When George W. Bush entered office, Israel was in the throes of the Second Intifada, but its strategic position within the Middle East was as strong as it has ever been. Israel was at peace with Egypt and Jordan. Its northern borders with Lebanon and Syria were relatively quiet, and more distant foes in Iraq and Iran did not pose an imminent threat.
Eight years later, the region’s stability has been shredded by the botched invasion of Iraq. Iran, Israel’s most dangerous enemy, is now ascendant, a power to reckon with from its border with Afghanistan to Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast. The region’s moderate Sunni regimes, lacking confidence in American power, are closer to pursuing their own nuclear options.
Hezbollah, Iran’s ally in Lebanon, is now a more menacing player. Iran’s client in the Palestinian territories, Hamas, rules in Gaza — in part because the Bush administration disregarded Israeli warnings about letting the group run in an election, while doing nothing to shore up moderates. Much of this owes to our failure in Iraq and the Bush administration’s neglect of the Middle East peace process, which enabled Iran to extend its reach and gave radicals a powerful boost.
Today, there are two candidates for president who support a strong Israeli military. But John McCain has consistently backed the Bush administration policies that created the current disastrous situation. In contrast, Barack Obama seeks not only to buttress Israel’s military strength but to reduce the threats to the Jewish state and the likelihood that Israeli soldiers will again go into battle.
Most importantly, Obama supports the only sensible option for containing the Iranian threat today: talking directly to the regime in Tehran. Only through wide-ranging talks with Iran can we ascertain whether co-existence is possible — whether a set of regional security arrangements can meet Iran’s security needs without threatening Israel or the United States.
We should no have no illusions that pursuing such talks will turn Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust denier who has spoken of Israel as a “stinking corpse,” into a less odious character, or Iran itself into a less implacable foe. But it will either clarify the conditions under which Iran ceases nuclear enrichment or demonstrate to all that Iran is committed to obtaining a nuclear capability.
Equally important, if Iran refuses to bend, then the military option — which Obama has left on the table — becomes viable. The United States may need to use force to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, and Obama has pledged he would not allow Iran to possess the most dangerous weapons. But tougher sanctions and, ultimately, the use of force only become credible options if serious diplomacy fails. After the disaster of Iraq, unilateral American action against Iran, in the absence of such a diplomatic push, would have dire consequences for American leadership and stability in the region.
Thus far, the Bush administration and McCain have shown no serious interest in probing Iran’s intentions, insisting, instead, that Tehran capitulate on the enrichment issue as a condition for talks intended to bring about an end to enrichment. This cart-before-horse approach shows why Bush never got anywhere with Iran.
Meanwhile, Israel and Syria now appear to be on the verge of direct negotiations after months of indirect talks mediated by Turkey, which got involved because the Bush administration refused to deal with Damascus. No one can say whether Syria’s Bashar al-Assad sincerely wants to end the 60 years of hostility. But we can’t know until the United States becomes involved, because what Syria wants — better ties with the West, a security relationship, economic assistance — only Washington can deliver.
Obama has made clear that he will pursue an active diplomacy in the region. But McCain takes the same approach to Syria that he does to Iran, demanding more international pressure before talking. Evidently, it is irrelevant to him that no one else in the international community wants to follow his lead, or that there is a chance for a breakthrough between Damascus and Jerusalem.
Obama has also declared that he will revitalize America’s engagement with Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Under President Bush, the United States essentially withdrew from Middle East peacemaking for more than six years. Only in 2007 did the administration reverse course by convening the Annapolis conference. But Bush then proceeded to step back, leaving the new initiative to founder.
Obama has underscored repeatedly that his administration would work energetically to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process and achieve the two-state solution that most Israelis want. McCain, however, has shown no special interest in advancing the cause of peace.
Israel will also pay a price if the United States continues to fight terrorism as it has during the Bush years. Islamist extremism, stoked by the American occupation of Iraq, is on the rise. Our overuse of military force has played into Al Qaeda’s narrative about America’s desire to subjugate the Muslim world. To continue to use the military as our main means of projecting American influence in the region will only enhance Al Qaeda’s ability to recruit and raise funds, at a time when, according to Israeli intelligence, it is stepping up its efforts to strike in Israel.
Nevertheless, McCain believes we should stay in Iraq for years to come. Obama has recognized the damage this is doing to the security of the United States, to our position in the region and to the global fight against terror.
