Israel Joins Jordan, Egypt and United Arab Emirates In Leaving US Influence In Mideast. Is This The Goal Of Obama, If So He Has Succeeded. If Not, Another Failure

Israel goes alone, with friends

By Bernie Quigley - 10/24/13 10:55 AM ET

  

The U.S.-Saudi relationship is cracking up, The Washington Post reports, but what is most beguiling in this piece by David Ignatius is this paragraph: “What should worry the Obama administration is that Saudi concern about U.S. policy in the Middle East is shared by the four other traditional U.S. allies in the region: Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. They argue (mostly privately) that Obama has shredded U.S. influence by dumping President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, backing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, opposing the coup that toppled Morsi, vacillating in its Syria policy, and now embarking on negotiations with Iran — all without consulting close Arab allies.”

Istanbul, the new hipster destination for a generation of youthful American, Euro and globalist dysfunctionals, is conspicuously absent from this discussion. But did they say Israel?

Since the coup in Egypt and the rise of the charismatic Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, commander in chief of the country's armed forces, a coherent and positive cooperation has been sensed with Israel entering collegially with its neighbors, as Ignatius indicates in the above paragraph. And this last week, as Ignatius indicates, the Saudis refused to take their seat at the U.N. security council. That was a "message for the U.S. not the U.N.,”The Wall Street Journal reports.

The sudden discovery that the Syrians were using chemical weapons seemed in these circumstances, when all eyes were on Egypt and Gen. Sisi, less than coincidental. And Obama’s decision to act — or react — immediately, that same afternoon, may have been an attempt by the president to quickly regain news dominance in the region. It fell apart overnight when England refused to fall in line and Parliament opposed, a historic departure from American dominance. Then again, quickly, there was a sudden focus on Iran and Obama’s new press blitz to grab the spotlight in the Middle East and reaffirm American dominance in the region.

Like so much else in this administration, it is not working.

But what is most evocative in this rapid passage of events is not so much that the Saudis are moving away from American influence, but that the Israelis are. It should reveal to American sympathizers with Israel, including liberal and conservative Jewish groups and Christian Evangelicals who have eyes on Israel, how little influence America actually has on Israel’s fate and future. And how unique and independent a state Israel is becoming.

It has been happening now for a dozen years and been ignored by the American mainstream media, which runs in line with American government policy and speaks on its behalf. And now the condition is about to flip when the Americanized Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, and his Americanized generation leaves office in Israel, which will be sooner rather than later.