Friday, May 20, 2011
By Gary L. Bauer
BREAKING NEWS!
After a White House meeting that ran nearly two hours longer than planned, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made joint statements just a few hours ago from the Oval Office. Obama went first, looking uncomfortable and sounding as if he was in “damage control” mode. Prime Minister Netanyahu responded and, quite frankly, looked and sounded presidential. He directly rejected Obama’s demands.
He reminded Obama that a peace based on an illusion would crash on the rocks of Middle Eastern reality. He directly rejected Obama’s call for Israel to return to the 1967 lines. “Israel cannot go back…because the lines are indefensible,” Netanyahu said. He told Obama that Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian government headed by Hamas and reminded Obama that Hamas condemned the killing of Osama bin Laden.
On the question of Palestinian refugees, Netanyahu pointedly told Obama that the refugee issue will not be settled within the land of Israel. In other words, Israel will not agree to demographic suicide. “That’s not going to happen,” he told Obama.
In closing, Prime Minister Netanyahu reminded Obama of the history of Israel and the Jewish people. (He was wise to do so since the president’s knowledge of history sometimes appears to go no further than the day of his own election.) He told Obama that through all the dark times, including the Holocaust, the Jewish people never lost “our dream” of reestablishing a state in their ancient homeland.
He told Obama, “We don’t have a margin of error.” Translation: You won’t push us into concessions with our enemies that could jeopardize our very existence.
This was an amazing moment. Of the two men sitting next to each other in the Oval Office today, only one understands the dangerous world we live in, and knows that weakness emboldens evil and makes war and defeat more likely. That man is not the president of the United States.
Obama Speech Generates Growing Backlash
The outrage is growing as analysts in Washington, D.C., and Jerusalem continue to pour over every word of Obama’s speech on the Middle East. Obama reneged on a key pledge made by the United States to Israel in 2004. As a result, he has undermined the value of our word in international relations with potentially terrible consequences for the future. He has demoralized the Israeli people and emboldened our mutual enemies.
In a 2004 letter, President George Bush outlined the U.S. position. Noting that large Israeli communities exist beyond the 1967 boundaries, Bush wrote, “…it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome” of peace talks would be a complete return to previous armistice lines. His letter was an attempt to reassure Israel that we would not pressure it to return to borders that are virtually impossible to defend.
Bush’s letter was endorsed by a bi-partisan resolution in the House of Representatives by a vote of 407-9. (Only one Republican voted “No” on this reasonable position — Rep. Ron Paul.)
One day later the resolution passed the Senate 95-3. One of those 95 “Yes” votes was then-Senator Hillary Clinton. Because of this presidential commitment, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was willing to take the risk of forcing 9,000 Israelis living in Gaza to leave their homes. Gaza promptly fell under the control of Hamas.
Obama’s speech essentially ripped up the commitment made by Bush and Congress. It puts in jeopardy over 350,000 Israelis who live in well-established communities on the “wrong” side of the border to which Obama now demands Israel retreat.
The “Obama border” would shrink Israel to a width of 8 miles in some areas. In Israel such a border is referred to as the “Auschwitz” border because it would increase the chances that the country would be overrun by its enemies, resulting in a second Holocaust.
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heard the speech yesterday, he was described as livid. He should be. His office issued a statement saying that in his meeting with Obama today, the prime minister expected “to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004.” But at this point what is a commitment from Obama worth? Next to nothing!
Last week thousands of Palestinian extremists threw themselves against the borders of Israel from all sides attempting to drown the tiny nation with a tidal wave of people dedicated to its destruction. Yesterday, Obama joined that mob attempting to erase the legitimate borders of our staunch ally.
If Obama succeeds, the most holy sites of Judaism and Christianity would be in the blood-soaked hands of Hamas, Hezbollah and the allies of Syria and Iran. Every pastor and rabbi should speak up and rally their congregations against this betrayal. Congress should immediately reaffirm the 2004 resolutions.
Working Now To Defeat Obama
I spent all day yesterday in a meeting with top conservative leaders. I can’t divulge the details because the meeting was confidential. But I do want to share an opinion voiced by a number of analysts. 2012 is going to be what they refer to as a base election.
Obama’s reelection strategy will depend on turning out massive numbers of liberal voters, just as he did in 2008. Who are they? College students, minorities, low-income single women and union members. Obama’s campaign knows it has a problem with independent voters. So the best shot he has at winning is to recreate the formula that elected him last time.
What does this mean for conservatives? While we must win more independent voters, we must also make sure we are doing everything possible to get every last like-minded person we have influence over registered to vote. If Obama is working to turnout liberal voters, we must be working hard to identify, register and turnout conservative voters.
Now, let me give you some good news. There are growing signs of “Obama fatigue” among his core liberal constituencies. For example, a survey of 500 recent college graduates found that 83% of them voted for Obama in 2008. But only 27% “are committed to voting for Obama again, and 80% said they would consider voting for a Republican.”
They got swept up in the hype about hope and change, but now many of them are unemployed. The stimulus bill was a colossal waste of money that saved government jobs, but cost hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs. Gas prices are soaring, and all Obama and his allies are promising to do about it is raise taxes.
I want to encourage you again, as I did earlier in the week, to find just one voter who you can persuade to support the Republican candidate in 2012. For many of you, it is very likely a child or grandchild in college or a recent graduate, who is probably very frustrated with the job market right now. Don’t give up on them!
GOP Senators Filibuster Obama Radical
Yesterday Senate Republicans (minus Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski) successfully filibustered the nomination of Professor Goodwin Liu, President Obama’s appointee to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. I’m glad Senate Republicans stopped him.
Liu was perhaps the most radical nominee for the federal bench I have seen in many years. Given Liu’s support of racial quotas, homosexual “marriage,” reparations for slavery, constitutional welfare rights and the use of international law to undermine the Constitution, he is on the fringes of the extreme left. You can learn more about his record here.
To give you some idea of just how radical Liu is, consider this: Five members of the “Gang of 14,” including one Democrat, voted to filibuster Liu! You may recall that the “Gang of 14” was the group of senators who negotiated a deal to break the stalemate on judicial filibusters in 2005.
Obama’s Lawless Administration
Barack Obama’s disastrous foreign policy is increasingly running afoul of U.S. law. As we recently reported, current U.S. law prohibits American foreign aid from going to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas or other terrorist groups are part of the government there.
President Obama admitted in his speech yesterday that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have now merged. But there is no indication yet that the Administration is going to comply with the law and stop sending your tax dollars to the newly-formed Palestinian/Hamas coalition.
Here’s another example. During the 2008 campaign, Obama repeatedly promised to end Bush’s “war of choice,” referring to Iraq. But now, he’s launched his own “war of choice” in Libya. And unlike George W. Bush, Obama does not have congressional approval for his “kinetic military action.” Today, Obama hits the 60-day limit under the War Powers Act that allows the president to conduct military operations without Congress’ support.
Five Republican senators sent Obama a letter asking if he intends to “comply with the requirements of the War Powers Resolution.” Surely the White House knew this day was coming, but evidently Obama has not yet asked Congress for a vote! Perhaps that is because Obama fears he might lose the vote. One member of the House said that Obama is trying to “bring democracy to Libya while shredding the Constitution of the United States.” And that was California Democrat Brad Sherman!
My friends, I’ve said it before and I will say again: The GOP nominee, whoever it is, won’t be perfect. But our most important goal is getting Obama and his socialist gang out of the White House!
