Obama’s Mideast failure

By winning the House of Representatives so overwhelmingly, pro-Israel Republicans now have the responsibility to stop Obama from pressuring Israel to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Such state would weaken Israeli and US strategic interests in the Middle East, while benefiting only Iran.

After two years of the failed Obama’s “engagement” policy, the entire Middle East has become a house of cards ready to collapse into Iran’s hands – the only country stopping it is a strong Israel.

If Israel were to withdraw to the 1967 borders, it would be déjà vu of what happened in Gaza after Israel withdrew unilaterally. If the Israeli Army were to leave the West Bank, the new Palestinian state, as in Gaza, would rebuild its terrorist infrastructure with factories manufacturing rockets and explosives and train its young for war and terror against the Jewish state.

If Israel were pressured to leave its eastern border with Jordan known as the Jordan Rift Valley, rockets, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles would be smuggled in daily as would Islamic Jihadists from all over the Middle East. In time, Hamas would easily overthrow the weak and corrupt PA, as it did in 2007 in Gaza and rockets would be fired at Israeli communities on a daily basis, paralyzing most of Israel’s economy and daily life.

When,

inevitably, Israel defends itself by invading the West Bank, the international community would denounce Israel, investigate, and isolate it. Israel would be surrounded by Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria on all its borders. The new Hamastan state would then undermine the stability of Jordan next door. This house of cards would fall under Iran’s influence when US forces leave Iraq and Afghanistan. When Iran succeeds in developing nuclear weapons, the oil-rich Sunni countries of the Persian Gulf would be blackmailed to “obey” Iran.

Hezbollah grows stronger

Indeed, it seems that Obama’s “engagement” policy has only helped increase the power of Iran and its proxies. In order to coax Syria away from Iran, Obama reversed the Bush policy and ended Syria’s isolation. Despite the fact that Obama nominated the first US ambassador to Syria since 2005 and the many visits to Syria by US senior officials, Syria has boosted its military support for Hamas and Hezbollah and militants in Iraq as well as its ties with Iran. Meanwhile, since the 2006 war, Iran has quadrupled Hezbollah’s missile force and has invested about $1 billion in rehabilitating the war’s devastation.

While the Bush administration succeeded in pushing the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005, the Obama administration has been less than aggressive in its backing of the pro-US Lebanese government as it tries to appease Syria. According to recent reports, Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian groups are preparing to seize control of the Lebanese government should the UN Hariri tribunal implicate the group in the assassination of the former prime minister.

After two years of the US attempt at engagement, Iran has been stalling and continuing to stockpile nuclear materials .This week, Europeans admitted that the new economic sanctions have so far failed to push Tehran toward compromise on its disputed nuclear program. Meanwhile, Iranian officials said they would not accept the new nuclear deal suggested by the US.

Now, the Israeli government must convince its Republicans allies not to let the above-mentioned worst case scenario of a Palestinian state to take shape under Obama’s watch.