Moving to Israel

As many of you probably know, US President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address the other day and, as usual, there are major ramifications for those interested in the well being of Israel.

The US is placing special ships off the Iranian coast and antimissile systems in at least four Arab countries, according to administration and military officials, in what appears to be the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf, The New York Times reported on Saturday. The President warned that his administration’s diplomatic outreach will now be combined with the “consequences.” Obama’s administration is attempting to garner broad international consensus for imposing sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which apparently controls the military side of the nuclear program. The deployments are an attempt to show Jerusalem that there is no immediate need for military strikes against Iranian nuclear and missile facilities, according to administration officials.

While we hope that the President is working with Israels’ - not to mention the worlds’ -  best interest at heart, it is worth thinking about whether, in the end, anything positive will result from these crucial decisions. Remember, the International community wasn’t exactly thrilled with Israel’s intentions to strike Iraq’s nuclear reactor in the early 1980’s and it turned out to be only through the grace of G-d that Israel acted regardless. It could very well be that Israeli action against Iran would be the best thing that could happen to the world at large and let’s hope President Obama and the US administration realize this before the ultimate mistake is made.

Ari

In an act contrary (and some would say in defiance) to the policies of President Barack Obama, a group of Jewish students from the United States spent last week working in hilltop communities throughout Samaria. The significance of this should not be lost on all of us as Obama is pressuring Israel to cease all construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, and the students are volunteering in some of the very Jewish villages which the U.S. is asking the Israeli government to demolish.

This is, in this author’s humble opinion, a tremendously positive event for Israel as many of the university students participating in the program voted for Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential campaign but “oppose his imperialist approach to the Middle East.” They are showing that, while they approved of is political policies in the run up to the election, they oppose the administration’s efforts to shrink the State of Israel and ethnically cleanse our people from the heart of our land. In addition, the have transformed their disappointment in Obama into action by volunteering in the very communities that he is trying to destroy.

We can only hope that the upper echelon of America, Israel’s closest ally and friend, is able to see such occurrences from the very people that voted for them and begins to understand that a united, strong Israel is in the best interest of the entire West and free world at large.

Ari

As the relationship between the leaders of Israel and America is always considered important to the well being of Jews around the globe and the free world in general, the public looks on with great anticipation as Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gets ready to meet with the new American President Barack Obama next week in Washington, D.C.

While we hope for the best and pray that Bibi is ready to engage the new administration from a position of strength knowing he has G-d on his side, the unfortunate reality is that we’ve seen so many of these negotiations over the years and the Israeli side has frequently relented to many of the American demands for the “sake of peace.” David Wilder, who is always a fantastic read, provides a great break down and analysis on the eve of the latest round of Israel and American meetings.

Let’s hope Bibi is up to the task.

 Ari

As concerns have grown regarding the new American leadership with regards towards their policies with Israel, there has been at least one encouraging piece of news. The U.S. has anounced that it will be boycotting the Durban II conference on racism unless there are significant changes to what the State Department called “unsalvageable” anti-Israeli resolutions. Israel has been concerned by the new American government’s change in policy to participate in preliminary committee meetings for the convention, which is to be held in Geneva but bears the name of the South African city where the first meeting was held in 2001. The United States walked out of it because of harsh anti-Israeli resolutions.

With the conference planning a clearly anti-Israel agenda the State Department announcement came after growing domestic protests of the Obama administration’s participation in the planning committee.

While it is still too soon to see how the new administration will be working with Israel in the long term, this is a piece of good, encouraging news to let Israelis know that, at least for the moment, America still understands the amount of vitriol that that the world is armed with towards their best friends in the Middle East. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come for the next four years.

 Ari