Will War Save the Obama Presidency?

The nations of the world are disingenuously venting their indignation toward Israel just as our press is wrongly characterizing the Arizona matter. The negativity directed toward both is unfounded when the facts are actually considered. The Arizona law is no more stringent that the US Code. It calls for enforcement by state police of illegally present foreign nationals, which is nothing that is not already being done. Moreover, the law itself, by its own terms, several times states that racial profiling is not allowed. Anyway, the opponents admit to not even knowing what the law actually says. Neither do the opponents of Israel seem to know what actually happened regarding the boarding of the Turkish ship by Israeli commandos. Israel has been stopping all shipping to the Gaza strip for three years. "Humanitarian aid," which means almost anything short of weapons or terrorists is allowed in.

The captains of these Turkish flagged ships knew that there was a blockade. They were either trying to get contraband in or trying to create an incident. It appears that both motives may have been involved. The worse result would be for Israel to cave to international pressure and stop the blockade, thus allowing their enemies in Gaza to rearm. They may be forced to do just that if the Turkish or some other power's navy protects the next convoy and no power supports Israel.

A strong US foreign policy response is called for. Such as: inform Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, maybe a few others, that the US requests their moral support for Israel in the UN. If not, we should advise them that we intend to withdraw from the UN. We should indeed withdraw if we do not receive some support for the US and Israel.

A great speech opportunity for a senior US diplomat would then arise. He or she could recount, before the UN, the various failings of that organisation over the years and its refusal to support the US at critical junctures. (Our diplomat should attempt to sound like an offended Frenchman as much as possible.) The speech would then briefly touch on the relevant details of the current Israeli incident and the frankly disingenuous response of most of the world. Our diplomat should then gather his notes into his attache case and walk out. Of course the current administration is joining in the unfounded attack on Israel so there is little chance of the proper response. On the other hand, even Obama may see a strong response as the best chance to avoid war. War of course probably saved the FDR presidency but that would not happen for Obama. The nation's voters would recognise that he is the last person, along with his cohorts, to be in office during a serious war.