Republicans last night worked hard to score points with
Jewish voters and evangelical Christians by vowing their unconditional support
for Israel in the face of increasing threats to its security from Iran and the
so-called Arab Spring uprisings.
Candidate Herman Cain won rapturous applause when he said, plain-spoken
as ever, “If you mess with Israel, you’re messing with the USA.”
Though none of his opponents questioned the “Cain Doctrine”
last night, much less debated the finer points of whether US troops would enter
a war between Israel and any of its enemies, it was a moment of rare clarity to
be seized on.
The reason US policy in the entire region is failing under
President Obama is simply that he is the first president to have abandoned the de-facto “Cain Doctrine” that has been
the cornerstone of US policy throughout since the British mandate over
Palestine expired in 1948. Without this
cornerstone alliance, only very recently abandoned, all US relationships, alliances,
and US diplomacy with Israel and its neighbors have utterly disintegrated.
What we learn from the policy of President Obama is that absent
the anchor of an evident, visible US-Israeli alliance, the US has no place to berth
its power and influence in the region.
When President Obama abandoned Israel’s only peace treaty partner,
Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, it was not interpreted by regional actors as siding
with Egyptian democracy, but only as a further step taken by his administration
to disengage the US from Israel. From
the palaces to the streets, the symbolism and effect was not lost in the Arab
world. And while it is convenient to say
the US did not anticipate the sweep of Arab Spring passions for democracy, history
will record a net loss of political freedom and US influence throughout the
region.
When best friends don’t know where the US stands, it is
impossible for our adversaries (and adversaries of our friends) to know. Instead of the easily discernable framework
of friends and enemies required by the game of peace, President Obama has
thrown all the cards in the air, determined only that they will land in new
hands.
For proof, witness the spectacle this week in the United
Nations where the Palestinian Authority—a whole-cloth creation of the US at
Oslo— thumbs its nose at the obligations it took to negotiate with Israel, simply
demands admission to the UN, thus abandoning them. One sees the domino effect of toppling decades
of strong practical alliances and agreements throughout the region, not due to the
audacity of antagonists, but due solely to the paucity of the US President.
Having established a pattern of visibly undermining the Israeli-US
alliance, it was yet more ridiculous and dissembling for President Obama to
stand at the UN podium and lecture the Palestinian Authority about what peace requires. Oh really?
True perhaps the simplicity of the Cain Doctrine makes it
easy fodder for liberals to question how far US obligations to Israel could
extend. But single-handedly and in less
than 3 years, President Obama has shown us where the so-called alternative to
it leads America in vivid, living diplomatic disaster.
