The UNdoing of Israel

This week there will be a series of arm-waving speeches at the UN headquarters in New York City regarding an attempt by the Palestine Authority to establish itself as a full voting member of the General Assembly ... as opposed to its current PLO observer status.  Were this to happen, this will mean that the UN will de facto recognize Palestine as a legitimate state.  This obviously cannot happen as then there will be zero leverage for Israel in its negotiations with the Palestinians toward mutual state recognitions ... and this 65-year old conflict, in turn, would continue to be an open sore for a long, long time.  Therefore, the United States may be forced to issue a veto of this resolution in the Security Council and further paint itself as an anti-Arab force in world politics.

The Barry has brought this embarrassing situation upon himself (and us) with his misguided rhetoric and misunderstanding (hopefully) of the consequences of same (see: Obama's Axle Wrap).  See my thoughts on this Obama-boner here.  According to John Bolton, our UN Ambassador under Bush 43, in previous similar situations, the United States has gone to the UN member states to whom we give foreign aid and threatened to withdraw this aid if a vote for Palestinian General Assembly membership were to occur.  This kept this genie in a bottle for the last twenty years.  Now, with his chin high and a wave of his hand, President Obama has given up this leverage. Was the naivete or purposefulness on his part? 

You decide ...

Connecting the Dots

Last Friday, a man whom I have admired greatly, George Mitchell, abruptly resigned his position as the U.S. Envoy to the Middle East (see: George Mitchell Leaves.) Now, less than a week later, President Obama makes a stilted speech on the Middle East ... the main point of which was to call for Isreal to return to its pre-1967 borders with the Arab world.  This is obviously a shock to Israel and many thinking Americans ... particularly one day before Israel's Prime Minister, Netanyahu, is planning to visit the White House.  If Netanyahu now cancels this meeting I would not be the slightest bit surprised.

But the real point of this blog post is ... is this why George Mitchell resigned?  I sure hope so.

Crisis Management

President Obama has had more than his share of crises. To whit:
- near domestic financial meltdown
- Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis
- escalating medical-care costs crisis
- collapsing Euro crisis
- North Korea belligerency (including torpedo attack)
- multiple domestic terrorist attacks
- South/Central America swinging left
- Pakistan/Afghanistan insurgency crisis
- illegal immigrant crisis (including new Arizona law)
- Iran going-nuclear crisis
- unemployment crisis
- continuing Arab/Israeli crisis
- looming U.S. national debt crisis
- a critical shortage of wagyu beef

The question poses itself: How well has he and his administration handled these crises?

 ala Keystone Kops
 “it’s all Bush’s fault”
 used as an opportunity to push their agenda
 with aplomb
 very professionally/all under control

Please cast your vote from the above … or chose your own designation.