Obama on Israel Out of Step with America

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At a time when the Jewish State is gaining favor with the American people, it is losing favor with the American president. �About six weeks ago, Gallup found, “For the first time since 1991, more than 6 in 10 Americans — 63% — say their sympathies in the Middle East situation lie more with the Israelis than with the Palestinians.“

But, while the American people have been focusing on the health care debate and worrying about the employment situation, the Obama Administration has been quietly pulling the rug out from under our Israeli allies, the staunchest supporter of democracy and opponent of terrorism in the Middle East.
The president delivered an ultimatum to the Israeli Prime Minister, leaving him to cool his heels while he went off to have dinner; that is, the American leader who was discourteous to the leader of a sovereign nation and an ally. �Netanyahu wouldn’t accept Obama’s demands. �Never before has a U.S. President made such demands of an ally, much less expected him to act exactly as the American leader told him. �He treated him a leader would treat an enemy defeated in a contest of arms.
And it’s been reported that, “The United States has diverted a shipment of bunker-busters designated for Israel“:
Officials said the U.S. military was ordered to divert a shipment of smart bunker-buster bombs from Israel to a military base in Diego Garcia. They said the shipment of 387 smart munitions had been slated to join pre-positioned U.S. military equipment in Israel Air Force bases.
Yesterday, we learned, “The Obama administration is now denying U.S. visas to Israeli scientists who work at that nation?s Dimona nuclear reactor.” �There seems no purpose to this action, save to thumb his nose at the Jewish State.
Perhaps, we might have learned of the Democrat’s antipathy to Israel during the campaign had the LA Times released a video of a “2003 banquet during which Obama, who was then an Illinois state senator, spoke of his relationship with Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian-American Orientalist who is known for his frequent criticism of Israel“.
The president seems closer to the views of that radical Palestinian that to those of the people he serves.
I do hope Senators Schumer and Boxer, who have both been very good on Israel, are expressing their concerns directly and strongly to the president and asking him to change course.
UPDATE: �Joshuapundit (via Roger Simon) reports:
This is a new policy decision of the Obama administration. Up until now, it was routine for Israeli nuclear scientists and technicians to receive such visas and to study at US universities.
UP-UPDATE: Via Roger Simon who alerted me to the story:
MORE (IMPORTANT): An interesting follow-up to this story has been published by Politico, including a denial by a White House spokesman and an indirect denial from an unnamed Israeli official. The White House denial seems odd given that I was told by a State Department spokesperson that federal law prohibits (see above) discussing individual visa cases. Well, never mind. More importantly the Politico author, Ben Smith, calls the sourcing of the original Maariv article ?a bit hazy? when that article quotes Dr. Zeev Alfassi, a professor of nuclear engineering at Ben Gurion University in the Negev, verbatim on the subject. Hazy sourcing? Well, again, never mind. Pajamas
Media has sent email to Dr. Alfassi and we will see what he has to say about the matter.

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