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Yesterday, Netanyahu met for the first time face to face with Barack Obama. The prime minister made it clear that he was willing to begin negotiations for peace with the Palestinians as soon as they were willing to acknowledge and honor Israel’s right to exist. He also would not commit to a two state solution, one he does not want and one that Obama has indicated he wants to see.

On the other side, Obama has a problem both at home and in Israel. More than likely Obama does not have the support at home to promote his agenda with Iran, Israel, Hamas, Palestine and basically the entire Middle East. Just as disturbing is the fact that it now appears Israelis overwhelmingly see Barack Obama as anti-Israel. According to the results of a recent poll printed in the Jerusalem Post, only 31% of Israelis view Obama as pro-Israel.

Besides the 31% who labeled Obama pro-Israel, 14% considered him pro-Palestinian and 40% felt he was neutral. The other 15% declined to provide an opinion for the poll

If you are wondering how that compares to former President Bush’s approval of the Israelis, his rating was 88%. It may be that the longer Obama stalls in taking a definitive position, the lower that number may fall.

Even though Barack Obama says he hasn’t taken any options off the table, he appears weak in any attempts he has made to negotiate with Iran and the Arab world in general. Now with Israel not viewing Obama as a friend and the president still clinging to hope that he can negotiate with terrorists, does Obama have any leverage at all?

Pat Buchanan says Netanyahu and Israel really only have three options and none of them look very encouraging.

One option is to annex the West Bank, which Buchanan says would ultimately end up with Israel absorbing a population of Palestinians that in time would outnumber Jews. A second option is basically ethnic cleansing, which I would have to agree with Buchanan, this is something the U.S. could not support.

The third plan is one that seems to be Netanyahu’s option – no Palestinian state and to retain control over the West Bank to make sure that what happened with Hamas in Gaza doesn’t happen there. This plan of course has it’s problems, the biggest being that this would essentially isolate the Palestinians.

Netanyahu understands that Israel is always a target and that as many times as they have tried to negotiate peace and give up territory and yield to the demands of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinians and pressures from the West, they continue to be shot at, grenades launched into settlements, car bombed and rockets fired at them.

When you have never spent everyday of your existence wondering who will be killed by a terrorist today, it is easy to suggest concessions for peace. I suggest that Netanyahu and the Israeli people have a much better understanding of reality than Barack Obama who believes in negotiating with those who want to kill Jews and Americans.

So we are still left with the big question. Where will the United States come down on the issue of protecting Israel from those bent on her destruction? It is believed that Barack Obama will announce to the world those plans in a speech scheduled for June 4, 2009 in Cairo, Egypt. Mark that day on your calendar. It could be one of the biggest days in world history.

Tom Remington

Yesterday we learned that Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, told the world that Israel needed to begin serious negotiations directed at a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Only a day later, V.P. Joe Biden told a pro-Israel lobby at AIPAC meetings, that Israel had to work toward a two-state solution.

The idea of Israel and Palestine living side by side in two separate states isn’t a new idea. As a matter of fact, President George Bush conceded that that might be the solution to the years of war and needless killings. The problem often in these negotiations is how to divide the land.

So far Obama’s warmth toward Israel hasn’t come shining through in any fashion and today, we read in the Washington Times that some, as well as perhaps even the new Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, are wondering if Obama is going to place demands on Israel to give up its nuclear weapons along with Iran.

President Obama’s efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel’s nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say.

The issue will likely come to a head when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Mr. Obama on May 18 in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu is expected to seek assurances from Mr. Obama that he will uphold the U.S. commitment and will not trade Israeli nuclear concessions for Iranian ones.

Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said at a meeting of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at the UN that Israel should join the treaty. The treaty states that only 5 nations will be allowed to have nuclear weapons – U.S., France, Britain, China and Russia.

For that to happen, it would mean that the U.S. would no longer avoid acknowledging that Israel has nuclear arms. If the U.S. were able to force Israel into giving up nukes, this would leave a tiny island of maybe 5 million people surrounded by hundreds of millions who vow to wipe her off the face of the earth.

History has shown us that Israel, should they agree to any treaty, will honor that treaty. Other nations have an abysmal record of upholding treaties with Israel.

