Benny Avni

Benny Avni

Opinion

Obama’s zig-zags alarming our Israeli allies

TEL AVIV — As Israelis go through wild mood swings while President Obama zigzags on Syria, top leaders here are quietly seething.

And “quietly” is the key word. By keeping a low profile, Israelis hope to give the warring sides in Syria no excuse to turn their fire across the border.

But the Syrian rebels and many of their supporters in the region claim that Israel (which conspiracy-prone Arabs often believe runs America’s foreign policy) has been propping up Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Assad’s people, meanwhile, accuse the Jewish state of doing exactly the opposite by pushing Obama to war against Syria.

And Obama has realized how badly his zig-zagging is perceived by at least some allies. On Monday, he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reportedly promising his maneuvering on Syria won’t be repeated when it comes to Iran. According to media reports here, he vowed that America is still determined to prevent Tehran from getting nukes.

Well, maybe. But as long as Obama’s hand on the tiller shakes as he navigates the Syrian crisis, words don’t do the trick.

Still, Netanyahu has learned he’s much better off standing in public solidarity with Obama, rather than expressing shock at the president’s contortions.

“We take no part in Syria’s civil war, but if attacked we’ll react, and react fiercely,” Netanyahu said last week — and nothing more. Bibi even managed to get his Cabinet ministers to shut up — no small feat in a country filled with highly opinionated talkers.

Israelis are on edge as they celebrate the Jewish new year, which started last night, and even as Obama’s war has moved, at least temporarily, from the Middle East to Capitol Hill.

Everybody, from top Jerusalem officials to Israel’s “Average Yossi,” is mesmerized as Obama’s world turns.

For 2½ years, US officials vowed to stay above the Syrian fray, making sophisticated arguments against any military action there. Yet all those arguments vanished after Assad’s Aug. 21 chemical attack that killed more than 1,400 people in the Damascus suburbs, as Americans from Obama on down vowed swift and decisive action to deter future use of weapons of mass destruction.

Oops — then came Obama’s out-of-the-blue decision to ask Congress to approve action. Plus, the president sounds much more adamant about what he won’t do in Syria than about what he will.

So Israelis ask themselves, war or no war? Get a gas mask or wait?

The pollster Rafi Smith reports that half of Israelis believe America will act in Syria, while the other half don’t: Washington’s intentions are that foggy.

Lack of clarity can be dangerous: On Tuesday, Russian officials detected a launch of two missiles in the Mediterranean, near Western Syria. As it turned out, it was just a joint US-Israeli test of missile-defense systems. But the incident reinforced fears that a mere misread could trigger a wider war.
Again, the only thing Israeli officials do say about Syria is that they can handle such dangers by themselves. And they’ve proven they can in the past.
But don’t mistake their silence on policy for approval. Jerusalem is increasingly worried at the haphazard way its closest ally is enforcing its much-declared Syrian “red line,” and wondering what other Obama promises haven’t been thought out.

And the rest of the world is just as confused about America’s intentions.

From Riyadh to Seoul, allies are rethinking their reliance on US military assurances, even as policy-makers in Moscow and Beijing — not to mention Tehran and Pyongyang — lick their chops, hoping that America will soon shy away from world leadership.

Visiting here shortly after winning his second term, Obama told Israelis, in Hebrew, “You’re not alone.” Now, even as they pray for America to remain the top world power, Israelis increasingly wonder.

But, for now, very quietly.