I am sad and even ashamed to say it, but our U.S. President Barack Obama, in his first 100 days in office, has clearly and unmistakeably shown the world, and Israel, his true colors. And they are not pro-Israel.
We could start with his bowing to the Moslem Saudi Arabian King Abdullah when he met him recently at the G20 summit in London. Almost every American, and probably all Israelis, took this as a serious insult. How could the leader of the world's greatest democratic and pro-Christian nation bow himself to the leader of the world's leading autocratic and Moslem nation? And then, how could he further demean himself by denying his bowing, when we all saw him do it with our own eyes? Would he bow before the Jewish president or prime minister of Israel? I wouldn't bet on it.
A few days later in Instanbul, Turkey, the new U.S. president sent another diplomatic punch Israel's way by endorsing the 2002 Saudi Arabian plan for their idea of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. Never mind the five so-called peace agreements that the Palestinian leadership had already agreed to and signed. The Saudi plan dictates that Israel should simply give the Arabs all the land areas of Judea, Samaria, Gaza, Golan, East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount for virtually nothing in return. The plan also demands that Israel welcome a million or more so-called Arab refugees into the Jewish state with full citizenship rights. Is it any wonder that this Saudi plan has had no acceptance in Israel? Yet Obama fully endorsed it.Before he left on that trip to Europe, Obama held a press conference in Washington, during which he was asked if it might be hard for him to work with the new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He confirmed that the ascendency of Netanyahu would "greatly impede peace efforts," and added that he would simply "have to be more persistent than his predecessors" in pressing for a Palestinian state.
Since then he has sent a special representative, former Senator George Mitchell, to Israel to face Netanyahu with the demand to make way for a Palestinian state immediately, if not sooner.
Likud partner, MK Gilad Erdan, expressed the feelings of the Israeli government and all the people, I believe, when he responded, "Israel does not take orders from President Obama." He added, "In voting for Netanyahu, Israel has decided not to become the 51st U.S. state."
When the Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, made a trip to the U.S. recently to share fresh intelligence about Iran's nuclear facilities, he was humiliatingly snubbed by the Obama administration. He was not allowed to see the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, or even his own counterpart, the Joint Chief of Staff. He was only allowed to see a lower level National Security Advisor's assistant. He had to cut his visit several days short, and commented, "They don't even want to talk about Iran, only about the Palestinian state."
Obama followed up this serious diplomatic snub by declaring a shift in U.S. policy toward Iran. He announced that he would drop U.S. insistence that Iran cease development of nuclear facilities, and that he would opt for face-to-face talks and negotiations instead. This, of course, was a strong slap in the face to Israel. He does not seem to take seriously the Iranians' threat "to wipe Israel off the face of the map." He doesn't seem to agree that nuclear bombs in the hands of the Iranians would be a certain existential threat to the nation and people of Israel.
Add to all this Obama's skirting of the U.S. Congress with a presidential order to give $900 million to the Hamas Arabs in Gaza, supposedly for the purpose of rebuilding the infrastructure that the Israelis damaged during the recent retaliatory invasion. Never mind that those Arabs have squandered previous millions of dollars in aid from various sources to build up their military capabilities to fight Israel, rather than spend them for things that would improve the lives and living conditions of their beleaguered people.
Top it all off by adding the special gift of $20 million to provide for several thousand Gazan Arabs to leave Gaza to resettle in the United States. That includes free trans-oceanic passage and help in finding new homes and jobs. Who can determine a sane rationalization for such an action as this? Doesn't it look exactly like rewarding terrorism? What are Israelis supposed to think about such a move?
I know what we Christians think about it, along with all the other recent Obama statements, decisions, and actions. It is obvious he is showing his true pro-Arab, pro-Moslem, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel colors. Loud and clear!
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Dr. Al Snyder is a former professor of Communications at Liberty University in Virginia and North Greenville University. He has done extensive missionary work in Israel and Africa.