More on the President’s Israeli Statements

I saw this Krauthammer column in The State today – I wrote my view of the Obama/Netanyahu flap here on the 25^th.  The flap continues, I think, because a consequential mistake was made and we can neither admit nor forgive such in the political arena.

What Obama Did To Israel

By Charles Krauthammer - Washington Post

Wednesday, Jun. 01, 2011

http://www.thestate.com/2011/06/01/1841051/krauthammer-what-obama-did-to.html

I have to agree with those that tire of Charles Krauthammer using his big brain for hyperbole and partisanship. Unfortunately, I also have to agree with his depiction of President Obama as “a blundering amateur” in this case. Yet again, either the President has the least competent staff since Jimmy Carter and George W or he is foolishly impulsive.

Some will remember that this is not the first time for Obama and Israel. His Secretary of State personally badgered the parties back to the table in late 2009 by forcing the Israelis to “restrain settlement activity” and forcing the Palestinians to accept that and get back to negotiations. Naturally, Palestinian supporters and America’s enemies hated that but talks were to resume.

Obama flew off the handle and publically demanded that his Secretary of State make a public apology and reaffirm that the “United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.” She dutifully read her statement from Morocco and the talks were off. From that moment on, the more experienced Clinton had no credibility or authority anywhere in the region. Obama was now the nation’s negotiator there – a task for which he has neither the time nor the skill. George Mitchell pretended for a couple years but the gig was up. Nothing happened; after that incident, in that region, nothing could happen.

Only an amateur would scuttle peace talks so critical to the nation’s interest and so fundamental to the President’s proclaimed priorities. We chew out our subordinates in private or we fire them. Only a fool publically discredits a critical player.

The President’s defenders understandably proclaim that there was no harm done in the latest episode – tempest in a teapot. The President’s political enemies predictably pounce – as “poisonously” as possible. The truth of course is that harm was done but not so much to Israel as to America and the Presidency.

It was an amateur’s error and unforced. It got the President of the United States righteously rebuked by another head of state in his own Oval Office and then again to standing ovations in his own Congress. The President either needs better advisors or better listening skills.