President Bush’s political allies have propagated the myth that he has been the best friend Israel ever had in the White House. Israel, however, does not need another four or eight years of that kind of friendship. It needs a leader in the Oval Office who will use all the instruments of American power to advance our national interests in peace and regional security — which is the best way to safeguard Israel today and in the future.
Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon served on the staff of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1999. They are the co-authors of “The Age of Sacred Terror” (Random House, 2002) and “The Next Attack” (Times Books, 2005).
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"Islamist extremism, stoked by the American occupation of Iraq, is on the rise..." American actions or inactions have absolutely no impact whatsoever on the rise of Islamic terror or extremism. Anyone who wishes to understand the Arab world would be well-advised to learn some Arabic and some history of the Arabs. I know that I'm asking for too much, and the American Jewish public will continue listening to the world only in English, assuming that everyone shares the same cultural point of reference. However, even without any Arabic lessons, I would like to remind Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon that a very obvious expression of Islamic extremism was the attack on NYC in 2001 - and it couldn't have been more extreme than that. This was without an occupation of Iraq. America was labled the "enemy" for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with her policy. Moreover, the eventual withdrawal from Iraq will not lessen the sense of rage of the Islamic world, the source of which is its centuries-old collapse of self-image (and for which there is no immediate cure).
Cool it Yehuda. Obama will be our next President and then we can judge him. If he's smart he will appoint Republicans, Greens, Independents, and others to his cabinet. Israel probably just needs to be left alone altogether. That's why I am voting for Chuck Baldwin for President.
I support Obama because he is willing to put the earths interest over the nation state-McCain is a parochial American who believes in outdated solutions. Deep in his heart, Obama knows the zionist experiment has failed.
Obama propaganda for senile Jewish-American ? Premises are partly false, conclusions are...let's say, not valid. You are not allowed to use Muslim wish to eradicate Jewish State and Israeli conflict with Arabs in such a distorted and internal Political USA internal Presidential Race. Israel makes mistakes of her own too..McCain is no Bush and Obama has other priorities, much more focused on changing the US to a "normal" European style country..That means not taking responsability when maybe in charge of the sole country wich is able too.
The "failed" Zionist experiment, Stella, has produced a society in which the Hebrew language is the mother tongue of millions of Jews. A child in kindergarten could tell you the months of the Hebrew calendar, and every taxi driver can quote the Torah effortlessly. Jewish education is universal and free, and Jews marry other Jews. They live in a Jewish society that creates its own culture, a continuity of Jewish collective reality since antiquity. I could only wish such a "dismal failure" on any other Jewish community in the world.
The interests of the human race have to take priority over the parochial and tribal interests of the US and Israel. Obama is for dialog with those forces, who want world peace, including Iran, Russia, and China. It may be that you have smart taxi drivers, but the interest of world peace and justice trumps that of Israel. Im sure these taxi drivers could find employment in Las Vegas. Im proud of the Grand Hyatt for providing the venue for the Ahmadinejad dialog, and wished that more progressive Jewish groups would participate
Obama is a far better candidate, but concerning Israel security as the only reason to chose a candidate I would vote for Mc Cain
yes, they served and supported an appeasement approch. Everyone applauded Israel's bailing out of, inluding them. Whst has it gotten Israel. Certainly no demands that Hamas be reined in. The Europeans have been the proxy for the US in negotiating with Iran, What has it gotten them? I've seen this movie before, Britain and France negotiated seriously with Hitler, giving him the Sudetenland in exhange for a European security agreement. I guess these authors' POV is rooted in the same historical fantasy that led Joe Biden to say that NATO and France had expelled Hezbollah from Lebanon's conflict. Good job people. It's all Bush's fault. That's why Sandy Berger stole and destroyed paper relevant to Clinton and the authors' concept of natioal security. My friends, the Obama years will be Carter redux but even worse.
What a shame, Ajewish newspaper supporting Obama. To support a candidate that: has never produced an original birth certificate,keeps his education records closed, received donations from hamas then when found sent it back, is close to the "palestinian cause". Who is currently close with: louis farrakhan, bill ayers, rev. wright, michael pfleger & others known & unknown. Obama also known as barry soetoro. was tought as a children by frank marshall davis, a communist. He also played a part in the financial collapse.Is a legal & financial supporter of acorn ( association of community organizations for reform now). All want to see the destruction of the United states as a Democracy. I cannot understand the logic.
