The unexpected weeping of US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over being forced to abstain, against her conscience, from the vote about funding Iron Dome interceptors, did not break my heart.
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To a large extent, the Congress' separate vote on the Iron Dome issue exposed a group of harsh critics of Israel in the Democratic party. But on the other hand, it also exposed Israel's Achilles heel – that an economically secure nation that is at the front of the line for US aid.
We are in the top 10% of the world in terms of per capita GDP. The billion dollars (in addition to the $3.8 billion we receive in annual aid) could have been found in our own budget, which has a long list of completely unnecessary expenditures. We won't be able to explain for much longer why we stand at Congress' door with our hands out when we encounter exigencies that are hard to describe as "unexpected." Instead of planning a multi-year plan to wean ourselves off the generous American aid that the Obama administration granted us, we continue to explain or excuse Alexandria's tears. It's a shame.
An elderly Palestinian who was born 86 years ago in Safed never intended to lead his people. But he has found himself in that role for too many years, and just gave a speech at the UN. PA President Mahmoud Abbas laid out conditions for Israel to meet that it must be clear would not be accepted and threatened that if they were not met by the end of the year, he would appeal to the International Criminal Court, which is already interested in our affairs.
Abbas is effectively holding himself to account. The man who was never afraid to oppose the use of violence, event against former PLO leader Yasser Arafat, is now called a "supporter of terrorism" by recalcitrant Israelis in both the coalition and the opposition. This sad man thinks that no independent Palestinian state will be founded alongside Israel on his watch. He acknowledges the mistakes made by the Palestinian leadership in recent years, and knows that he has no Israeli partner.
Close associates say that because Abbas is one of the founders of the Fatah movement, he might be the last Palestinian leader with the bona fides to sign a peace deal with us. I hope they're wrong.
Prime Minister Bennett made a serious mistake by not addressing Abbas' UN speech or the Palestinian problem at all. The main thing for which his own UN speech will be remembered is what it left out.
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