Is President Obama radically changing the relationship the United States has had with Israel for many years? Ed Morrissey of Hot Air says that he believes the reason Obama hired on Rose Gottemoeller as Assistant Secretary of State was because of her stance on Israel and that Obama fully understood her comments made about Israel signing on to the NPT. This being their policy on Israel.

The Obama administration appointed Gottemoeller, fully cognizant of her thinking on this issue. One has to assume that her appointment to the senior position at State constitutes an endorsement of those positions. It wouldn’t be the most radical thinking about Israel from this administration; Samantha Powers, who works between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice, once called for a Western occupation of Israel and forced disarmament of their entire army.

From this perspective it becomes disturbingly frightening that Obama seems to have a position on Israel that is more like that of just another country. I can understand why Israelis are wondering if this new administration will support Israel in real time of need.

We have to once again ask the question, are we leaving Israel to fend for itself?

Tom Remington

Following history back to 1938, that was the year to stop Hitler and Nazi Germany before it was too late. Unfortunately the threat was not taken seriously enough, and by the time 1939 rolled around it was too late.

After 1938 it was too late. By the spring of 1940 Hitler had defeated France and prepared to destroy Britain.

Today we are facing the same struggle but instead of it being Germany, It is the Iranian regime.

If today is eerily reminiscent of 1938, and Iran is the successor to Nazi Germany, then Barack Obama is Neville Chamberlain and the West Bank is the Sudetenland.

Barack Obama may not be completely anti-Israel, meaning he is looking for the destruction of it, but he is not “inclined to adamantly” support the Jewish state against the enemy. I see Obama as someone who is so caught up in appearances, he seems to forget what the role of the President of the United States is. He resembles more of a TV star than a leader who will protect the country from enemies foreign and domestic. Just like Bill Clinton, Obama is so caught up in bringing peace at any cost, even if it meant selling out Israel and even the United States. Right now Obama is believing in the lies put forth by Iran, in that their nuclear ambitions are peaceful. In fact, it is no secret the plans Iran has for wanting to destroy and eliminate the Jewish state.

There seems to be only one person who takes the threat seriously. There are some who may believe Iran is all talk and not much action. But we have to remember that Israel is betting on their very own survival. There is a lot more at stake if you are wrong. It means the complete and utter destruction of Israel. Netanyahu is fully aware of the threat by Iran and he will rise up alone, without the United States, if it is needed.

The New York Times reports that Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, flat out rejected any acknowledgment of Israel as a state.

“I do not accept it,” Mr. Abbas said in a speech in Ramallah, in the West Bank. “It is not my job to give a description of the state. Name yourself the Hebrew Socialist Republic — it is none of my business,” he added, according to Reuters.

Netanyahu claims that he and his cabinet have yet to finalize their foreign policy. In the meantime, the Palestinians and other supporters are demanding that Israel recognize a sovereign state of Palestine but yet they are not willing to do the same in return.

Peace, peace and there is no peace.

Tom Remington

With a population still growing, Israel now is the home to 7,411,000 and 75.5% of those people are Jewish. Arabs make up just over 20% of the population and the remainder is a mixture, mostly those not registered as Jews.

Last year’s growth rate was 1.8%, growing an estimated 125,000 citizens.

Israel is about to celebrate its 61 birthday of independence.

Tom Remington

During the visit, Jiechi encouraged Israel to begin negotiating with the Palestinians and that China supported the peace plan of giving up more land to the Palestinians. In addition to negotiating with the Palestinians, Jiechi encouraged Israel to open up talks with Syria and Lebanon.

It appears that Shimon Peres is trying to convince China that there may be more at stake in this nuclear arms debate concerning Iran than China might be willing to admit. According to today’s Jerusalem Post, Israel is prepared to tell China that if Iran doesn’t back off from developing nuclear weapons and a military conflict erupts between Israel and Iran, China’s growing demand of oil, much of what it buys from Iran, may be in jeopardy.

The Jerusalem Post has learned that Israeli officials were planning to tell him that China’s oil and natural gas imports from Iran could be jeopardized in the future if pressure does not increase on the Islamic republic to cease its nuclear program and a military confrontation ensues.

