Last Friday we heard White House plans to declassify documents showing that Samantha Power was on a “one-woman crusade” for the Palestinians and against Israel in 2016.
Power – Obama’s Ambassador to the United Nations – targeted any phone call made about Israeli settlements, unmasked the caller, and passed the information to Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who opened a Logan Act investigation. She did this repeatedly to get the message across about Obama’s true policy:
…the Obama-era policy of neutrality towards the Israel-Palestine conflict was a lie.
The former U.S. ambassador moved at such a rapid pace that she ended up “averaging more than one request for every working day in 2016,”… And she continued to seek identifying information about Americans caught up in incidental surveillance right up to President Trump’s inauguration.
This is significant. It means the Obama-era policy of neutrality towards the Israel-Palestine conflict was a lie, and the Obama administration used executive power in a clandestine fashion.
The deeper one looks, the bigger a lie the whole thing becomes. Until the full truth emerges, that is: with the entire Middle East, the Obama administration was pushing a far different policy than the one they presented to the public. This has resulted in long-lasting damage both in the Middle East, and America’s international standing.
HOW WE GOT HERE
Obama cashed in on a public weariness with the Iraq War to sail to the presidency.
Our first major event was the Arab Spring–the Egyptian Revolution that started in Tahrir Square in January 2011 and led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Led by a seemingly secular, liberal youth, this movement used the Eastern European revolutions as a handbook. It was a time of immense false promise, where people hoped the Arab world would finally turn around and find liberation.
But the hope of Tahrir Square turned to fear as the Muslim Brotherhood took power in the first succeeding election. The century-old Islamist party had a decided organizational advantage over the more fresh-faced activists of Tahrir Square. The Brotherhood put forward Mohammed Morsi who quickly consolidated their power and passed Islamist reforms and support for terror outfit Hamas.
With secular revolutionaries’ hopes dashed and rising concerns about the international chaos that could ensue from such radical policy changes, the military stepped in and replaced Morsi with General Sissi. This was probably the most popular military coup one could ever hear of.
Up to 33 million Egyptians flooded the streets supporting this so-called coup to kill any presumptions that it was some covert or sordid affair. While people lamented a revolution that couldn’t advance further, they were also relieved that it didn’t get much worse.
Around the same time New York Magazine ran its infamous article calling Obama America’s “ First Jewish President.” It argued, risibly, that given Israel’s wildly unpopular demands like defensible borders, they were extremely fortunate to have someone as friendly as Obama. The Obama administration marked the presidency’s first references to Israel’s “security needs.” But this would later prove to be only the official line.
Meanwhile, the administration pursued regime change in other countries like Libya and Syria. However, while Egypt had a relatively stable government and a homegrown revolution, Libya and Syria did not. With predictable results.
Pushing regime change with boots on the ground was bad, and pushing regime change without proved even more disastrous. Over 5 million people have been displaced from Syria since 2011 according to UNHCR. Libya has been reduced to medieval slave markets.
The scale of these humanitarian crises were unheard of in the Iraq War. But they were also completely ignored by the media.
This blackout laid the backdrop for the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, a deal which to this day is murky and unclear, as the Obama administration and its allies in media have sold to no end. All while Arab states and Israel warned it would embolden Iranian aggression and give nuclear capabilities to a hostile power and state sponsor of terror. Those fears were correct, as Iran-funded Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza prove.
The split between Obama and Netanyahu over the Iran deal was so bad Obama even tried to help the Israeli opposition parties get elected.
This split was only the harbinger of a much deeper chasm below. Not only between the Obama administration and Israel, but between the Obama administration’s stated policy and its actual policy.
FACTS VS FICTION
Stated, Obama assured that the security of Gulf states was his one of his primary concerns. But his actual policy reflected a desire to buy Iranian friendliness. If we somehow showed we were nice enough, Iran would join our community of free nations.
There would be good news, but it would come in under the radar, unreported. While the Gaza war of 2014 seemed to be just another in an interminable conflict, something changed.
For the first time, Israel’s Arab neighbors sat this one out, and did not pressure Israel to immediately cease hostilities. The war dragged for about a month. And while the usual charges were laid against Israel, its neighbors didn’t see a need to become involved.
Destabilized counties are much easier to shake down and financially rape, isnt that right Sid, Hillary, Biden?
This doesnt sound like satire anymore….https://www.duffelblog.com/2014/07/us-foreign-policy-destabilize-middle-east/