The dialogue with Ahmadinejad, according to Stella, is an event for "progressive" groups. The Iranian regime has a policy of Holocaust denial which by definition is an expression of anti-semitism. Surely even anti-Zionist Jews, Stella, have a little respect for our murdered families.
Just look at the comments. Pro-Obama=anti-Israel
Benjamin and Simon-- brilliant analysts both who gave us much understanding in the baffling assault we made upon the Middle East after 9/11 in order ALLEGEDLY to teach it "democracy" as well as get cheap oil-- seem rather clumsy at political campaigning in their FORWARD oped. How can they affirm that: "The United States may need to use force to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, and Obama has pledged he would not allow Iran to possess the most dangerous weapons" on behalf of Obama? Fact is that neither McCain nor Obama is in a position to think of attacking Iran. Just as Mofaz is an opportunist blowhard like McCain, so are our two revered authors trying to pretend inside knowledge on what President Obama will do. Fact is NO ONE-- not even McCain or Obama-- wants to add a military assault on Iran based on dubious "intel" as we did with Iraq to our multi-war and broken economy sorry state. We have an America to save and a world to calm. Do they both think Obama will push for a draft so we can attack Iran as well as Iraq Afghanistan and Pakistan? In all their, I must insist, brilliant writings neither Benjamin nor Simon faced up to the fact that had we forced the airlines to obey the rules and make the pilot's cabin on airliners impenetrable 9/11 would have never happened. Instead, they stoke the fires of some omnipotent devil, binLaden, and his mysterious miracle-able alQaeda, getting a nuclear bomb from Iran and lobbing it at a US city. All the "top secret" intel is more career-building crap for never-served "experts" CIA bureaucraps whose salaries patriotic Americans pay in blood. If there's one thing we learned from Israel's Stuka like Blitzkrieg on Lebanon is that there are lots more Muslims ready to fight defending their lands than there are Americans, Israelis and others ready to die killing them. Olmert had the courage to withdraw the IDF before it loses any more of its able and courageous IDF patriots as a mercenary army for Bush in Lebanon. For that he payed with an end to his career in slander by neocons ready to bear false-witness as trained to do by Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin. Mofaz spoke for years of Israel doing to Iran on its own what it later tried to do for Bush in exchange for added foreign aid. He would not have had the moral strength to do what Olmert did when his failure is obvious. Old generals who, in retirement, feel they have not got what they thought themselves due have hired up to the Saudis, JINSA and the weapons industry to augment their pensions. As such, they intervene in Israeli politics for show, just like a neocon from Long Island bore false witness to bring down an Israeli Prime Minister. That's how it looks to a lot of us; as such, all this politicking back and forth as if Israel and the US were interchangeable or one nation is criminally negligent toward both! If you vote for Obama, make it because you think he will be a great president for YOUR AMERICA, not for how you think he should "bomb, bomb, bomb...bomb Iran" (to the tune of the Beachboys' Barbara-Ann). Yes, we-- especially Benjamin and Simon, responsible scholars both-- should discuss what's next with Iran. But don't dissipate your august expert authority in campaign rhetoric. Jews, gentlemen, don't need the same kind of reassurance about your candidate on Iran that the Christian Right wing-nuts need on gay marriage. So save your prestige as responsible experts by saving your comments for responsible discourse instead if political hyperbole. Jews will vote for Obama because they are free of racism to the marrow of their thousands of years old DNA and share Obama's moral priorities of a bipartisan united American nation that comes to firm decisions based on dialogue by experts like Bejamin and Simon. But these gentlemen wasting their standing on hype about Ahmadinejad calling Israel a "stinking corpse" when that screwball is only an ephemeral entity, only deprives our nation of the vitally needed responsible Benjamin-Simon expertise. Save yourselves, gentlemen, for gravitas; don't become rebel-rousing propagandists in the Jewish press hawking votes with things you can't possibly commit to because you have no way of knowing what will happen in 2009. It's a case of turning silk into pig ears and that's not kosher! We must prove to the world that we have a lot of smarter, more mature and more "engaged" Americans than our current broken-down shadow of a president and his geriatric attempted successor. That is done by mature and patient diplomacy, not by promising to kill Iran for insulting our little friend Israel...especially as Ahmadinejad was put up there specifically to get Mofaz's goat. Watch PM Livni show how much smarter she is than a bunch of failed generals for sale. Then watch how Obama deals with her to solve this crisis without relying on such failed generals who so recklessly are ready to bring so many patriotic youths to their doom.
Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, Farrakan, CAIR,two-bit anti-American dictators, felon's, violent criminals, etc, etc, and stupid liberal Jews are voting for Obama. Obama has a long history of having associations with nefarious individuals, Rezco, Wright, Ayers, etc. Liberal Jews have chosen to be on the same side as these groups. Obama is not only bad for America but bad for Jews and bad for Israel. Shameful!
It will be interesting to see if Schieffer tonight will be brave (non-partisan) enough to ask Obama about the latest frightening anti-Semitic remarks of his supporter Jesse Jackson? Jackson, as was widely reported, said in France that “Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades” will lose influence under an Obama administration. With friends like those "reverends," Obama doesn't need enemies. Of the two candidates, Obama is by far the riskiest, for Israel and for the American people.
In reference to Jesse Jackson. Jackson helped launch Obama's career. Obama has been a friend and member of the family. Jacksons son has been a close friend of Obama for years.Jackson's daughter went to school with Obama's wife Michelle. All of you must be a lifetime democrat which is a mental disorder. Do you not hear Obama being called the messiah are each of you one of the believers? Do you know how many people are "emotionally" involved with him. Did you see & hear Farrahkhan state to young muslims " you are the instruments that g-d is gonna use to bring about universal change" "when the messiah speaks the youth will hear". Are each of you comfortably numb or have eyes that do not see & ears that do not hear. WAKE UP!! Obama will close the book on 232 years of our country. Jews of all people should pay attention. I can read where someone is coming from which tells me where he/she is going & it is Definitely not the yellow brick road.This is THE most dangerous election in our country's history. there has been nothing like this in or history. As I said on 10/10 Obama is much closer to the palestinian cause then you will want to imagine & this time there is no time to use your imagination it is real. 10 years ago if they made a movie of What I see is happening now I wouldn't go to see it because it's to far fetched to believe it could happen here. Now, it's here we have a democratic republican & a radical socialist running & the socialist is winning! do you see the financial collapse? Do you see CEO's walking away with millions of dollars from bankrupt companies? Did you see all that worked in fannie & freddie walk away with millions in some cases? Do you see Acorn submitting 10's of thousands of fraudulent voter registrations, ALL of the voter registrations are for Obama which would be hundreds of thousands? Did you see our government taking over banks? What I will confidently say is, you only know what Obama tells you. What I have told you is more important then any purchase you have made including your home if you own one. 97% of the media are Obama followers the few that aren't is Fox news WABC & WOR and some of it's affiliates call them what you like neocons etc. but I am able to back up what I see personally as the truth. They see some of what I see & I see much more ....maybe they are rated for general audiences. this is not like when JFK was president" ask not what your country can do for you , but what you can do for your country" there is no more democratic party in any way as it was. I was a democrat for decades. This is the most important vote in your life as an American and a Jew. don't let the trees get in the way of your view.
This article does not outline the Obama position. It outlines the Hillary Clinton position. The Obama campaign has been very clear that it opposes what it calls "Bush's march to war against Iran." The notion that we need the concession to talks to find out what Iran's intentions are is laughable, as anybody who deals with the Iranians (e.g. the Europeans) can tell you. The notion that "Israel will also pay a price if the United States continues to fight terrorism as it has during the Bush years" should also raise eyebrows. From the usual, "it's all Israel's fault approach", we now have an "it's all America's fault" argument. Simon and Benjamin know full well, as they were in government at the time and wrote a book about it, that Al-Qaeda was growing and first declared war on America during the years of the Clinton-sponsored Arab-Israeli peace process. The U.S. was not in Iraq then. The result was 9/11. For as long as Arab leaders talk privately to Israel and allow the public encitement of hatred (Palestinian leaders included), Israel will be a target for terrorism.
As an Israeli, I can only ask one question.... "are you nuts"? The election of Obama will bring much more chutzpah to our enemies (and to America's as well). I hope that Benjamin and Simon will write an article 1 year from now apologizing for this piece of trash.