11/5/09: Obama Uses Alinsky's Tactics on Israel (and Fails)

Saul Alinsky: The Godfather of Failure

While he dithers on Afghanistan and appears weak on Iran, President Obama has taken a different route when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather than appear indecisive and weak, he has chosen to make tough demands on Israel. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked:

President Obama came into office insisting that his administration would press hard and fast to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But after nine months, analysts and diplomats say, the administration's efforts have faltered in part because of its own missteps.

Daniel Levy, a veteran Israeli peace negotiator now at the Century Foundation in Washington, summed up the administration's efforts in recent days as "amateur night at the Apollo Theater." He said the administration did not game out the consequences of its demands on the parties -- and then flinched. "They just dug deeper and deeper their own grave," he said. "All of this talk of negotiations doesn't cut the mustard in the region."

Source: Washington Post

At the heart of Obama's failure in the region was his demand that Israel halt all growth in the occupied territories. The goal of Obama's tough stance was to weaken Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's hand. However, it led Palestinian Authority President Abbas to refuse negotiations until Israel complied with Obama's request:

Abbas’ demand hardened Israeli opinion on both the talks and on Obama. Instead of weakening Netanyahu, which was the obvious thrust of the White House’s diplomatic efforts, they made Bibi more popular. That was an entirely foreseeable consequence, too. Israel put Netanyahu in charge in reaction to the unrelenting war in Gaza and the failure of earlier concessions with Abbas to gain any sense of peace or security. Making Abbas even more of an absolutist gave Israelis a reason to back Bibi.

Source: HotAir

The Obama Administration tried a similar "attack and weaken" tactic on FoxNews - starting with Anita Dunn and reaching it's zenith with David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel's MSM double team. It should be noted that the tactic failed - Fox News has enjoyed even higher ratings since the attacks.

It is becoming obvious that Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" - the Bible that Obama and his administration live by - is only useful in the quest to gain power. Once a radical has achieved power by Alinsky's destructive methods, the whole charade falls apart.