They also expose his priorities.
Free State Patriot Editor, Mark Caserta
In their first Oval Office meeting in 2009, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shook hands and agreed to do everything possible to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Since that time, U.S. relations with our longtime ally in the Middle East have gotten “progressively” worse while the prospects for a nuclear-armed Iran are heightening.
Rather than choosing to foster our 60-year friendship with the Jewish State and living up to his promise of support, Obama has proceeded to ostracize Israel and barter with her enemies. This dangerous shift of support has emboldened anti-Semitic nations by muddying the political waters where U.S. support of Israel is concerned.
But a recent show of diplomatic ineptness by Obama may have delivered an irreparable blow to relations between Israel and the United States, at least for the duration of his presidency.
And two years is a very long time.
Shortly after Obama delivered his 2015 State of the Union address, House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress. The move was perceived by Democrats as a rebuke to the president’s repeated threat to veto new sanctions against Iran and disrupt negotiations with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. But to Republicans, the move was necessary to avoid a very poor deal which would result in a potential nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Obama’s decision not to meet with Netanyahu during his visit to the U.S. was met with great disdain and questioned by many on Capitol Hill. But the White House defended the move as standard operating procedure.
“As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan. “Accordingly, the president will not be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu because of the proximity to the Israeli election, which is just two weeks after his planned address to the U.S. Congress.”
But many believe that not only did the Obama administration not adhere to principle by avoiding influencing the Israeli election, they may have attempted to manipulate its outcome.
A bipartisan Senate committee is now investigating the possibility the Obama administration may have aided efforts to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu in last week’s election. Reportedly, the investigation focuses on State Department grants to a non-profit group that has been leading field organizing efforts openly aimed at replacing Netanyahu’s conservative government with a “center-left” coalition.
Obama’s actions, besides being nave and adolescent, betray his convictions. For what purpose does Obama seek to pave the way for a nuclear-armed Iran? And in what world can Iran be trusted with a nuclear weapon? It would almost certainly result in a third World War!
It’s past time for a bipartisan effort by Congress to rein in this president’s radical agenda.
The world is, indeed, on fire. And Barack Obama is fanning the flames.
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page
Free State Patriot 
Leave a Reply