U.S. in diplomatic depression

Iran nuclear deal proves to ignite frustrations between Netanyahu, Obama

Last week, Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected as prime minister of Israel despite the best efforts of President Barack Obama’s administration.
Netanyahu promised before his election there would not be a Palestinian state under his watch, much to the chagrin of the U.S. administration. The president and his foreign policy team, who have been trying to strike a deal with the Iranian government over the past few weeks, have been treating our allies like our enemies and our enemies like our allies.

Multiple White House officials have attacked Netanyahu for his comments on the Iranian-U.S. deal despite his apologies and redactions of his statements.

“We cannot simply pretend that those comments were never made or that they don’t raise questions about the prime minister’s commitment to achieving peace through direct negotiations,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said at the pro-Israel J Street conference.

Yet it does not seem to bother those same people that Ayatollah Khamenei declared “Death to America” at his New Year’s message. This statement, as CNN reported, is seen by the Obama administration as merely “intended for a domestic political audience,” and State Secretary John Kerry recently remarked, “We have great respect — great respect — for the religious importance of a fatwa.”

This comical double standard is summarized well in Jeryl Bier’s article in the Weekly Standard.

“Even for veteran observers of Middle Eastern policies, it must be disorienting to witness the benefit of the doubt extended to the worst state sponsor of terrorism whose ‘Supreme Leader’ wishes ‘Death to America,’ while this nation’s closest ally in the Middle East (and also a target of death wishes by Iran’s supreme leader) is met with the wounded lament, ‘I think we just don’t know what to believe at this point,’” Bier wrote.

Obama’s actions are grounded in an almost apologetic mindset for the position of authority the United States has gained in the world. From Russia’s gains in Eastern Europe to Syria’s crossing of Obama’s “red line” in dropping chemical weapons on its citizens, the administration has been showing a “strange new diffidence” that has many around the world terrified.

“The common theme in all these examples is that somehow the United States (or its allies) is portrayed as being culpable for current problems,” Military historian Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote.

This theme is being played out daily as Christians are warned not to judge ISIS because of the Crusades, and the military budget has been cut to historically low levels.

It reflects even more in the American political environment where the Democratic Party “has moved from being a traditional American, pro-Israel Democratic Party to a European-style left wing, mostly anti-Israel party” according to Bill Kristol. The Democrats, who have relied heavily on coalitions for the last 30 years, may be driving their pro-Israel faction out of the party all together. It may not be sudden, but this shift could take place, and it is up to Republicans to see the opportunity to capitalize off of the president’s poor policies.

SUTHERLAND is an opinion editor.