Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader
By Barry Rubin
This is a fascinating and revealing scoop by the Muqata blog. A member of Israel's parliament attacked President Barack Obama in the nastiest terms:
"After the exposure of lies from the US, we must say frankly to Obama: You no longer scare us and you can go to hell.
“Obama cannot be trusted. We knew his promises were lies. The time has come to spit in the face of the Americans.
"...He is no longer wanted in the Middle East and that he can go to hell."
Wow! And who was this Israeli? Ibrahim Sarsur of the Ra'am-Ta'al party, head of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
But this is the president who gave the Cairo speech; tasked NASA to make Muslims feel good; pressured Israel into easing sanctions on the Gaza Strip and sent hundreds of millions dollars of aid there; engaged Syria and Iran; didn't interfere with the Hizballah-Syria-Iran takeover of Lebanon; and helped push out the Mubarak regime in Egypt, disregarding allegedly alarmist talk about Islamism taking over there.
So what made Sarsur sore? Islamists hate America. No change in American policy, flattery, bashing Israel, or aid is going to change that fact. But the appearance of weakness brings out more aggressiveness on the other side. Suppose Sarsur was scared of the United States, would he speak like that?
And when people like Sarsur aren't scared of America, its friends should be scared for America.
(seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East
(Wiley), and The Truth About Syria
(Palgrave-Macmillan). His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, to be published by Yale University Press later this year. You can read more of Barry Rubin's posts at Rubin Reports.Technorati Tag: Ibrahim Sarsur .
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