Driving Drunk Americana Style-

Thomas Friedman’s article in the Sunday New York Times explains the true problems that Israel is now facing, not just with the Palestinians, but now with a negative, borderline anti-Israel Obama administration.

So Thomas Friedman thinks we’re driving drunk. Maybe it is high time this arrogant administration and its lovers, i.e. people like Thomas Friedman, take a long hard look in the mirror. Thomas: who insulted whom?

From its ascendance the Obama administration has been borderline disrespectful with its ally Israel. President Obama and Hillary Clinton behave as if they bought Israel and it belongs to them.

This is not the situation, Thomas Friedman. You speak as if Israel could not survive without America. You call us America’s most “dependent” Ally.

Perhaps in reality America is instead Israel’s most “dependent” ally. Who kept the Soviets in check protecting American oil interests in the Middle East? Israel.

My friends in America, if not for Israel you would have had to invade a gulf state way before 2003 to control your flow of oil. It was Israel that kept the Saudis and Jordanians in power -- and did it militarily on a couple of occasions (i.e., Israeli F-4 Phantom runs on Syrian tank formations that were halfway to Amman to topple King Hussein!

You see, Thomas Friedman, you haven’t been in the neighborhood on a consistent basis for a long time. As always you knee jerk and blame Israel for an American problem.

President Obama got into this situation with Israel as he has with other problems he now faces: by believing his own rhetoric; by overestimating his powers of persuasion.

It is America and the Obama administration that is driving very drunk. The best sign of it is their blaming everyone else for their own failures. For instance blaming the whole population of Massachusetts for voting a Republican into Ted Kennedy’s senate seat.

President Obama never should have demanded Israel freeze settlement building. I am against building in the settlements. I believe Judea and Samaria will have to be given up when peace can be attained, but I saw that demand as a direct slap in the face of Israel.

If Obama wanted a settlement freeze he should have gotten it behind the scenes and diplomatically instead of broadsiding Israel. Thomas, friends do not let friends drive drunk, right? Israel should have closed up her notebook at that moment, left a note that said “When you decide to be fair about approaching the Peace Process and actually want to do things the right way, give us a call.”

Instead, Israel acted as she always does with America, as a true ally would and went about finding an avenue to make the American government happy, while keeping the citizens of Israel happy. That is how the ten-month settlement freeze came into being. As I have stated many times before this was an unprecedented favor that no Israeli government has even acceded to before. What was the American response, eh?

That was not only an insult but an immense slap across the face of Israel. Not to mention the fact that the Palestinian response was spitting on Prime Minister Netenyahu’s generous offer as if it were garbage. Much like what Arafat did at Camp David and the Taba negotiations.

It was also extremely naive and you should know well to think the Arabs would play ball just because Obama gave a speech of appeasement in Cairo.

It is not normal for a friend to slap his friend around in order to make that friend’s enemies happy, but that is exactly what the Obama administration has been doing with Israel.

I want to touch again on Thomas Friedman’s accusation that Israel is America’s most “dependent” ally. Friedman forgets that Israel could have been militarily independent long ago if not for America. In the eighties Israel invested what would be billions today on the research and development of the Lavi fighter jet. When it was finished it became an immediate threat to the United States. Why? Because this plane was actually better than anything that the Americans had or were about to develop. So the Americans crushed it, but in doing so promised Israel that she would be taken care militarily from that point on.

Now, you have the nerve to say Israel is Americas most dependent ally. Israel, the same country that loses billions because the Americans do not want us to sell the Chinese the Falcon AWACS plane because it might give them an advantage against Taiwan. Does America take Israel into interest when she sells Egypt state of the art military equipment? No.

Thomas Friedman’s attitude is proof of how arrogant and insulting this administration has been with Israel. You do not own us; you do not control us. It is enough that we are waiting for America -- chancing what could be a nuclear attack from Iran so that America can attempt to appease Iran. As we did in the First Gulf War we are standing by America: not defending against what could be another Holocaust for us; taking a risk far more dangerous for us than it is for America and Americans. The thanks we get are slaps across our face from a hostile administration.

Israel and Israelis are more than ready to compromise for Peace, but we will not be slapped around -- not even by the mighty United States, Mr. Friedman. So, when you wake from your hangover, we will be ready and waiting to make peace … the right way.