OBAMA WATCH: 1.7.17 - Obama, Kerry and Netanyahu Go Visceral

Obama, Kerry and Netanyahu Go Visceral - By Daniel Pipes - https://www.danielpipes.org

 

How to explain the recent uproar in U.S.-Israel relations? I refer to President Barack Obama's decision to abstain at the U.N. Security Council, precisely contradicting his own views of just a few years earlier; Secretary of State John Kerry's 75-minute rant against Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu; and Netanyahu's intemperate responses, such as warning the New Zealand government that its support for the UNSC resolution amounts to a "declaration of war."

 

High politics of this sort is usually viewed through the lens of ideas and principles. But at times, it's better to leave all that behind and look at psychology - in other words, the basic human emotions and relations we all experience.

 

This level of explanation works better in this instance with all of Obama, Kerry and Netanyahu. The threesome is fed up. During his nearly ten years in office, Netanyahu has always faced a Democratic president out of sync with him. Obama is fed up with an Israeli leader who's annoyed him for eight years; ditto Kerry for 4 years.

 

Now that they are finally to be rid of each other, the trio seem unable to hide their frustrations any longer. Acting out of pique and rage more than good sense and planning, all three lash out. So rancid are the emotions, America's ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, actually felt compelled publicly to assert that Obama "doesn't deal in revenge, it's not how he makes decisions."

 

All three will rue their very recent actions:

 

For Obama, now in full-scale legacy-building mode, his Security Council scheming will tarnish his image for the great majority of Americans sympathetic to Israel, as criticism from Democrats and Jewish leaders already indicates.

 

For Kerry, a tenure as secretary of state largely focused on the Middle East (first Arab-Israeli diplomacy, then the Iran deal) is soured beyond redemption, what with this revealing scream about his own failure in the Arab-Israeli arena (and the Iran deal about to be at least partially undone).

 

For Netanyahu, an out-of-control response made the UNSC resolution far more prominent and therefore far more of a defeat than need have been the case; and his lashing out at the resolution's backers might do long-term damage to Israel's national interests.

 

And while we're counting losers, throw Palestinians into the mix. Given false hopes by the parting Obama administration, their leaders are less likely than ever to take the constructive steps to accept Israel that necessarily must precede the building of their own polity, economy, society, and culture. Instead, they are the more deeply mired in rejectionism.

 

So, it's lose-lose-lose-lose. Perhaps with Obama & Kerry gone, things will improve. But adding an intemperate and uncontrolled Donald Trump to the brew raises yet more concerns.

 

Welcome to the Middle East, venue of visceral venomism. (December 30, 2016)

 

Dec. 30, 2016 addendum: Claudia Rosett agrees that the issue is psychological (i.e., not political) but thinks the target is more subtle:

 

Is President Obama using his final weeks in office to settle personal grudges against Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Obama certainly appears to be settling scores, slamming Russia for trying to meddle in the U.S. election, and abandoning Israel to the untender mercies of the United Nations Security Council.

 

But if you look past the administration narratives, Obama's record suggests his animus has less to do with savaging Putin and Netanyahu than with sticking a thumb in the eye of the American electorate and its chosen winner, President-elect Donald Trump.

 

The Russian Ruse - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com

 

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have released a joint report saying that the Russians hacked Hillary Clinton's and the Democratic National Committee's email servers in an attempt to influence the US elections. This has resulted in the US "president" expelling some Russian diplomats. Many countries, including Russia and China, are trying to hack into US computers for intel. It is the reason why we have security measures, such as encryption and firewalls, for our sensitive information. The US is hacking other countries' computers, too. It's the normal spy business. What is important here is the information that showed the depth of corruption with Clinton and the Democratic Party.

 

The information contained in the hacked emails is damning evidence of the unethical, immoral, illegal chicanery practiced as an organized governmental and political crime syndicate by Clinton and the Democratic Party. The "president" and Clinton are saying that the Russians hacked the computers and released the information on them to influence the election. Whoever hacked the computers (as it is still unproven), did America a great favor. First, they showed that Clinton and the Democratic Party were poor stewards of sensitive information and, therefore, too incompetent to hold the office of the Presidency. Second, they revealed the extent of the institutional graft and corruption of Clinton and the DNC.

 

So here is the twist: The lame duck "president" is angry at the Russians for allegedly hacking email servers and trying to influence the US elections. The unethical and possible illegal acts of Clinton and the DNC which actually did influence the election, so the "president" is blaming the Russians for the political loss. You see, it is a great Russian Ruse-blame the Russians for influencing the elections, when in reality it was the content of the emails that demonstrated Clinton and the Democratic Party did not deserve, or were not qualified, to hold the office. Neither Clinton, the "president," or the DNC, have disputed the veracity of the content of the emails. They are just angry they got exposed, and that the content of the emails influenced the elections.

 

The Clintons and the Democratic Party leadership have so little faith that the American people can make up their own minds about an election. That's why they worked with the media to propagandize everyone to think that Clinton could not be beat; that those supporting Donald Trump were deplorable and unredeemable and so on. If the Russians influenced the election by exposing the truth about Clinton and the DNC, thank you. It's not, however, the Russians' fault that Clinton lost. It's her own incompetency, arrogance and corruption that caught up with her. Jeremiah 49:16 says, "Your arrogance has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, O you that dwell in the clefts of the rock, that hold the height of the hill."