Era of Dorothy’s “Somewhere over the Rainbow” for Israel without Messiah is Ended!
November 13, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
I have supported my President and will continue to do so. I believe he did the right thing and followed the right path in standing up to the ungodly tenets of radical Islam and his support for Israel against her many enemies.
I will die pro-Israel and anti-Islam. But the tide has turned from opposing evil to appeasing it, and the rest of this age is going to be a long downhill ride to oblivion on the international wave of Islam until Messiah comes.
Caroline Glick, in addition to being a very attractive lady, is also a brilliant mind with a natural ability to analyze international shifts in political policies. Her pen has a razor sharp edge that often cuts to the quick. I say that having been cut to the quick in a few of my opinions by her articles, but I actually enjoy changing my mind with I am wrong, and she has changed my mind in a few areas. Her following article from the Jerusalem Post is a collection of excerpts from the full article. Due to the length of the full article, I cut out those parts I considered not to be associated with the subject of shifts in U.S. policy.
Her article is especially timely because Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is visiting in Washington this week.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
Column One: Olmert’s ill-timed Washington Visit
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST
November 10, 2006
Many downplay the significance of the US Congressional elections. It is the six-year slump, they say. But the truth is nonetheless glaring. By all accounts, Tuesday the George W. Bush era came to a close.
The consequences of this turn
of events on Israel will be dramatic. Unfortunately, it is doubtful that anyone has explained them to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ahead of his scheduled visit to the White House next week.
Across the political spectrum in Washington today there is a sense that after years of wavering, in the wake of the Democratic victory in Tuesday’s Congressional elections, President Bush transferred control over American foreign policy to his father’s anti-war advisors.
The President’s announcement of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s “resignation” Wednesday signaled the transfer of control over the war against radical Islam from Bush’s team to Bush pere’s team. Robert Gates, Bush’s nominee to replace Rumsfeld, served as his father’s deputy national security adviser and CIA director. He is a member in good standing of the Arabist wing of the Republican Party which dominated the President’s father’s administration.
In recent years, Gates made one notable foray into the world of international affairs. In 2004 he collaborated with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor in the Carter administration. Like former president Jimmy Carter, Brzezinski is one of Israel’s greatest adversaries in US policymaking circles. It is hard to recall a problem, conflict, crisis or war in the Middle East over the past thirty years that Brzezinski has not managed to blame on Israel.
Gates and Brzezinski co-chaired a Council on Foreign Relations-sponsored Task Force charged with recommending a US policy for dealing with Iran.
In July 2004 they published their recommendations.
The Task Force called for the Bush administration to directly engage the mullahs and to use “fewer sticks and more carrots” to convince the regime in Teheran to stop enriching uranium, and to stop supporting al Qaida and the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an effort to convince the Iranians to cooperate, the two recommended that the US discard regime overthrow as a policy option and move more forcefully to establish a Palestinian state as quickly as possible. They also recommended that the US pressure Israel not to take any military action against the Iranian nuclear facilities arguing that such Israeli actions would undermine US national interests.
In recent months, Gates has been serving as a member of the Iraq Study Group chaired by Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton.
The Congressionally mandated committee is scheduled to recommend new strategies for managing the war in Iraq to Bush later in the month.
In a series of recent press interviews, Baker and Hamilton have indicated that they will recommend that Bush enter into negotiations with Iran and Syria.
The proposed talks they say, will serve to motivate Iran and Syria to stabilize the situation in Iraq in a manner that will pave the way for a retreat of US forces from the country.
Since it is Iranian and Syrian sponsorship of the insurgency that is causing the war to continue, it is fairly clear that Baker is egging for a temporary ceasefire that will last long enough to enable a pullout of US forces.
The fact that the price of the temporary ceasefire will be a US defeat in Iraq and the surrender of Iraq to the tender mercies of Iran and Syria is apparently okay by Baker.
Practically speaking, Bush supported Israel’s right to take action to defend itself. (What Israel did with his support is a completely separate issue.) As to Iran, Bush distinguished himself from his predecessors by announcing his support for the overthrow of the regime in Teheran. In recent months, Bush and at least some of the members of his administration pointed fingers at Damascus and Teheran for their sponsorship of the insurgents in Iraq, for Hizbullah in Lebanon and for Palestinian terror groups in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.
So when the full breadth of Bush’s policies is taken into consideration, his decision to appoint Gates does signal a strategic shift in direction. Rumsfeld was completely identified with Bush’s pro-Israel policies and with his hawkish stances towards Islamic radicalism. Rumsfeld’s ouster and replacement by a follower of Baker, Bush pere and Scowcroft signals a clean break with the policies Rumsfeld embodied. Furthermore, by sacking Rumsfeld the day after the elections, Bush sent a signal to the Democrats that he is willing to forego victory in exchange for political breathing space.
More than anything, the partyless Lieberman will serve as a constant reminder of the power of the radical Left. The radical, anti-war Left which spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting anti-war candidates and so brought about Lieberman’s defeat in the Democratic primaries, made a decisive contribution to the Republican defeat in the general election. The threat posed by radical leftist donors, like multi-billionaire George Soros who have launched a crusade against all proponents of the war against radical Islam, makes Democrats and Republicans alike want to put the Iraq war behind them before the 2008 elections.
THIS IS the Washington that will greet Olmert during his visit on Monday.
If fortunes had been reversed and Olmert were arriving in Washington after a Republican victory, had he be inclined to do so, Olmert could have used the visit as an opportunity to communicate a number of critical messages.
First, he could have recalled that Bush qualified US support for Palestinian statehood on a Palestinian embrace of democracy, peace, and active opposition to terrorism. Since by electing totalitarian terrorists to power the Palestinians have proven incontrovertibly that they oppose democratic values of freedom and human rights, support terror, and oppose peaceful coexistence with Israel.
As for Iran, if the Republicans had been victorious, Olmert could have made clear to Bush that history will judge him not only by what he has done in Iraq, but by what he will do against Iran and North Korea. Olmert could have presented a plan for a joint Israeli-American operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations.
But of course, the Republicans lost the elections. Politicians and defense secretaries who would have willingly listened to such messages from an Israeli prime minister have been booted out of office, thrown into the back benches of Congress, and fired by Bush.
Today Israel stands alone against the Palestinians. More disturbingly, the responsibility for preventing Iran from achieving nuclear capabilities has moved conclusively from Washington to Jerusalem.
If Olmert were a strong leader, in light of the Republican defeat and Bush’s response to that defeat, he could use the meeting as an opportunity to tell Bush that Israel accepts responsibility for attacking Iran’s nuclear installations. But Olmert, who spent his last visit in the US capital trying to convince the Americans to support his plan to surrender Judea and Samaria to Hamas, is not a strong leader.
He is a weak leader. The new wind blowing out of Washington will easily cast him asunder.
In truth, little good will come from Monday’s meeting at the White House. It is too bad he can’t simply cancel it. Israel would be better off if Olmert called in sick on Monday morning.
End Jerusalem Post Article
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