Obama's Middle East Tactics Could Be Seen as Both Anti-Israel and Anti-Christian

Dear readers, today let's look at two unfolding stories that at first glance may seem unrelated. ~~~~~ First, comments coming out of Israel continue to express dismay at the tactics President Obama is employing in his effort to "engage" Iran. It appears that Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's advice is being ignored by Obama and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who are pressing ahead to get any deal with Iran that relates to its uranium enrichment program. Netanyahu is particularly worried that Obama will not negotiate a tough agreement with Iran, one that would assure a skeptical world, and Israel, that Iran is not continuing its military nuclear bomb program while tricking Obama and the UN into agreeing to a deal favorable to Iran. Netanyahu says a meaningful agreement with Iran can be made only if Iran is kept under the pressure of current sanctions until it halts all enrichment of uranium, a key step in producing a nuclear weapon; removes its stockpile of enriched uranium from the country; and closes suspicious enrichment facilities and shutters a facility that could produce plutonium, another potential gateway to nuclear arms. Despite Netanyahu's warnings, there are growing signs that any international deal with Iran will fall short of this. While the details of last week's Geneva negotiations are being kept secret, it is being reported that Iran has asked for at least some sanctions to be lifted while negotiations are ongoing. Whether as a counter-proposal or being offered independently, Obama is said to be preparing to unfreeze Iranian assets in US banks during negotiations to give Iran relief from the still-operative sanctions. The Yediot Ahronot daily said "officials in the prime minister's inner circle harbor a deep concern ... that the American president is going to be prepared to ease sanctions on Iran even before the talks have been completed." Yoel Guzansky, an Iran expert at the institute and a former national security aide in the prime minister's office, said Israel is pressing a maximalist view in hopes of getting as many concessions out of Iran as possible. "It appears that the Americans are interested in a scaled approach," he said. "Israel is very concerned about this and it has good reason to. It's afraid the deal will become a slippery slope," he said. However, Guzansky said Israel has little choice but to rely on the US. If there is a deal, it will all but rule out the possibility of unilateral Israeli military action, he said."Israel really only has one option," he said. "The chance it will act alone after the Americans make a deal is miniscule." ~~~~~ The second story involves Christians in Egypt, who say they are "unprotected" and "easy targets" as the country remains in conflict in moving toward democracy after the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi. Senator Bob Corker has joined with fellow Republican Senators Lamar Alexander and Roy Blunt to ask President Obama to provide security to Christians in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. "They are basically unprotected. They are viewed to be part of the overthrow, if you will, of Morsi. So, you know, they are easy targets," Corker, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, told Fox News on Wednesday."They're going to be moving forward, hopefully, toward a democracy. And, as that is occurring, we just want to make sure Christians and other minorities are protected," Corker said."What we are seeing is the security apparatus there is not protecting them. There are investigations that need to occur," Corker said. "As we move through with our relationship with Egypt, we need to make sure protecting minorities, protecting Coptic Christians there, and in other countries where similar kinds of situations are occurring, is a part of our foreign policy," he added. There are an estimated 8 to 9 million Copts, a Christian denomination that originated more than 1,500 years ago in the port city of Alexandria, living in Egypt. In the past four days there have been attacks against 38 churches, 58 Coptic-owned houses, and 85 businesses, according to Fox News. The problems are not limited to Egypt, and reports of violence extend elsewhere in the region, Corker noted. "We've had issues of Christians being violated in Iraq. Obviously, in Syria," Corker said. "It's a trend that's taking place throughout the region. It's something that the three of us have been focused on. And, we want the State Department to be focused on it more fully," he said. ~~~~~ Dear readers, these stories are related. They are two examples of the haphazard Obama approach to foreign affairs. They also reflect Obama's negligent attitude toward countries and groups in the Middle East that are America's natural friends and allies. Whether Barack Obama is deliberately undercutting Israel's position in the region is unclear, but even the appearance of that is dangerous for both Israel and America, because together they provide the only proponents of reason in the Middle East - but estranged and distrustful of each other, they can be parried one against the other and finally ignored by the proponents of madness who are already "smelling blood" in their pursuit of jihad that would engulf every country from Turkey to Yemen and Pakistan. As for making every effort to protect Middle East Christians - why would anyone even need to ask an American President to do this. Perhaps if President Obama went to church regularly, he would have realized what Christian unity and brotherhood are all about.