Middle East expert Dr. Mike Evans is ripping the Obama administration for profanely disparaging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for constantly misunderstanding who the real troublemakers are in the region.
On Wednesday, an online piece in The Atlantic quoted an unnamed “senior Obama administration official” who labeled Netanyahu as “chickenshit” for only being interested in his own political security rather finding common ground with adversaries in the region.
“The bad thing about him is that he won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states,” the unnamed official told The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. “The only thing he’s interested in is protecting himself from political defeat. He’s not (Yitzhak) Rabin, he’s not (Ariel) Sharon, he’s certainly no (Menachem) Begin. He’s got no guts.”
Evans says there is a great deal of frustration with Netanyahu inside the Obama White House and the reasons are pretty simple.
“Obama is wanting Netanyahu to surrender leadership to him and he won’t do that. Those two have never got along. This goes back further than Obama. It goes back to the Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton days. I know. I was there in Washington,” said Evans.
“It’s a problem because of (Netabyahu’s) ideological right leanings. His hero was Ronald Reagan. He’s ideologically right to the core and this is the heart of the problem he said,” said Evans, who also asserts Obama knows he cannot match Netanyahu intellectually.
“Netanyahu is a Muhammad Ali in the ring against a Pee Wee Herman. He’s a heavyweight,” said Evans.
“He’s the smartest leader on the planet IQ-wise. His IQ is 185. He’s absolutely brilliant, one of the most articulate leaders in history. Obama can’t compete with him,” he said.
In addition to the vastly different political ideologies, Evans says a major frustration for the Obama administration is that Netanyahu simply won’t bow to its demands when it comes to the Palestinian question.
“He has told them from the beginning, ‘I will not accept a Palestinian state that has an army, that has treaties and is armed. I’m not going to define a Palestinian state that way.’ He’s never changed. That’s always been his policy. They know that and they don’t like it. (Netanyahu) won’t bend,” said Evans.
According to Evans, the Obama administration is also quietly fuming over Israel’s increasingly close relationship with Saudi Arabia as they both try to prevent a nuclear Iran.
“The Sauds are not friends of Obama. They’re not happy with Obama’s policies on Iran. They’re not happy with Obama’s policies on Syria. And, shockingly, the Sauds are very happy with Netanyahu. So the Sauds have aligned themselves with Netanyahu with plausible deniability. It’s happening behind the scenes and it’s over Iran,” said Evans.
The disparaging comments are not the only source of tension between the U.S. and Israel this week. The State Department is catching heat for sending condolences to the family of Mohammad Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian with U.S. citizenship who was killed by Israeli Defense Forces as he allegedly prepared to throw Molotov cocktails at cars on an Israeli highway. Abu Khdeir was buried wearing a green Hamas headband.
Nonetheless, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. did not view Molotov cocktails as an act of terrorism.
Evans is horrified by this mindset, but not surprised.
“They don’t look at them as terrorists. They didn’t look at them as terrorists when they were firing thousands of rockets into Israel. They think that they need education and money. By the way, we’ve given them a lot of it. (Secretary of State John) Kerry did the biggest fundraiser in my knowledge that’s ever happened for the Palestinians and raised billions for Hamas in Gaza. To do what? To reward them,” said Evans.
“This was completely insane. It’s the kind of things that get people killed, appeasement. The more you appease them, the more they think you’re afraid of them and the more they take advantage of you,” he said.