The rumored appointment of veteran diplomat Charles Freeman, Jr. to head the National Intelligence Council, the announcement that the U.S. taxpayer will give $900 million to Hamas to rebuild Gaza, the return of Samantha (“monster”) Power to the Obama inner circle, the quite revealing interview that President Obama gave to al-Arabiya, the loud Kerry statements from and about Syria, and the willingness to talk to Iran without preconditions, I think, suggest the outlines of a new reappraisal of the American-Israeli relationship.
I would sum it up as a growing adminstration belief that solid U.S. support for Israel is probably the reason for radical Islamic anti-American terrorism; and, secondly, the Palestinian issue can be best resolved with the return of Israel to the 1967 borders. Apparently, this thought stems from the assumption that there has been a radical reappraisal about Israel on the part of the Arab nations, and Islamic world at large, who in toto have now accepted Israel’s right to exist. Therefore, with the casus belli removed, in the future we should expect no more wars — like 1948, 1956, and 1967, when Israel did not hold the Golan Heights or the West Bank. Accordingly, the withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza were positive first-steps and left stability in their wake.