By Andrew Bolt
Yossi Klein Halevi outlines just how far Barack Obama went out of his way this month to demonise Israel, and put it in yet more danger:
Suddenly, my city feels again like a war zone… (N)ow, again, there are clusters of helmeted border police near the gates of the Old City, black smoke from burning tires in the Arab village across from my porch, young men marching with green Islamist flags toward my neighbourhood, ambulances parked at strategic places ready for this city’s ultimate nightmare.
The return of menace to Jerusalem is not because a mid-level bureaucrat announced stage four of a seven-stage process in the eventual construction of 1,600 apartments in Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish neighbourhood in northeast Jerusalem… Ramat Shlomo, located between the Jewish neighbourhoods of French Hill and Ramot, will remain within the boundaries of Israeli Jerusalem according to every peace plan…
The answer lies not in Jerusalem but in Washington. … By placing the issue of building in Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem at the centre of the peace process, President Obama has inadvertently challenged the Palestinians to do no less….
Though Obama’s insistence on a settlement freeze to help restart negotiations was legitimate, he went a step too far by including building in East Jerusalem. Every Israeli government over the last four decades has built in the Jewish neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem; no government, let alone one headed by the Likud, could possibly agree to a freeze there. Obama made resumption of negotiations hostage to a demand that could not be met. The result was that Palestinian leaders were forced to adjust their demands accordingly….
In turning an incident into a crisis, Obama has convinced many Israelis that he was merely seeking a pretext to pick a fight with Israel… The popular assumption is that Obama is seeking to prove his resolve as a leader by getting tough with Israel. Given his ineffectiveness against Iran and his tendency to violate his own self-imposed deadlines for sanctions, the Israeli public is not likely to be impressed. Indeed, …according to an Israel Radio poll on March 16, 62% of Israelis blame the Obama administration for the crisis, while 20% blame Netanyahu….
Obama’s one-sided public pressure against Israel could intensify the atmosphere of “open season” against Israel internationally… To the fictitious notion of a peace process, Obama has now added the fiction of an intransigent Israel blocking the peace process.
His recklessness is endangering Israeli — and Palestinian — lives. As I listen to police sirens outside my window, Obama’s political intifada against Netanyahu seems to be turning into a third intifada over Jerusalem.
Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.
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Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Conniving Politicians, Democracy, Democrats, Israel, Jerusalem, Liberals, Middle East, Palestinian, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Andrew Bolt, East Jerusalem, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama Foreign Policy, Obama Israel Policy, Tony 
