Declining to meet with President Barack Obama, 66-year-old Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the lowest relations with Israel in a generation. When Netanyahu spoke against the Iranian nuke deal to a joint session of Congress March 3, 2015, White House-Israeli relations hit new lows. Aligned with Barack’s GOP critics on Capitol Hill, Netanyahu blasted the White House for rushing to a deal that handed Iran $150 billion in sanctions relief in exchange for a questionable deal scaling back Iran’s nuclear program. Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry touted the P5+1, including U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany, deal as groundbreaking, setting back Iran’s nuclear ambitions for 10 years. Netanyahu told Congress the deal gives Iran a green light to pursue its covert nuclear program without vigorous U.N. inspections.
When Kerry’s frantic nine-month Mideast peacemaking collapsed July 20, 2014, the White House blamed Israel for continuing to build settlements in the so-called “occupied” territories. Kerry’s failed diplomacy spoke volumes about the White House’s willingness to ignore Mahmoud Abbas’s Ramallah government’s close ties to Hamas’s ongoing terrorism. From day-one, the Obama administration pretended Sept. 11 never took place, allowing the White House to negotiate with Hamas, a State Department labeled terror group. Unlike his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, Obama forgot that Palestinian terrorists closely collaborated with al-Qaeda, the masterminds of Sept. 11. Bush understood after Sept. 11 that the U.S. could no longer deal with any terrorist group, regardless of their political history. Kerry pressured Israel to make more concessions to Palestinians.
Kerry’s Mideast diplomacy failed because the U.S. has no peace partner for a two-state solution with Ramallah-based Abbas. While pretending to seek peace, Abbas gave the green light to Palestinian youth last September to kill Israelis by whatever means. Abbas’s views echo those of Gaza-based Hamas, continuing to dig tunnels for its next war against Israel. Kerry never accepted that both Abbas and Hamas’s Gaza-based Isrmail Haniyeh have one real motive: The destruction of Israel. All the talk of following 1967 U.N. Resolution 242, returning to the pre-1967 Six-Day-War borders, in exchange for peace hasn’t worked. Since ceding back the Sinai Peninsula in 1979 or giving back Gaza in 2005, Israel has gotten nothing but war from Palestinians. Whether admitted to or not, both Abbas and Haniyeh share one abiding goal: The destruction of the Jewish State.
Declining Obama’s invitation to meet March 18 or 19 at the White House, Netanyahu sees no point during the Obama’s last nine months. Over the last seven years, Netanyahu saw little of the unconditional support seen during the Bush-43 White House. After Sept. 11, Israel became a seamless ally to the U.S. in the fight against global terror. Bush couldn’t continue relations with the late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat due to his ties to terrorist groups. However Palestinians spin attacks against Israel, Bush saw them as terrorism. Obama started off on the wrong foot with Netanyahu, admonishing Israel for continuing to build in the so-called “occupied” territories. Before the 1967 War, Palestinians occupied Egypt’s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, Jordan’s West Bank and East Jerusalem and Syria’s Golan Heights, calling the land “occupied” territories after the Six-Day War.
White House officials insist they look forward to meeting with Netanyahu before Obama travels to Cuba March 21, 22, consummating bilateral trade relations. “We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the Prime Minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit,” said National Security Agency spokesman Ned Price. While it’s not customary for an Israeli Prime Minister to cancel a visit, it’s also not customary for a U.S. president to be so inhospitable to Israel. Israeli Channel 10 TV suggested that Netanyahu didn’t want to interfere with the hotly contested U.S. primary voting. Since Netanyahu’s scheduled to speak to the American-Israeli Public Affairs Council [AIPAC] sometime in March, it’s still possible that a White House visit could be in the cards sometime this month.
Nearing the end of his presidency, Obama wants to mend fences with Netanyahu to help Democratic front-runner Hillary’s Rodham Clinton’s chances for the White House. If voters think Hillary would continue the same poor relations with Israel, they may opt to vote for her primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or the GOP in the general election. Obama and Kerry spent too much time pushing for a two-state solution when Israel had no real peace partner. Abbas finds himself too closely aligned with Hamas, a known terrorist group at war with Israel, to negotiate any peace deal. Hamas hasn’t changed its commitment to destroy Israel one bit. Obama and Kerry ran into resistance pressuring Israel into negotiating with a sworn terrorist enemy. When Vice President Joe Biden visits Israel later this week, it should shed light on whether Netanyahu plans to meet with Obama.
