Irrefutable and indefensible President Obama has insulted our allies, and spoken softly to our opponents. He has charmed our enemies while issuing overt, harsh-toned double-sided backhands to those we count our dearest friends. In the book I detail relationships with European and South American nations that have suffered this ruthless pragmatism. But this week we saw it on a grander scale in up close living color.
Up until Thursday's "Arab Spring" outreach speech, Mr. Obama had, with recent events, a notably better run on the foreign policy stage, thanks mostly to his kill decision to go get Usama bin Laden. In the polls he saw a minor bump in his approval ratings, and he had touted the accomplishment in his speech at the border where he discussed--immigration.
But most gains in his approval over the Usama kill are now in the process of being wiped out as the arrogance of his speech delivered Thursday on the issue of muslim outreach landed a backhanded sting to Jews living in the United States and especially to those living in Israel.
The demand--or as Obama's handlers would classify it--"request" of Israel to move their forces back to the 1967 borders was perceived as not only a rebuke to Israel, but an overt move to weaken them militarily, and to put them on defense against Islamic radical, Palestinian stirred, Hamas funded terrorist propaganda.
Within hours news organizations were able to release polls that demonstrated a 67% disapproval rating of President Obama's handling of Israel, her alliance with the United States, and the general tenor of the relationship between the two vital allies. Mark my words--this most recent slap at Israel's face, piling on to other great feats like famously keeping Israel's Prime Minister waiting for hours in White House holding rooms while he went off to eat dinner, attend to other business, and generally just blow off steam, will damage President Obama in the general election with jewish votes, but almost as important with jewish campaign contributions.
As a matter of fact, over the course of my short forty-one years, I'm hard pressed to remember another President who handled his relationship with Israel as poorly and as badly and as publicly as has Barack Obama.
His coarse treatment of our most important ally in the region bodes very badly for the U.S. and our interests. His personal dislike for Israel's internal politics should be very much divorced from his negotiation with Israel on behalf of you and I, "We The People." Sadly the President seems unable to distinguish for himself any difference between his job as President and his personal political opinion of what he thinks of Israel, her people, and their government.
What he needs to understand, and understand clearly, is that we depend upon Israel's nuclear, military, and economic vibrancy in the region to prevent the entire middle eastern region from turning into one big radical Islamic ghetto. For if Israel was not there, that is exactly what the rest of the world would be facing.
But let's move beyond the geo-political, radical worldview, pro-Palestinian/Islamic activist positions held by President Obama--what about some just plain old common sense?
If you have a meeting scheduled for the following day with a nation that you may have some differences with, isn't it far better to address them in private? The result of Thursday's speech is that the United States and Israel are perceived to be at odds with each other. And while the leaders of those nation's may be, the people of the United States overwhelmingly love the nation of Israel and wish her success with her own defense, economic vitality, and self determination.
Lastly to make matters worse, according to reports, President Obama assured Israel, prior to his speech, that there would be no "surprises."
Which perhaps you could argue that from his perspective--there probably weren't.
If President Obama is willing to kick in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's teeth by making him wait for hours in a White House holding room in 2010, what's to keep him from embarrassing the Prime Minister on the world stage while courting Israel's enemies 2011?
The rest of America does not share President Obama's fascination and curiosity over the Arab Spring. I'm not arguing that any of us are hostile to muslims, but I am stating clearly that appeasing them and coddling them, and making them coo is not nearly as important to any of the rest of us as it is to President Obama.
Ultimately "We The People" are growing tediously weary with a President who has clarity enough to kill our enemy one day, but take repeated opportunities to insult our long standing allies for days and weeks following.
And somebody inside the President's inner circle might want to let him know!
Kevin McCullough
Kevin McCullough is the nationally syndicated host of "The Kevin McCullough Show" weekdays (7-9am EST) & "Baldwin/McCullough Radio" Saturdays (9-11pm EST) on 215 stations & Sirius/XM . His new book from Thomas Nelson Publishers, "No He Can't" hits streets March 2011.
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