Only days before the U.S. re-inaugurates Obama for a second 4-year term, and a week before Israelis vote to elect a government to replace the ruling one Benjamin Netanyahu formed in 2009, Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren appeared before a packed L.A. theater house to shore-up core support for the bilateral relationship between America and her greatest Mid-East ally, Israel. Pres. Barack Obama has been criticized for meddling to damage Netanyahu's Likud Beitenu party re-election.
Over the course of his term, for U.S. government leadership roles which deal with Islamism and Zionism, Pres. Barack Obama has nominated candidates with strong pro-Islam, pro-Palestine, (and, in some cases, anti-Zionist) worldviews- starting in 2009 with Chas Freeman (not approved) and Samantha Power (approved). The issue has been revived with Congressional opposition to Obama's nomination of U.N. Amb. Susan Rice for Secretary of State recently. The Obama Administration has endeavored to scapegoat supporters of Israel as a disloyal, fifth-column impediment to the approval of his philo-Muslim, cabinet nominees- Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, John Brennan for Director of the C.I.A., and Sen. John Kerry for Secretary of State.
While Obama's Administration works to demonize those who support Israel, Amb. Michael Oren (who has taught history at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown Universities) appeared in Los Angeles to boost the morale and dedication for support for Israel. In his 3rd year of making history as Israel's U.S.-based, chief diplomat, the 1979- American-emigrant to Israel reminded the Saban Theater audience about the long-standing commonalities between America's founding fathers and the re-establishment of Jewish Israel, their respective countries' biblical guiding principals, and their common dedication to freedom and democracy. In this half-hour talk, video-chronicled by DemoCast, Amb. Oren addresses the historic reciprocal support among Americans and Israelis.
Mr. Richard Sandler, chairman of the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, who along with the Israeli Consulate to the Southwestern U.S., co- sponsored the event, introduces Amb. Oren to a standing ovation from the Saban Theater audience.
Amb. Oren talks about the history of Zionism in the establishment of America - and America's contribution to the establishment of Israel. Amb. Oren also reminds the audience of Israel's affinities for America- as the only country in the Middle East with statue memorials to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the victims of September 11, 2001 attacks.
Amb. Oren followed his speech with this revealing, wide-ranging interview with TV journalist and anchorman of Good Day L.A., Steve Edwards, of Channel 11- KTTV.
Here is a cameraphone video of the West Point Choir joining the IDF Choir in singing the Israeli National Anthem, Hatikvah ("The Hope") which Amb. Oren referenced in his remarks.
The Israeli newspaper, Makor Rishon, has reported that Amb. Oren has requested to end his tenure in the spring of 2013, when he will have completed 4-years. The newspaper reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu favors his political adviser, Ron Dermer, to succeed Michael Oren in the U.S. Mr. Dermer co-authored the book, “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror’’ along with former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician Natan Sharansky.
Showing posts with label diplomacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diplomacy. Show all posts
20130117
20110823
The Arab Spring/Summer signals the autumn for Western illusions of Middle East stability
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| Triumphant: A group of rebels ride through the centre of Tripoli yesterday as others fought running battles with pro-Gaddafi troops as they battled to save the city (Photo: Daily Mail) |
The fall of the Libyan capital represents a clear victory for freedom over tyranny, they tell us, and a new country — defined by an enthusiastic embrace of democracy, pluralism and representative government — will emerge. However, we have been here twice before in the Middle East in recent months. First, when Tunisia’s strongman, Zine El-Abidene Ben Ali, fled Tunis, and then when Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak vacated the presidential palace in Cairo.
Rebel leader Abdul Jalil says his opposition forces had chosen to start their first attack on Tripoli on the 20th day of Ramadan, which marks the ancient Islamic Battle of Badr, when Muslims fought for the holy city of Mecca in AD 624. That hardly inspires confidence in a secular, liberal future for Libya.
The fiercely independent Islamists, moreover, will not relent on their demands for an Islamist state. In the transitional council’s draft constitution it is clearly stated that Islamic law will be ‘the principal source of legislation’. Nato, then, can at best achieve replacing the Gaddafi regime with an Islamist-infiltrated tribal council. And that means Libya is as far as ever from being a Western-style democracy. Indeed, it is more likely to turn into the West’s worst nightmare.Rachel Lipkin, the Egyptian born Jewess and ex-Israeli government interpreter, gleans info from studying Arab media. Her husband, Avi Lipkin, interprets it and shares it in books, videos, and lectures in English. Last week, he presented his interpretation of the differences between Western culture and Arab/Islamic culture in a presentation to LA's ACT! for America, San Fernando Valley Chapter.
In "The End of Normal," Daniel Greenfield of Sultan Knish, illuminates the social, cultural, and political distinctions which Westerners mis-understand in forging treaties with Muslim cultures which don't abide by Western expectations.
Western diplomats have been convinced that solving the Rubik's Cube of the Muslim-Israeli conflict is the key to regional stability. But the Arab Spring disproves it on both points.
The Arab Spring is a reminder that it is only a bit player in the larger dramas of the Muslim world. A scapegoat for Muslim states who come to terms with it behind the scenes, while using their state controlled media to spread paranoid and bigoted conspiracy theories about it. And a reminder that no treaty can create regional stability when it can hardly outlast the men who sign their names to it.
Even if a Palestinian state is created, what of the Kurds, who have also acted as the Palestinians of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. And what of the countless stateless ethnic and religious minorities in the region. What of the Iranian refugees in Camp Ashraf who duplicate on a smaller scale the dilemma of Palestinian refugee camps. Even if all these people received their own micro-states, the violence would still not end. And if it somehow did, that would only mean less proxy warfare through terrorist groups and more direct confrontations between regional armies. Is that something anyone really wants?
The Middle East has never been normal, or rather it is as close to normal for a baseline that goes back thousands of years. The progressive model applied to the West has no relevance to its Muslim conquerors. And there is no normalization to be had anywhere here.
If the Arab Spring has accomplished anything, it is to destroy the illusion that a treaty signing and a handshake will stabilize the region and allow Israeli mothers to stop worrying about their sons. These childish ideas have created an entire peace industry built on expectations that have not been realized anywhere in the region.
It is a moral and mental laziness that the peace depends upon. A willingness by the public to believe sentimental slogans about the power of love and of politicians to think that a shortcut to market stability can be reached with territorial concessions and foreign aid. This laziness carries as high a price as war, but with far less to show for it.
The Pax Americana is losing its grip on the Middle East, and its American and European leaders are pressuring the one country still intimidated by them. The one regional democracy that they can count on as an ally.
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