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Charles Krauthammer looks at the reason for the Obami anger directed at Israel.
…Under Obama, Netanyahu agreed to commit his center-right coalition to acceptance of a Palestinian state; took down dozens of anti-terror roadblocks and checkpoints to ease life for the Palestinians; assisted West Bank economic development to the point where its gross domestic product is growing at an astounding 7 percent a year; and agreed to the West Bank construction moratorium, a concession that Secretary Clinton herself called “unprecedented.”
What reciprocal gesture, let alone concession, has Abbas made during the Obama presidency? Not one.
Indeed, long before the Biden incident, Abbas refused even to resume direct negotiations with Israel. That’s why the Obama administration has to resort to “proximity talks” — a procedure that sets us back 35 years to before Anwar Sadat’s groundbreaking visit to Jerusalem. …
In the Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick reviews the recent ultimatum that the Obami have made on Israel, and what lies beneath.
…Obama’s new demands follow the months of American pressure that eventually coerced Netanyahu into announcing both his support for a Palestinian state and a 10-month ban on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria. No previous Israeli government had ever been asked to make the latter concession.
Netanyahu was led to believe that in return for these concessions Obama would begin behaving like the credible mediator his predecessors were. But instead of acting like his predecessors, Obama has behaved like the Palestinians. Rather than reward Netanyahu for taking a risk for peace, Obama has, in the model of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, pocketed Netanyahu’s concessions and escalated his demands. This is not the behavior of a mediator. This is the behavior of an adversary. …
Nile Gardiner criticizes Obama’s unbelievably poor judgment in foreign policy.
…Contrast President Obama’s softly, softly treatment of the Iranian theocracy led by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – which has threatened to wipe Israel off the map – with that of his distinctly aggressive stance towards Israel. Every effort has been made to engage Tehran, and appease its leaders, from remaining silent over its brutal beating and murder of protestors to turning a blind eye to Tehran’s military and financial support for both the Taliban in Afghanistan and terrorist groups in Iraq. At the same time, the Iranians continue to bankroll and arm Hamas and Hizbollah, whose sole aim is the destruction of Israel.
In the space of just over a year, Barack Obama has managed to significantly damage relations with America’s two closest friends, while currying favour with practically every monstrous dictatorship on the face of the earth. … There is nothing clever about this approach – it will ultimately weaken US global power and strengthen the hand of America’s enemies, who have become significantly emboldened and empowered by Barack Obama’s naïve approach since he took office. …
More on-target commentary from Mark Steyn.
…Meanwhile, Obamacare will result in the creation of at least 16,500 new jobs. Doctors? Nurses? Ha! Dream on, suckers. That’s 16,500 new IRS agents, who’ll be needed to check whether you – yes, you, Mr. and Mrs. Hopendope of 27 Hopeychangey Gardens – are in compliance with the 15 tax increases and dozens of new federal mandates the Deemocrats are about to “deem” into existence. This will be the biggest expansion of the IRS since World War II – and that’s change you can believe in. This is what “health” “care” “reform” boils down to: Fewer doctors, longer wait times, but more bureaucrats. …
…Obama is government, and government is Obama. That’s all he knows and all he’s ever known. You elected to the highest office in the land a man who’s never run a business or created wealth or made a payroll, and for his entire adult life has hung out with guys who’ve demonized (demonized?) such grubby activities. Many of which associates he appointed to high office: Obama’s Cabinet has less experience of private business than any in the past century. …
…Obama and Pelosi are strong-arming swing-state congressmen into taking one for the deem. It’s appropriate that it should take banana republic maneuvers to ram this through, because it’s about government so powerful it can make up the rules as it goes along. …
Roger Simon comments on the latest in the efforts to pass Obamacare. It really is fortunate that liberals were greedy in their healthcare grab.
…When you think over the last year, it’s clear Obama has some of the most inept advisers in recent presidential history. Allowing him to risk his entire presidency on a global overhaul of health care – when an incremental overhaul could have been had simply for the asking – seems absurd politics, win or lose. It also isn’t worth that much in the grand scheme of things – other than the obvious, increasing the amount of the economy under government control. The nostalgia for marxism inherent in it all this almost pathetic. Don’t these people live in the real world? …
Victor Davis Hanson agrees with the president on one point.
At an outdoor rally today, the president described the health-care debate as a referendum on the “character” of the country, and I do believe he was correct.
The president is pushing legislation that a clear majority of the people dislike, and whose details neither he nor his supporters can explain in simple language. Its ends-justify-the-means passage will require legislative gymnastics that border on the unconstitutional, and in Orwellian fashion are designed to reassure its sheepish supporters that they can appear not to be voting for the bill they vote for. And to achieve a House majority, Obama must offer an array of personal favors, political payoffs, federal stipends, and open threats, which, if done in the private sector, would be actionable acts of felonious bribery or racketeering.
