Michael Goodwin

Michael Goodwin

US News

A surprising threat to Israel

Israel has enemies, with Iran topping the list. But lately, her supposed friends also are causing headaches.

Frenemy No. 1 is the Obama administration. After the president’s visit last year, Secretary of State John Kerry started squeezing the Jewish state to make a deal with Palestinians, and hasn’t stopped.

Worse, Kerry has a creepy habit of predicting terrible things will happen unless Israel meets his demands. Back in November, when talks were stalled, he warned that time was running out for a deal and that Arab violence would follow failure. He told reporters of “the potential of chaos,” adding, “Does Israel want a third Intifada?”

Israeli leaders said they wouldn’t be intimidated, and charged that Kerry was giving Palestinians an incentive to commit violence.

Fast-forward, and Kerry, facing another stall, is dialing up more fear. He warned Sunday that a quick deal was necessary to head off European boycotts.

“It’s not sustainable. It’s illusionary,” he said of the status quo. “You see, for Israel, there’s an increasing delegitimization campaign that has been building up. There are talks of boycotts and other kinds of things.”

Again, Israel objected, with one leader saying Kerry was “holding a gun” to her head. When some accused him of fanning the flames of anti-Semitism, the US State Department and National Security Adviser Susan Rice called the attacks on him “unfair.”

That’s rich — making Kerry the victim. His fantasy of a historic deal, and maybe a Nobel Prize for his mantel, is crashing into fundamental issues of timing, details and leadership.

The nicest thing that can be said about him is that he wants the prize so much that he is overlooking the fact that neither side will accept his terms.

Then there is Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is simultaneously weak and yet in the ninth year — or is it the 10th year? — of a four-year term. His ruling party has a monopoly in the West Bank and praises terrorists as “heroes,” reflecting an addiction to violence that has been the main impediment to peace since Israel’s independence in 1948.

If hostile Arabs were Israel’s only trouble, it would be enough. But Frenemy No. 2 comes in the form of liberal American Jews so rigidly opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they have lost sight of the big picture.

Acting as if their view is the only legitimate one, they seized on an innocuous comment Mayor de Blasio made to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. During an unannounced speech in which he surprisingly echoed the late Ed Koch and other mayors in promising strong support for Israel, de Blasio said that “City Hall will always be open to AIPAC,” and offered to help whenever needed.

How dare he! The mad libs, including Gloria Steinem and a gaggle of writers, rabbis and others, openly blasted de Blasio, saying, “Your job is not to do AIPAC’s bidding.” It accused the organization of speaking for “Israel’s hard-line government” and said “it does not speak for us.”

That sparked push-back from more conservative Jews. Led by Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a principal at Bernstein Global Wealth Management, the smaller group denounced the liberals, saying AIPAC had a long history of building bipartisan backing for Israel. The attacks on de Blasio over AIPAC could jeopardize his support for Israel, they argued.

“No other ethnic group does this to itself,” Wiesenfeld said to me in exasperation. “This is like Catholics tearing down the Knights of Columbus.”

He’s on to something — and up against something very big. The White House is in sync with the many liberal Jews who are too quick to blame Israel for everything wrong in the Middle East.

Israel is fair game for criticism, but the larger reality is that it is our closest ally and the region’s only democracy. Its existence is threatened on a daily basis, and wiping it off the map remains the goal of Islamic terrorists, including Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are supported by Iran and control territory on Israel’s borders.

To look at those facts and see Israel as the problem is worse than wrong. It is nuts.

Hog Heaven if labor cut$ can also fly!

Notice anything strange about the weather? No, not the polar vortex or piles of snow. I’m talking about pigs—they’re flying!

If you don’t see them, you must read the latest New York Times editorial. Taking a break from its relentless bashing of all things Republican, the Times is calling on Mayor de Blasio to get tough with city unions.

True story.

Noting his ties to labor, the paper wants him to “demand more of his friends by changing work rules and extracting savings in runaway health-care and pension costs so that employees and retirees pay into their insurance plans.”

The ideas aren’t new, but their advocate is. With unions demanding retroactive pay hikes alone of $7 billion, de Blasio is trapped between rewarding his friends and being a sensible fiscal steward. He can’t have it both ways, and the Times is putting him on notice.

Indeed, pension and benefit costs are devouring more than $8 billion of this year’s tax revenues, meaning workers are pricing themselves out of jobs.

Cynics might argue that de Blasio solicited the editorial to give him political cover for something he needs to do. It wouldn’t be the first time a mayor used a friendly paper to deliver a message.

But even if true, that means de Blasio is committed to reforming union contracts. That would be a pleasant surprise, because he hinted in Albany that he viewed the $4.3 billion in projected surpluses as a cash stash for labor.

“Now is the time for Mr. de Blasio to be bold to the point of confrontation, to endure name-calling, resentment and lower poll numbers,” The Times said. It challenged him to put “labor costs on a sound footing” to prove a liberal Democrat can govern.

Duck your head — here comes another pig.

NJ Dem scotched

Stop the presses, there’s big news out of New Jersey. A pol with probers on his case is ready to throw in the towel.

Ha, so they finally got Chris Christie? Ah, no, but now that I have your attention, you’ve proved my point that the media firestorm has unfairly convicted the gov.

Politico says the quitter is Rep. Rob Andrews, a Dem from the Philadelphia suburbs. He reportedly took his family on vacation to Scotland and used campaign funds to pay the tab.

Outraged yet? You should be.

Namath can still pass (the buck)

Joe Namath never found that second career to match the glory of his first, but he’s got a talent that makes him a perfect fit for a fast-growing industry.

Asked about his botched pre-game coin toss, Broadway Joe told Fox News with a laugh: “Well, I gotta blame that on the officials.”

Sign him up — he’s a natural politician.