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Congressional Backlash Against White House Mideast Policy
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
July 29, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Clumsily walking the fine line between
placating the U.N. and backing a staunch ally, President Barack Obama and
Secretary of State John Kerry got taken to the wood shed by Congress, blasting
the White House for pressuring Israel into a unilateral ceasefire. Swept up in the daily carnage in
Gaza, the White House forgot its commitment to Israel supercedes its need to
placate the U.N.’s many Israeli critics.
White House officials got tripped up in antiquated Mideast policy,
pretending that the U.S. was an impartial peace broker. When American TV viewers watched
Palestinians dancing in the streets after Sept. 11, the Israeli-Palestinian
crisis took a different turn. Kerry
has been stung in Israel’s free press but more painfully on Capitol Hill where
he’s condemned for selling out America’s stalwart ally. White House officials find themselves back-peddling on U.S. policy.
When Kerry meets with his counterparts at the U.N. trying forge an urgent
ceasefire, it’s easy to point fingers at the collateral damage. Former President Bill Clinton saw the Gaza operation as a losing proposition fore Israel
in the eyes of world opinion. What Clinton never got during his peacemaking years was that the late PLO Chairman Yasser
Arafat played him like a fiddle in his last-ditch attempts at a peace deal in
2000. After all the
pomp-and-circumstance at Camp David in Aug. 2000, Clinton’s hopes for a Mideast
peace crashed-and-burned because of Arafat. When the talks collapsed, Arafat ordered Hamas to start the next intifada or uprising,
sending waves of suicide bombers into Israel.
Since Hamas seized Gaza June 13, 2007, it’s been turned into a terror
machine, amassing a vast arsenal of rockets and rocket launchers to attack the
Jewish State.
Congressional officials on both sides of the aisle have never been, since
Obama’s tenure, more united against the White House on Israel. Both parties wholeheartedly back
Israel’s efforts to end Hamas’s reign of terror.
“At times like this, people try to isolate Israel,” said House Speaker
John Boehner (R-Ohio). “We are here
to stand with Israel, not as a broker or observer but as a strong partner and
trusted ally,” firing a shot across the White House bow. Swept up in the collateral damage
hysteria at the U.N., Kerry forgot Israel’s crucial role in the U.S. war on
terror. While Kerry reiterated the
need to disarm Hamas, it’s not going to happen with U.N. or White House
proclamations. Nor will U.N., White
House or NATO speeches deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from leaving
Crimea. Israel found out the hard
way that only brute force provides necessary security in Gaza.
Whatever the collateral damage in Gaza, it’s going to be difficult for
the White House to continue pointing fingers at Israel. When you consider Israel’s vital
role in the U.S. war on terror, Hamas poses an indirect threat to U.S. national
security. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have joined hands in backing a Defense Department
request for $225 million in urgent funding for Israel’s Iron Dome Missile
Defense System. “What does that
mean,” asked Boehner about the U.S. relationship to Israel. “Well, it doesn’t mean issuing vague
, on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand statements.
No, it means backing up our words and showing solidarity with our
friend,” sending the White House and State Department a loud message: Back Israel or face more
condemnation on Capitol Hill. Obama
and Kerry drifted trying to placate friends in the U.N. at the expense of
Israel.
Calling for an “immediate, unconditional, humanitarian ceasefire.” Obama
sent a mixed signal to Tel Aviv and Capitol Hill. If Obama believes Israel has a right
to defend itself against Hamas missile attacks, then calling for an
unconditional ceasefire makes no sense.
Whatever point Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu makes about Hamas
going after Gazans by starting a war with Israel, the White House must put the
war in the context of degrading a dangerous terrorist enemy. Meshaal recently told PBS’s Charlie
Rose that Hamas in not fanatical or fundamentalist but they routinely recruit,
train and arm suicide bombers to sacrifice themselves for Islam. Telling young, naïve and gullible
recruits they’ll wind up with 72 virgins in the afterlife for their suicide
bombing against the enemy could not be more fanaticism. Meshaal admitted to Rose that Hamas
could coexist only without Israel.
White House Mideast policy went amiss when it got swept up in the U.N.
hysteria against Gaza’s collateral damage.
Kerry’s recent rant about stopping Gaza’s collateral damage at all costs
prompted Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill to unite against White House
Mideast policy. Forced now to
back-peddle, the White House must get back on track or face even harsher
approval ratings. “Israel must be
allowed to take any actions necessary to remove those threats,” said a joint
Democrat-Republican statement backed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Chuck
Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Mo.), telling the White House to back
Israel. Even isolationist-leaning
libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kt.) said the White House should not question
Israel’s actions fighting Hamas.
More consultation with Congress would help the White House get back on track.
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