Is Obama More Pro-Israel than Bush?

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Marc Adler

I'm a recent graduate of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and a freelance journalist who runs a blog, The Bloody Crossroads

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September 20th, 2011 1:42 PM

Is Obama More Pro-Israel than Bush?

Spite of all the propaganda, Obama has continued and in some cases expanded America’s traditional hard line towards the Palestinian question

By Marc Adler

There has been much talk lately about President Obama’s “anti-Israel” policy, which apparently played a big role in New York’s recent special election resulting in a Republican victory by businessman Bob Turner in a Democratic stronghold. The Wall Street Journal has editorializedthat Obama “has built the most consistently one-sided diplomatic record against Israel of any American president in generations.” And The Times has written that Obama is working hard to bring peace but has been hampered by Palestinian intransigence and Netanyahu’s unwillingness to compromise. Both of these narratives are in fact grossly misleading.

The sad truth is that Obama is just another in a long line of presidents who is stridently “pro-Israel.” Before we go any further, let’s analyze what being “pro-Israel” actually means. Washington’s attitude towards the Middle East, which has long been recognized by U.S. planners as “the most strategically important area in the world,” has for decades revolved around suppressing Arab nationalism and democracy by supporting dictators and Israel to subdue populations and ensure “stability,” which is really a euphemism for control over the region’s oil and establishing military bases... Continue Reading