The Obama administration launches an unprecedented public relations attack on Israel.

As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu’s May 18th visit to Washington D.C. approaches, the Obama administration is ratcheting up its anti-Israel rhetoric and working feverishly to force Israel into a corner, as evidenced by the following:

• Various media sources report that National Security Advisor James Jones told a European foreign minister that the US is planning to build an anti-Israel coalition with the Arabs and Europe to compel Israel to surrender Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem to the Palestinians. He then explained that the US, EU and moderate Arab states must determine what “a satisfactory endgame solution” will be. Insofar as Jones is concerned, Israel will be left out of these discussions and be presented with a fait accompli that the Obama administration will compel it to accept. 
  
• Tony Blair, the Quartet mediator, announced, in interview with Palestinian reporters, that within six weeks the US, EU, UN and Russia will unveil a new framework for establishing a Palestinian state and that this is being worked at the highest level of the US administration.
  
• There is mounting evidence that the Obama administration is trying to let the Arabs write the plan for the “coalition”. Al-Quds al Arabi, a London-based Arab newspaper, reported last week that Jordan’s King Abdullah urged the Arab League to update the 2002 Arab Peace Plan, the same plan that calls for Israel to withdraw from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights and accept millions of foreign Arabs as citizens as part of the right of return of “Palestinian refugees” in return for normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab world. This same plan has been rejected by successive Israeli governments. The changes proposed by King Abdullah, after his meeting with Obama, were the removal of any reference to Palestinian refugees and a stronger definition of the relations between Israel and the Arab world. Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak hoped to present the changes to the plan to Obama during his visit to Washington later this month but Arab League General Secretary Amr Moussa, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abas and Syrian president basher Assad rejected the changes… However, the administration holds that Israel is the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East. VP Joe Biden used is appearance at the AIPAC conference last week to drive this point home. He said “Israel has to work toward a two-state solution. You’re not going to like me saying this, but not build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow the Palestinian freedom of movement” – Israel’s national security interests notwithstanding…
  
• For Israel, the main event last week was the visit by President Shimon Peres in the White House. The Israeli government hoped the President Peres would be able to calm the US administration in advance of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to the White House next week. However, the Obama administration humiliated President Peres and Israel by barring media coverage of the event. The administration transformed what was planned to be a friendly visit with a respected and friendly head of state into a backdoor encounter with an unwanted guest who was shoed in and out of the White House without making waves.
  
• Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, in his meeting last week with AIPAC leaders, actually blamed Israel for the Iranian nuclear crisis saying that Israel’s refusal to enter a peace agreement with the Palestinians makes it impossible for the Arab world to support international efforts against Iran.
  
• Last week, at a UN forum, US Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said “Universal adherence to the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty) itself, including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea remains a fundamental objective of the United States”, breaking a 40-year old agreement that was signed between Israel's Prime Minister Golda Meir and US President Richard Nixon whereby the US will maintain silent about the Israeli nuclear program and protect it from the scrutiny of the international community. Israel agreed not to test its nuclear arsenal and not to use it for offensive purposes. Needless to say, placing Israel in the same bucket with North Korea and Pakistan provides further evidence of the direction of Obama’s relations with Israel.

Even the New York Times criticizes Obama’s Middle East Policy, saying that it is based on ideology and not facts. If it were based on facts, the “two state solution” which have failed repeatedly since 1993, would not be its centerpiece.

In fact, there is a wall-to-wall consensus in Israel that the endgame is a two-state solution. However, in light of the weakness of the Palestinian leadership, and the refusal of their coalition partner, the Hamas, to recognize Israel’s right to exist, a comprehensive agreement based on two sates living alongside each other in peace and security is too ambitious. Progress has to be made in baby steps. Israel withdrew all its civilians and troops from the Gaza to only receive years of bombardment of its civilians by Hamas rockets. The Israeli government’s first and foremost responsibility is to protect its citizens.

Obama’s idea of national security policy is kumbaya. Lets sit with the Muslims, smoke a couple of joints, and have fun… Now that he is safely on the path of compromising America’s national security, he wants to do the same to Israel.  Hopefully, Prime Minister Netanyahu has the mental and political capital to withstand 4 years of freezing relations with the US.