Back

Trusting Obama on Foreign Policy

- Thursday, April 23, 2009 |

March 9, 2009

Last week, I issued a statement congratulating President Obama for his courage and moral leadership in deciding not to participate in the upcoming United Nations “World Conference Against Racism.” I received a surprising number of responses, which ranged from total agreement to total disagreement, but almost all were reflexive and focused exclusively on whether one could trust President Obama on issues related to Israel.

March 9, 2009

The campaign may be behind us but the “trust” issues are still very much with us. Pre-election questions about his affiliations and his agenda have not gone away. I, on the other hand, am no longer convinced that my pre-election concerns about who President Obama is are valid.

A friend of mine who was not very good with confidences used to say, “It is not me you can’t trust. It´s the people I tell you can’t trust.” In much the same way, it is not so much the President’s agenda that I distrust as it is my lack of trust in those who advise him on the Middle East and national security. Of course, those appointments were made either by President Obama or his closest advisors. Given that team’s leftist background there should be no surprise that many of them would carry anti-Israel baggage.

Now some would say this suggests that the President and his team are hostile to Israel. That is not what it suggests to me.

What I see in President Obama is a man with worldview radically different from my own. Do I think that his views are bad for American and Israeli interests? I do, but his views are the result of incorrect assumptions about America’s global interests and not about being hostile or indifferent to Israel. The President has consistently spoken of his conviction that Israel’s security is of paramount importance. He has said this not only to American audiences but also to Muslim audiences abroad.

The President’s assumptions that I fear are bad for American national interests are:

1) The President assumes that extremist Muslim hostility to the Western world is the result of legitimate grievances and that if America alters its behavior relations with the wider Islamic world will improve. I, on the other hand, believe that the Islamo-fascists resent who we are and not what we do.

2) The President believes that negotiations with Tehran can halt the development of the Iranian nuclear program. I believe that Iran is totally committed to its nuclear program and negotiations will only serve to buy the Iranian government time.

3) The President believes that the war in Iraq was a mistake. I believe the mistake lies in the manner in which the war in Iraq was conducted.

4) The President believes that the major issue between Israel and the Palestinians is land. I believe that the crux of the conflict is the inability of the Palestinians to accept the very existence of Israel.

5) The President believes in a two-state solution. I believe that imposing a two-state solution is a recipe for disaster not peace.

6) The President believes in working through and with international organizations. I believe that international organizations are held hostage by anti-American elements.

7) The President believes that al Qaeda is the key element in our terrorism problem. I believe al Qaeda is but a small part of a much larger problem.

8) The President believes that our laws should protect the rights of both the terrorist and the victim. I believe that, within the framework of our Constitution and the boundaries of decency, our laws should protect the victim from the terrorist and empower law enforcement officials to investigate and pursue terrorists.

9) The President believes in downsizing defense. I believe the security of our country must not be compromised for economic reasons.

I do not doubt the President’s good intentions, but I do worry where the road he has chosen to take will lead.