During his stay, Israeli diplomats will argue that a more proactive stance on China’s part to pressure Iran will serve Beijing’s interests, by helping to avert a military conflict, thus safeguarding an important energy source for the growing and energy-hungry Chinese economy.

Jiechi will be urged by officials in Jerusalem to up the ante in the campaign to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear development work.

As China grows and develops it has made no bones about the fact they need oil and will do most anything to continue their supply lines to get it. We have often speculated what role China would play in the unrest in the Middle East. A few years ago it might have been a stretch to believe that China would have such an enormous demand for oil and natural gas. Welcome to the high stakes of using oil for leverage.

It is safe to say that China is now well vested in Middle East affairs.

Tom Remington

Obama is tossing his weight around and putting demands on Israel never before seen. While Israel remains deeply troubled by Iran’s bent on nuclear weapons, Obama has decided to use this as leverage against the Israelis, telling them that if they want help with Iran, they need to start giving up land and handing it over to the Palestinians.

Coming up is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington, a time when, under past administrations, the head of Israel would be invited to pay a visit to the White House and meet with the president. Not Obama. He chose to inform Israel he would not be “in town” and that the past open door policy would no longer be in effect for Israeli prime ministers.

In return, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his trip to Washington and made an announcement that an upcoming purchase of 75 US-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets would be put on hold while Israel takes a closer look at the deal pending.

According to “TheAge.com”, the Israelis are talking about their relationship with President Obama and the end of warm relations.

According to prominent Israeli political commentator Maya Bengal, who writes for the country’s second-largest selling newspaper Maariv, the holiday is over.

“As Passover comes to an end, so comes to an end, it seems, the days of grace granted to the Netanyahu Government by the American Administration,” says the commentator.

Tel Aviv barman Meir Avraham, 30, says he can feel on the street the tensions being played out between the US and Israel.

“This is one of the the main things that the people are talking about at the moment,” says Mr Avraham, who recently returned to Israel after several months in Townsville.

Where does this leave Israel? Netanyahu has made it clear that they cannot tolerate Iran obtaining nuclear weapons – Iran being a country that promised to use them on the “Little Satan” and the “Great Satan”. If the new policies of the U.S are toward strengthening relations with the Arab countries at the expense of Israel, then Israel will be left all alone.

Tom Remington

What’s more important is Iran’s capabilities now. Iran is boasting 7,000 enrichment centrifuges. If you aren’t familiar with the process of enriching uranium then I can assure you they are in the final stages…

Referring to the inauguration of a nuclear fuel production plant by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier on Thursday, he said in a televised speech: “Today we praise … the accomplishment of the last stage of the nuclear fuel cycle.”

Ahmadinejad admits they are in the last stages.

For those who are looking at this situation prophetically, we have to ask ourselves a couple of questions. First, would Israel’s attack on Iran prolong the coming of the last days or would it escalate them? Why? Could this agitate Russia and possibly China to begin aligning to retaliate against Israel leading to the Gog/Magog war prophesied in Ezekiel?

Not long after Obama took office, he crafted a video plea to the Iranian leadership to be a good boy and come play with the rest of the world fair. The message in return was clear – mind your own business. But this hasn’t seemingly deterred President Obama. He now seems willing to cave in to his own preconditions, displaying his weakness at the expense of national and international security by allowing Iran to continue to enrich uranium all in hopes that he can sit down with Iran and resolve differences.

According to the New York Times, Obama has convinced other European leaders that the rest of the world needs to look at things differently and appease Iran.

A review of Iran policy that Mr. Obama ordered after taking office is still under way, and aides say it is not clear how long he would be willing to allow Iran to continue its fuel production, and at what pace. But European officials said there was general agreement that Iran would not accept the kind of immediate shutdown of its facilities that the Bush administration had demanded.

“We have all agreed that is simply not going to work — experience tells us the Iranians are not going to buy it,” said a senior European official involved in the strategy sessions with the Obama administration. “So we are going to start with some interim steps, to build a little trust.”

Earlier this week, Israeli President Shimon Peres told the world that Iran is only interested in complete control over the Middle East and not just the state of Israel.

Where will this leave Israel and the United States as Obama continues to show real weakness in dealing with known terrorists such as Iran? Obama has already waffled in his support for Israel leaving them wondering if push came to shove, who he would support.