By Rabbi Ben Kamin
SAN DIEGO –Coptic Christians in Egypt are increasingly concerned for their safety and well-being; the “spring” has quickly turned cold and threatening for this historically maligned minority in the land of the Nile. The despotic ruler of Yemen refuses to loosen his bloody grip; Gadhafi still runs and mutilates the Libyans; the patrilineal president of Syria (a trained physician) continues to have his soldiers systematically murder Syrian citizens. Untold numbers of Iranian freedom dreamers have been exterminated or relegated to dungeons.
So this is the time for our president to basically put Israel on the spot? And for what? For tenaciously upholding American values, such as democracy, dissent, and free enterprise? For eagerly providing the US with unfettered access to intelligence and military savvy and technological innovation on an unprecedented scale and like absolutely no other nation or sheikdom in the Middle East? For being our role model and exemplar in the science of anti-terrorism? For being America’s 20th-largest trade customer in the world, surpassing both Russia and Spain? (Foreign Policy, May 2011).
It’s true that President Obama did not really suggest anything radical or new when he reminded everyone of the “1967 lines” that remain, and have always been, the geographic centerpiece of the peace labyrinth. But everybody knows that his timing, his tone, and even his quick back-pedaling betrayed his apparent irritation with America’s unwavering best friend in a region of uncommon turbulence and danger. I’m not going to vote for or against the president in 2012 because of his sometimes disingenuous remarks about Israel. But I’m not going to ask my Israeli friends and family to respect him, either—given his rather cold relationship to one of the most historic and morally redemptive friendships in American history.
President Obama has repeatedly shown more courtesies to the President of Afghanistan, a known and mercurial rabble-rouser and election manipulator, than to the Prime Minister of Israel—an unflinching, even fawning national replica of America’s highest ideals and aspirations. He seems more focused on placating Afghanistan, Pakistan, even Jordan (the original occupier of the West Bank before Israel took over in response to a Jordanian invasion in 1967) than on trying to truly understand the deep roots of Israeli angst and suspicion. Unbelievably, he has visited Ireland to drink beer and he has traveled to Indonesia and declared it “part of my soul” yet he has never been curious enough as president to even set foot in Israel.
It is most regrettable that, in the tradition of Presidents Carter and Eisenhower, Obama continues to undervalue and affront a gallant and true friend that just wants to be appreciated for sticking to its principles, maintaining its capital, and not having its children butchered forever by the same folks who mourn bin Laden.
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Rabbi Kamin is a freelance writer based in San Diego. He may be contacted at ben.kamin@sdjewishworld.com