They remember his silence “when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced plans to form a unity government with Hamas earlier this year.” They remember the way Obama “humiliated” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu by leaving him isolated in a holding area in the White House while Obama went and ate dinner in private. And surely they’ve not forgotten Obama’s humiliating suggestion that Israel revert to pre-1967 borders.
On the other hand, Palin unflinchingly refers to Israel as “our number one ally,” and has sought to form a relationship that Netanyahu befitting the unity we’ve shared in days gone by.
Whereas Obama is all talk when it comes to espousing support for Israel (in order to pull the wool over the eyes of Jewish voters), Palin stresses the importance of action over empty words.
As Palin told Greta: “I took action. [I’ve been] to Israel. I had dinner with the prime minister and his family. We formed a good relationship there. And I was able express what I believe the majority of Americans feel in terms of our relationship with Israel…and I told him that we do support Israel.”
And being fully aware of the seeming indifference toward Israel that oozes out of every pore in Obama’s body, Palin said she also told Netanyahu that “if he were to hear or perceive that our government is kind of poking our ally in the eye” he should never confuse those reports with “the voice of the majority of the American people.”
Funny isn’t it? When Obama ran for president he was hailed as a quasi-messiah although his experience barely went beyond that of community organizing. Palin on the other hand, was ridiculed as unfit for V.P. because the mainstream media thought she lacked the experience necessary to assume the presidency should the need arise (even though she’d been governor of Alaska).
Looks like the governor could teach the community organizer a thing or two about foreign policy.
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