Obama's First year - The Writing Was on the Wall

I am not surprised by President Obama's performance – since January 2009 - in face of unprecedented and simultaneous economic, social, national security challenges, domestically and internationally.

I am not surprised by President Obama, who was elected to the most difficult and complicated post – during a most unstable period internally and externally – in spite of his obvious lack of experience and superficial worldview.

Quo Vadis Obama?

The ties with the US constitute Israel's backbone militarily, diplomatically, financially, commercially and technologically.  These ties are not shaped exclusively by the President, even when the President's own party enjoys overwhelming majorities in both chambers of Congress. Much is shaped by the House and the Senate, sometimes in defiance of the White House. Moreover, Israel is not a classic-foreign-policy-issue.  Israel benefits from a unique foundation of mutual-values, which precedes its own establishment in 1948 and even 1776. US-Israel relations have constituted a win-win two-way street. How will they be impacted by the incoming Obama Administration?

“Defense Shmefense” – How not to combat Palestinian Terrorism

The more entrenched is the defensive state of Israeli mind – as has been the case since the 1993 Oslo Accord – the more intensified is Palestinian terrorism.

The Myth of the Demographic Machete

According to a groundbreaking AIDRG study, there is no need to retreat from Judea & Samaria Jewish geography, in order to secure Jewish demography. Such a perceived need is based on the assumption that Jews are, ostensibly, doomed to become a minority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

The Delusion of US Foreign Aid

Before Israel disburses the billions of dollars in US aid - to defray the cost of another Israeli retreat – the US has to approve such an aid package.  However, the chance of approving such a package is identical to the chance of Israel receiving US financial aid for previous retreats from Southern Lebanon, Northern Samaria and Gaza – Zero!

Bush-Sharon Summit: Misrepresentations Exposed

The Bush-Sharon Summit sheds light on a few misrepresentations, which have been promoted, since the April 2004 Summit, by supporters of the disengagement plan. The misrepresentations were employed in order to garner support for the retreat from Gaza and from – sparsely populated and strategically dominating – mountains of northern Samaria, and for the uprooting of Jewish communities there.

Wanted, Leadership in Jerusalem!

In 1967, the Israeli society was panicked by the deadly threat posed by the May 30 Egypt-Syria-Jordan anti-Israel military pact, by the brutal pressure of the US, France, Britain and the international community to refrain from a preemptive operation, by the deepening (20%) unemployment, and by escalating pessimism within the political and military leadership.

Prime Minister Levy Eshkol exercised leadership.  He was not swept by the weakness of the people, and he did not allow a transient somber reality to erode long term national strategic goals.  Instead, he leveraged the crisis as a springboard for a strategic upgrade.  He defied US and international pressure, launched the preemptive Six Day War, destroyed the infrastructure of the threatening enemy, rescuing the Jewish State from pending oblivion.  Eshkol, therefore, enhanced strategic appreciation of Israel, transforming the Jewish State from a "historical accident" to a factor of regional deterrence and a unique strategic ally of the USA.

Talk Hebrew, But Fight in Texanese

Senator Phil Gramm, The Texas Aggie, who was a powerful Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a presidential candidate, was astounded to hear from a prominent Hebrew University professor, that Israeli concessions could moderate the PLO.  "Professor", he responded, "I'm not a Mideast scientist.  But, I was told at Texas A&M, where I taught economics, that if your kids are threatened by a poison ivy, you don't water and fertilize it.  The only way to de-poison ivy is by uprooting it!"

President Bush's Ten Commandments

President George W. Bush considers Moses to be a role-model for a conviction-driven leadership, driven by the principles of justice (vs. the Axis of Evil), strategic thinking (vs. tactical cynicism) and tenacity (vs. hesitancy and vacillation).  President Bush and most of the American public and US Congress, viewe the Exodus from Egypt and the Ten Commandments as critical elements of the American culture, guiding George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in the 1976 Revolution and in the formulation of the US Constitution.

The President has presented his own Ten Commandments, in the combat against terrorist regimes, during his wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, which have been driven by values and strategic interests:

The Iraqi Die Was Cast

The die was cast, and the US war on Saddam's regime has been set in motion.  The transfer of the Central Command from Florida to the Gulf area, the completion of US military installations in Qatar and Northern Iraq (no-fly zone) suggest determination rather than indecisiveness. The lease, by the Pentagon, of Danish boats, specializing in the transport of tanks and armed personnel carriers indicate intent to employ ground forces, rather than just air force and navy bombings.  Accompanied by joint exercises between the US Marines and the Jordanian military not far from the Iraqi border, such developments send a lucid signal of purpose to destroy the Saddam regime.