McCain: Congress could defund UN if US backs Palestine bid

I don't agree with all of OwlofMinerva's points but a couple are legitimate in regards to the Obama administration, I don't think it applies to the Democratic party as a whole.

Obama did refuse to call the kosher shooting anti-Semitic and later both the state department and white house spokespersons backed up that statement.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/10/white-house-obama-paris-kosher-deli-shootings-random

Obama has called for a return to the pre-67 borders (http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/05/19/obama.israel.palestinians/) as well.

I do feel that Obama doesn't really assign the correct amount of blame or responsibility to the Palestinians for the current situation, though I have the same opinion of most of the international community. Furthermore I don't think Obama is anti-Israel and certainly not anti-Semitic. I think on Jewish issues he has a blind spot and doesn't realize how absurd and offensive some of the things he says seem. However it should be abundantly clear to everyone he is not anti-Semitic. As to being anti-Israel, he is certainly more anti-Israel than some other presidents but not extremely so, and is clearly still a relatively pro-Israel president. He has increased military aid and generally speaking I doubt the relationship is truly in danger. I think he was also unreasonably critical during the Gazan conflicts, acknowledging only superficially the danger posed by Hamas rockets and tunnels (most of the world was guilty of this). This relationship could really change if Obama does something foolish at the U.N. To be honest I think the Obama administration is just bad with PR and has a tendency to do and say foolish things without really thinking through the consequences. There is a clearly legitimate sense in which the U.S.'s allies, specifically Israel and Egypt, to feel snubbed and mistreated by this administration. Furthermore Israel is one of many United States' allies such as Egypt, France, and Saudi Arabia, who feel that the Iran negotiations are producing a bad agreement. This is particularly dangerous considering the potential for an all out nuclear arms race in the region.

The end all be all for me is that the perception of the Obama administration by people like OwlofMinerva seems certainly a bit overstated, however there is a grain of truth to this, and that is that the Obama administration has let spiteful personal disagreements with Netanyahu get influence the relationship between the two countries for the worse, combined with a poor PR record (The response in the days immediately after the Benghazi attacks, bad Obamacare rollout, kosher deli remarks, the "we tortured some folks" line, etc...).

I'm a democrat and frankly my only real issue with the party on Israel policy is that the far left almost hijacked them into removing the "Jerusalem as the capital of Israel" plank from the platform, but luckily that didn't go through. As to Obama, I think he's a mediocre president but hardly the devil many on the right paint him as (better than President Carter and Secretary Kerry who do come across as hostile to Israel).

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