So, yes, this is a reflection about character; and so far the president has throughout this entire shameful process been shown to be utterly wanting on that count…
Peggy Noonan has come to her senses. She writes an excellent article about Obama and the recent strategies to pass Obamacare, including the Fox interview.
Excuse me, but it is embarrassing—really, embarrassing to our country—that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he’s having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he’s been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world. And to do this to Australia of all countries, a nation that has always had America’s back and been America’s friend. …
…Mr. Baier forced him off his well-worn grooves. He did it by stopping long answers with short questions, by cutting off and redirecting. In this he was like a low-speed bumper car. In the end the interview seemed to me a public service because everyone in America right now wants to see the president forced off his grooves and into candor on an issue that involves 17% of the economy. Again, the stakes are high. So Mr. Baier’s style seemed—this is admittedly subjective—not rude but within the bounds, and not driven by the antic spirit that sometimes overtakes reporters. He seemed to be trying to get new information. He seemed to be attempting to better inform the public.
Presidents have a right to certain prerogatives, including the expectation of a certain deference. …The president—every president—works for us. We don’t work for him. We sometimes lose track of this, or rather get the balance wrong. Respect is due and must be palpable, but now and then you have to press, to either force them to be forthcoming or force them to reveal that they won’t be. Either way it’s revealing. …
In the Corner, Kathryn Jean Lopez liked Peggy Noonan’s article.
I know not everyone was in the “Patriotic Grace” mood when her book came out, but Peggy Noonan makes excellent observations today. And maybe they’re especially powerful when you consider how she did, in fact, have hopes for this president:
…And so it ends, with a health-care vote expected this weekend. I wonder at what point the administration will realize it wasn’t worth it—worth the discord, worth the diminution in popularity and prestige, worth the deepening of the great divide. What has been lost is so vivid, what has been gained so amorphous, blurry and likely illusory. Memo to future presidents: Never stake your entire survival on the painful passing of a bad bill. Never take the country down the road to Demon Pass. …
Also in the Corner, Andy McCarthy has different thoughts.
Sorry, K-Lo, can’t go with you on this one. First, this bill is entirely worth it to the Obama Left. It is the social revolution they’ve always dreamed of, they get it without firing a shot, and it never gets rolled back without very drastic countermeasures — meaning the likelihood is that it doesn’t get rolled back (and since we live in a dynamic world, what doesn’t get rolled back, rolls on, and rolls over us).
Second, when some of us argued in 2008 that Obama is not a conventional politician, that enacting his radical, transformative agenda remains more important to him than winning elections, and that he would lead us straight to Demon Pass, Peggy Noonan scoffed — when she wasn’t swooning over our vibrant, promising, intellectual giant of a new president. And she still doesn’t get it: Obama hasn’t changed a whit; she was just wrong.
Jonah Goldberg posts comments from David Brooks on the legislative tricks the Dems are trying to pass Obamacare.
…Deem and pass? Are you kidding me? Is this what the Revolutionary War was fought for? Is this what the boys on Normandy beach were trying to defend? Is this where we thought we would end up when Obama was speaking so beautifully in Iowa or promising to put away childish things?
Yes, I know Republicans have used the deem and pass technique. It was terrible then. But those were smallish items. This is the largest piece of legislation in a generation and Pelosi wants to pass it without a vote. It’s unbelievable that people even talk about this with a straight face. Do they really think the American people are going to stand for this? Do they think it will really fool anybody if a Democratic House member goes back to his district and says, “I didn’t vote for the bill. I just voted for the amendments.” Do they think all of America is insane? …
David Harsanyi makes some important points about the corrupt deem-and-pass process.
…Actually, in the case of health care legislation, the ugly substance of the legislation creates the ugly process. The two issues are inseparable. The process is corrupted, as the advocates have no other path for passage.
This particular process, cobbled together in an effort to bypass the will of voters and protect cowardly legislators, then becomes vitally important. …
…Let’s concede that Democrats are correct in calling out duplicitous and hypocritical GOPers. Does dredging up instances of Republican chicanery now validate the use of your own scams to pass “the most important piece of social legislation since the Social Security Act” (the president’s own characterization)? …
From The Corner, a schedule of today’s votes.
… 6:15 p.m.: If the reconciliation bill passes, the House will immediately vote on the Senate bill, without debate.
From The Hill, a list of the 20 Dems who will decide the fate of the bill. Here are a few;
* Glenn Nye (Va.) Nye is in a toss-up race. He voted no last time and his vote will go a long way in determining whether Democratic leaders get the votes.
* Zack Space (Ohio) Space is undecided. Other Ohio Democrats, such as Reps. Betty Sutton and Mary Jo Kilroy, have gone from undecided to yes. He supported the House bill in 2009.
* Ciro Rodriguez (Texas) Rodriguez is considered more likely than not to vote yes but he did vote for the Stupak language. Rodriguez voted yes last year.
From Kathryn Jean Lopez, at the Corner, we learn Glenn Nye announced last night he will vote no.