Obama in Fantasy Land

The Charmer-in-Chief can sense the sweet smell of success. President Obama told a handpicked audience of Israeli college students that they should rise up against their government and demand peace with Mahmoud Abbas and the Arabs who live on the West Bank of the Jordan River. The talking heads say that President Obama was exhorting Israeli youth to rise up against their government the way Arab youth have throughout the world. What a terrific idea that is! In every country where Arab youth have risen up there have been mass killings, riots and the imposition of dictators who are even worse than the former American handpicked puppets. Is that what President Obama wants for Israel, one of the most democratic nations on Earth? Perhaps President Obama forgot that 23% of the Israeli population consists of Arabs with full rights who have representation in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, roughly equal to their population. Affirmative action programs give Israeli Arabs free education, healthcare, vocational or university training.

In spite of laudatory words recognizing the right of the Jewish people to live in Israel, President Obama could have been honest with the Arab world. The Arabs living on the West Bank of the Jordan River, between Israel and Jordan are not freedom loving democrats. The Arabs on the West Bank have produced 40 years of homicide bombers making their way into Israel to attack men, women, children and as many innocents as they could find. It is only because Israel has built a strong defense, has been proactive and has a superb intelligence community that for the first time in 40 years, no Arab murderer from the West Bank has been able to create mischief in Israel. It is not that the Arabs have not tried. Israel has caught many would-be human bombers.

Who is Mahmoud Abbas? He was “elected” more years ago than most of us remember and not in any American or European style of democracy. Abbas became a dictator without any realistic prospect of elections. The United States is happy that there are no elections on the West Bank of the Jordan River. If there were, President Obama knows that another terrorist state would be created. Abbas will face the guillotine of Islamic militants bent on destroying the Judeo-Christian world. Mahmoud Abbas’ days are numbered.

Israel did what the United States requested in Gaza. Gaza was given its freedom and independence and turned into a nest of missiles, raining down on southern Israel by the hundreds per year. Syria was permitted to invade and occupy Lebanon and has turned that former pastoral country occupied peaceably by Christians and Muslims into an armed camp with 60,000 missiles. Does President Obama want another Syrian-Lebanese state on the West Bank of the Jordan River? Does President Obama want another Gaza on the West Bank of the Jordan River? What is he thinking?

Israelis living in and around Jerusalem and along Israel’s borders on the West Bank are a protective border necessary to the survival of the State of Israel. The streets of Jerusalem, Eilat, Haifa, and Acco are full of modern Arabs enjoying the freedom of Israeli society. On the other hand, no Jew, Israel or Christian can ever consider a life in Gaza, the Palestinian occupied territories on the West Bank of the Jordan River, in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt or most other Arab countries. We are simply forbidden and an endangered species in those lands.

“Political Theatre” my kids call President Obama’s trip. It is hard to tell what he means and believes and what he does not. He tells Israel that its security must come first and then he tells Israel that Jews cannot live in certain parts of the Holy Land because it may upset the Arabs and that Israel should make peace with those committed to Israel’s destruction. The peace that President Obama envisions would require Israel to give away valuable land ensuring its security while the Arabs make more hollow promises. There is nothing tangible that President Obama has asked any Arab nation to do to secure the safety of the State of Israel.

President Obama stood on the podium with the “leader” of the Arabs on the West Bank of the Jordan River suggesting talks. The so-called moderate in the Arab world refuses to talk to the Israelis unless his preconditions are met. These preconditions mean that Jews cannot live in areas that the Arabs consider not to be Jewish. Of course, Obama forgets that the Arabs do not recognize any Jew as legitimately living within the State of Israel.

President Obama has attempted to parley his personal popularity by mumbling a few words of Hebrew, badly, into vague outlines of a peace plan which would create another knife in the back of Israel. That characterization of a Palestinian state was originally made by none other than Al Gore the first time he ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. A lot has changed since then. The left-wing has taken over the Democratic Party and cares not for democracy but rather for those who they misguidingly see as the underdogs.

If President Barrack Obama is truly a friend of Israel, he will work with Israel to define a Palestinian Arab state with Israeli sovereignty along the Jordan River, on the west side of the Palestinian state adjacent to Israel and to the north and south. This will be a Demilitarized state whose borders will be closely monitored so that the terrorists who are likely to run “Palestine” cannot obtain rockets and missiles with which to harass Israel. President Obama talks of a “contiguous” Palestinian state. What does he mean by that? If the President expects to see the murderers in Gaza connected with the killers in the West Bank, then Israel would have to be cut in half. Surely, President Obama knows the geography well enough to appreciate what he is suggesting. This dissection of Israel by creating a link between Gaza and the West Bank of the Jordan River would mean the end of Israel. How can President Obama talk about Israel’s safety and security and at the same time suggest carving up the state?

Listening to President Obama’s speeches and comments throughout Israel and the West Bank of the Jordan River, one has to believe that the President is either insincere or sadly naïve. The President of the United States must stand with our allies against all enemies. That the President would so glibly make suggestions jeopardizing the ability of Israel to exist as a free and peaceful democracy legitimately raises questions about his long-term motives.

Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters
161 West Third Street
Williamsport, PA 17701
(570) 323-8711 (telephone)
(570) 323-4192 (facsimile)

Cliff Rieders, who practices law in Williamsport, is Past President of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and a member of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority. None of the opinions expressed necessarily represent the views of these organizations.

CAR/mdb

Attorney Cliff Rieders

Cliff Rieders is a Nationally Board Certified Trial Lawyer practicing personal injury law. A large part of his practice involves multi-district litigation, including cases related to pharmaceuticals, vitamin supplements and medical devices. He is admitted in several state and federal courts, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. Rieders is the past regional president of the Federal Bar Association and is a life member of the distinguished American Law Institute, which promulgates proposed rules adopted by many state courts. He is a past president of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, formerly Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association. As a founder of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, he served on the Board for 15 years.

Not only has Rieders held many highly esteemed, leadership positions, he authored legislation related to the Patient Safety Authority and the Mcare Act, which governs medical and hospital liability actions in Pennsylvania. He authored texts upon which both practitioners and judges rely, including Pennsylvania Malpractice Laws and Forms, and Financial Responsibility Law Issues in Pennsylvania, the latter governing auto and truck collisions in Pennsylvania. In addition, he wrote several books on the practice of law in Pennsylvania regarding wrongful death and survivor actions, insurance bad faith, legal malpractice claims and worker rights, among others. Rieders also serves as a resource to practitioners as a regular speaker for Celesq, an arm of the world’s largest legal publisher, Thomson Reuters West Publishing.

As recognition of his wide range of contribution to his profession and of his dedication to protecting the rights of his clients, he received numerous awards, among them the George F. Douglas Amicus Curiae Award, the Milton D. Rosenberg Award, the B’nai B’rith Justice Award, and awards of recognition from the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers. [ Attorney Bio ]