69 million page views

Regarding "Obama's Hollow Promises Abroad"

Reader comment on item: Obama's Hollow Promises Abroad

Submitted by Allen Z. Hertz (Canada), Feb 12, 2014 at 04:46

Daniel Pipes tells just half of the story in pointing to the sheer emptiness of President Obama's promises to USA friends and allies. This would cause us to believe that President Obama is perhaps without a game plan. If so, I beg to differ, because I firmly believe that he has a grand strategy. And, even one that has a fair chance of success -- principally because Russia, China and Iran will immediately perceive that President Obama's plan would enhance their own interests and critically weaken the USA, which Obama wants to see out of the Mideast.

Quite remarkably, President Obama has already said that there's less than a 50% chance for the success of the three sets of current negotiations about Iran, Israel and Syria respectively. He also has very curiously opined that all three negotiations are connected. Really? Are they in any substantial sense already connected? If so, how are they already connected? Rather, President Obama is significantly telling us that he will connect them!

My reading is that, with respect to Iran, President Obama is planning an imminent crisis which he wants to coincide with the likely collapse of the bilateral peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Specifically, President Obama wants the three different issues of Iran, Israel and Syria to align. He hopes to achieve this alignment in the short term, and in any event well before the November 2014 Congressional elections.

With references to "peace in our time" and also the possibility of some recourse to force, President Obama will likely use this imminent global crisis to convince Iran to "agree" to go no further than "threshold nuclear state," just like Japan. To get this (perhaps worthless) commitment from Iran, he will probably pay Iran in gold coin, i.e. denuclearizing Israel's defense. Namely, President Obama is likely planning to trade off Israel's nuclear weapons for little more than a piece of paper bearing an Iranian promise to stop short of actually building a nuclear weapon.

Shafting Israel in the cause of world peace? Sounds like both a Muslim and left-liberal winner to me! It also has that element of prima facie plausibility that might successfully snow independents in the USA. Could even get President Obama a second Nobel Prize.

In the same way, President Obama will probably try to force Israel to withdraw from the Golan to pay for Iran's consent to a Syrian outcome to be proposed by the USA and agreed by the rest of the P5+1.

Part of this big package would also be creation of a new Palestinian State in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This outcome would likely also be imposed by Iran together with the P5+1, as part of the aforementioned diplomatic bargain "to preserve the peace of the world."

Moreover, there is perhaps a chance that such a new Palestinian State might also include a land bridge linking Gaza with the West Bank; or Israel might even lose all of the Negev. Once the fate of the Jewish State is to be decided without the Israel government in the room, who knows what will happen?

This was done to Czechoslovakia in 1938. President Obama is making every effort to do this to Israel in 2014. As suggested by the structure of the June 2009 Cairo speech, President Obama has from the beginning been out to get Israel not Iran. In essence, President Obama plans to ride the Iran crisis as a way to render Israel virtually defenseless, just as in 1938 Czechoslovakia was strategically crippled by the cession of the Sudetenland.

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Submit a comment on this item

Reader comments (27) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
the EU's hollow promises, Ukraine's hollow promises [191 words]mythFeb 20, 2014 14:08213313
Why are we surprised ? [81 words]Stephen H. ChopekFeb 24, 2014 15:00213313
the Ukrainian problem goes back to hollow promises [353 words]mythMar 2, 2014 13:52213313
¡NO PASARAN! [5 words]Charlie Wilson IIMar 10, 2014 22:07213313
Iran [21 words]Mark DFeb 17, 2014 20:23213262
China [60 words]Mark DFeb 17, 2014 20:21213261
public perception [122 words]mythFeb 20, 2014 14:17213261
1Russia: Sealing the New Quality of Its Foreign Policy [82 words]mythFeb 14, 2014 11:29213203
2It is not only Obama [763 words]AlexandrosFeb 14, 2014 11:02213201
1a Falklands moment [109 words]mythFeb 13, 2014 17:08213187
Obama s an irritant and nauseating. [54 words]NuritGFeb 13, 2014 01:08213173
Obama's Hollow Promises Abroad [59 words]steven LFeb 12, 2014 22:25213170
Iran Sticks Their Fleet In Our Eye [88 words]DaveFeb 12, 2014 21:58213168
2Limited american power [136 words]Lars NielsenFeb 12, 2014 19:23213164
Depends what's next [111 words]MikeFeb 13, 2014 16:37213164
Thank You Mike [156 words]Lars NielsenFeb 14, 2014 09:05213164
Limited American power [162 words]Mike melcherFeb 17, 2014 07:41213164
Hi Mike Points taken [173 words]Lars NielsenFeb 19, 2014 19:17213164
Limited American power [164 words]Mike MelcherFeb 24, 2014 14:38213164
Hi Mike [274 words]Lars NielsenMar 1, 2014 10:39213164
2Bipartisan faliure [370 words]Ron ThompsonFeb 12, 2014 17:32213162
The Phony-in-Chief [96 words]A.T. HalmayFeb 12, 2014 09:21213154
2So when was the USA a reliable partner? [28 words]Mark WerfelFeb 12, 2014 21:11213154
3It's Simply About Oil [211 words]George PattonFeb 12, 2014 08:50213153
1Regarding "Obama's Hollow Promises Abroad" [597 words]Allen Z. HertzFeb 12, 2014 04:46213152
Intrigued and impressed [258 words]Ron ThompsonFeb 13, 2014 14:01213152
2Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the US government. [195 words]Robin RosenblattFeb 12, 2014 02:32213151

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)