Head in the Clouds

William Bigelow, writing for the Breitbart news blog. has pretty much dissected John Kerry’s recent “head in the clouds” comments about the Israel-Palestine conflict.  In essence Kerry, while visiting Turkey,  nonsensically said that fixing this festering decades-long Middle East conflict is a precursor to solving the growing world-wide Islamic extremism issue. Read Bigelow’s reasoning here in this Breitbart Posting.  

In his typical pontificating manner, our Secretary of State has re-iterated what is essentially the Obama administration’s implicit policy toward Israel (despite his protestations to the contrary when Obama recently visited there.)  This policy (as demonstrated by the President’s actions and not his words) is, “Israel is the roadblock to peace there and will need to relent and retreat if a “two-state solution” is ever to occur between Israel and the Palestine Authority.”

Kerry is extending this naive and simplistic solution outward to what is the very complicated and grave problem … that of Islam’s reawakened quest for a world-wide caliphate.  Unfortunately, this is the kind of simplistic thinking in which our State Department all too often dabbles.  But then, what can we expect from a man who has repeatedly condemned his own country on the world stage.

Butter

President Obama’s recent Mideast tour was so laden with butter that the arteries of all involved must be crying out for mercy.  The President released $500 million to the Palestinians and donated $200 million to King Abdullah of Jordan to help with his Syrian refugee problem.  He gave a stirring belly-rub to Israeli students in a speech in Jerusalem (for this whole tub of oleo read: Political Ticker).  He spoke to the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank promising a new start to the peace process with the aim of a “contiguous” Palestinian state … see: Algemeiner Story.  (A contiguous Palestinian state, of course, is an impossibility.) He also appeased the Turks by having Bibi Netanyahu call them to apologize for an Israeli attack on a Turkish blockade-running ship in 2010 … see: Breitbart Story ...  even though the U.N. has determined that this raid was justified.

What is not so clear is what dairy product Obama promised to Israeli's President, Netanyahu.  It must have been considerable for Netanyahu to eat so much humble pie and allow Obama so much purchase in this tour.  Many suspect that the United States has given Israel the green light to attack Iran … and maybe threw in a few bunker-buster bombs to boot.  If he did, it goes against what I have been predicting and what appeared to me to be U.S. policy vis-à-vis Iran … allowing it to get the bomb and then guarantee “containment” (a public promise to retaliate if Iran were to use this weapon.)  I hate to be so cynical, but if this was the ton of margarine promised and, if the U.S. does not follow through with this commitment, U.S.-Israel relations may be forever destroyed … just like the country, Israel.