Has Obama Run Away?

The president doesn’t open his emotional center. He doesn’t melt every time somebody in the Middle East whines and doesn’t get excited about speeches of Bar-Ilan production.

I’ve got some not-so-strange feeling that we need to profoundly study Obama’s line of conduct concerning the attack in Libya and how he’s planning to proceed and act in this area. Obama apparently told his esteemed companions in Europe: “Dear friends, Libya is in your backyard. Why don’t you put fighters in the air and do most of the job on your own?”

I’m leaving for a second the journalistic pestering that attempts to make drama and accuse Obama of evasion or hesitation. In any report, article or TV debate, a flashing headline pops up under the picture: “Obama Has Run Away.” What’s the actual purpose of this heads-up? To supply you a pyrotechnic interest for half a moment and erect your ears. And so that we dare not switch the channel because, in the next minute, we’re going to miss the hottest and the most important thing.

I’ve got a feeling that this headline has been concocted in the kitchen that usually cooks captions intended to keep us alert and shaken and on the same channel. For no one would take a pen and go little further and try to understand Obama’s behavior in-depth; for the item is on fire, and God forbid, lest it burn.

Obama, unlike other presidents, brings a different agenda in everything about war and killing – and this isn’t a surprise. This is something he had declared even before he was elected. Something else is apparent: He isn’t even half-interested in dismantling Libya.

This looks flaccid and weak from the side of an omnipotent president who doesn’t get up at that moment and stick a bullet in the head of everyone who breaks the balance in our round world, for he is a Sheriff – and the Sheriff should shoot to the right and to the left. But, as far as I understand, this is not the guy and this is not the Sheriff.

Honor to Sarkozy

I think, in this case, there were two reasons for the way the Libyan offensive is being carried out. One is that Obama by no means encourages options of murder but avoids them. Not because he’s scared or running away – because this is his policy, and in this way he tries to manage America’s business. And it looks like Libya simply does not appear in the book of interests.

And the second thing: This is a good opportunity to reinstate some governmental respect for Sarkozy, which has slipped through his fingers. Sarkozy will probably leave the Élysée Palace in the coming elections, so maybe it’s a chance to elevate him and enable him to leave as a leader who’s appreciated a little more. We’re familiar with these gestures from the prior events — a sort of leaders’ “one hand washes the other” — and there is something collegial in this.

However, all of this is only the opening page in the manual that we have to take in our hands, sit down and, with a lot of patience, learn by heart every letter. All of this should make us pause and consider very carefully our connection with Obama and his world view.

Because, if heaven forbid, something catches fire here in the region again, it’s not certain that Obama will rise, stop what he’s working on and do everything in his power as other presidents did. To us, it’s clear like the sun that Obama will come to help militarily with everything regarding our region, but he won’t be doing it because he likes or doesn’t like Israel; to us, it’s clear like the sun that the Jewish clan, which won’t leave him alone and has a great amount of potential strength, is our insurance policy.

So it’s true that interests are working in our favor, but nothing lasts forever and we won’t be able to walk around with our back straight and be able to command the state of affairs in the White House forever. Look at the fact that despite all efforts so far — and some signs of success — to bring President Obama to Israel at least once, he is not rushing to come here; he lets everyone related to the matter break their heads.

No Shoddy Work, No Manipulation

I think that Benjamin Netanyahu is an intelligent person, but he makes quite a few mistakes in all respects to strengthening our relationship with the Americans. He’s making mistakes because he’s faint of heart; because in very cardinal cases, Tzipi Hotovely* is more important to him than Obama; because a bunch of settlers with Katzele** and others greedy for land terrify him and he trembles in fear any time it comes to them and his chair.

I’ve got a feeling that Obama won’t give his hand with such generosity to all our requests and to the world outlook that Benjamin Netanyahu imposes here because he has no choice. Obama does not open his emotional center and does not melt anytime somebody in the region sobs in tears. And in all likelihood, he is not thrilled by addresses from Bar-Ilan***. Obama is cold, sharp and very American; there is the book and there are very understandable interests. And there is no shoddy work and no manipulation.

It’s going to be much worse in the coming months when the U.N. decides about its almost sweeping support for the establishment of the Palestinian state; there is a probability that the Americans, faced with little choice, will veto it but vomit their soul out of anger – and this will certainly not work in our favor.

If the prime minister doesn’t soon succeed in studying Obama’s instruction book sentence after sentence, stopping speeches that cause ear pain and making a difference in such a way that the change would create another milieu of thinking and action, we’ll keep on writing in the headline down there that Obama has run off – and we’ll come out losers.

Shabat shalom,
Eyal Gefen

Translator’s Notes:
* A rising star in the Likud party – the youngest (32) member of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament); an attorney with a Bachelor's and Master's degree (with honors) and a doctorate law student.
** Ya’akov Dov "Katzele" Katz is an Israeli politician, Knesset member for the religious National Union party which he currently heads and one of the settlers’ leaders.
*** Bar-Ilan Speech: Peace address delivered by Netanyahu on June 14, 2009 at the Bar-Ilan University, broadcasted live in Israel and across parts of the Arab world, on the topic of the Middle East peace process, following President Obama’s June 4 Cairo Speech. There he endorsed for the first time the notion of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.