When President Obama was here earlier in the year, he said, “Atem lo levad” – “Israel is not alone.” Today I want to underline this message, particularly in the context of the question that now dominates discussion of Israel’s security – the question of Iran’s nuclear program.Zvi responds:
I want to address two aspects of the nuclear question in particular.
The first is reassurance.
To say as clearly as I can that when it comes down to the question of how to deal with the program, we are not going to do a “bad deal.” Nor will we stand by as the Iranians continue to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons.
The second is opportunity. To emphasize that despite all the risks, we have a small window of opportunity to test whether there can be a negotiated solution or not. The Iranians have shown a more positive approach in recent weeks, and the only way to find out if that is for real is to test it in negotiations.
If only that were so. But it is increasingly clear that western governments have abandoned not only principles but basic common sense as well. Obama's ludicrously stupid foreign policy rewards enemies and punishes allies, destroying not only Israel's trust in the US (and western governments in general) but also American influence in the region. And that is just plain dangerous.
Obama's foreign policy is an absolute disaster, the likes of which we have not seen in decades. Carter was such a disaster, but had the great good fortune to benefit from Sadat's unexpected and dramatic flight to Jerusalem. Obama has the Arab Spring, and has utterly failed to use it to advance sane interests. Instead, he empowers the strongest of the most viciously anti-human rights, anti-American and antisemitic forces in the region: the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The vacillating American President and his weak, naive Secretaries of State are consistently 20 years behind and 1000 miles away from reality.
More than that, they are consistently gullible and credulous when facing enemies and absurdly suspicious of the existential fears of long-time allies against whom these enemies are arrayed.
Israel cannot trust the American administration. There. I said it. I did not want to say it. I never want to have to say something like that. But it is true. Israel cannot AFFORD to trust an American administration that throws its long-time friends under the bus, alienates virtually every long-time ally and empowers those who would do them harm.
As for the UK - Ambassador Gould not withstanding, because I think that he is mostly a decent guy, for a British diplomat - is not with Israel. The UK has not been "with" Israel for a very long time. The UK's foreign policy is run by Arabists, who think that Israel is "that shitty little country." Its media is run by antisemites, who believe every lie that has ever been concocted about Israel. Its royals refuse even to visit Israel (but have visited the dictators of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, China, Tunisia, etc). Its "labour unions" boycott Israeli unions. Its academics largely refuse to stand up against the taunts and abuse of Jews and Israelis in British universities. Israel has been a true friend to the British government at times, but the other way around? Almost never.
If his Excellency wants to convince Israel that Britain is with Israel and won't compromise its security, then he will need to stop talking nonsense and change British policy.
"I am here with a simple message: It is in these challenging moments that Israel can take comfort that there are countries that will never compromise on Israel’s security. Britain is one of those countries."
Purest nonsense. The UK has sold out Israel's security again and again, from the Mandate period, when it locked Jews in concentration camps in Cyprus (but never did this to many of the illegal Arab immigrants who now claim to be "Palestinians"), to 1947, when British armed forces commanded or protected Arab military formations, until the present day. Israel has a hard-earned right to be deeply skeptical of British claims to have Israel's back; Israel has paid in blood for British decisions.
"If the Iranians are genuine, there is an opportunity to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in one of world’s most unpredictable regions."
The Iranians are NOT genuine on this. They have never been genuine on this topic. To anyone with a very basic understanding of the Middle East, actions always speak far more loudly than sunny propaganda. Only a government of fools takes its eyes off the real world and lets PR firms hired by dictatorships shape its reality. Ahmadinejad was not the problem; Khamenei's regime is the problem.