Columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that President Obama was attempting “regime change” in Israel on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.
“Barack Obama has forsworn regime change in the region, remember when we had the Iranian Revolution under Obama’s watch in 2009? Where there was a chance to get rid of the most anti-American regime in the region. He didn’t lift a finger even rhetorically. No regime change. He said that’s Bush stuff, that is not — except in one place. The one place he’s actively trying to change the regime is in Israel. He’s doing everything he can to outmaneuver, to humiliate, to insult, to give the back of the hand to Bibi Netanyahu knowing that for any Israeli Prime Minister jeopardizing the US-Israeli relationship could be fatal at the polls, and that’s exactly what Obama is doing” he declared.
Krauthammer also reacted to State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki arguing that other countries had to pull out of Yemen by stating “when you’re reduced to saying that the Germans had to close their embassy, you know how far we’ve fallen. Germany isn’t exactly a power in the Middle East anymore. It was in the ’30s, but not now.”
He continued, “on the tactical level, just sort of explaining, looking at the evacuation, it’s really–it’s humiliating. And this is after Benghazi. It isn’t as if we didn’t know what was going to happen. The Houthis took effective control of Sanaa, the capital, a few weeks ago. A week ago, they announced they were going to take over the government. This is not sudden. It isn’t as if it happened overnight, and yet with all the planning they had to leave with the keys in the cars running. The Marines humiliatingly had to remove their weapons and leave them behind. And you asked, why was there no military transport? There was no answer to that. I assume it’s because the Houthi government…could not guarantee the safety, or might have even said we’re going to shoot you down.”
Regarding the Middle East as a whole, Krauthammer said “this is a policy in complete collapse…we were the dominant power in the region for four decades. And in these six years of Obama that has evaporated, and the reason is not difficult to understand. Obama said at the beginning of the presidency, ‘I’m here to end wars,’ and even yesterday in announcing the authorization for the use of force against ISIS said ‘we do not — we’re not interested in endless wars.’ He has announced to the world again and again we’re getting out.” And “these places are unstable in civil wars. You are either going to join the pro-American side, the pro-democratic side, the pro-Western side, or you’re going to join the radical Islamists, and let’s say you’re a neutral, a peasant, which way are you going to go? You know the US is leaving. You know the US is not going to be around. You know the US is creating a vacuum in the region, and when the Americans are gone, which under Obama you know is going to be soon, the other guys are going to come, and they’re going to kill you, slit the throats of your family, and take away your women. When you’re a peasant, you have to make that choice, the choice is easy.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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