A victory for bilateral and multilateral engagement, all wrapped up in a shiny albeit venomously Jew-hating little bow. Before I give you the punchline qua story, let’s review the the Obama administration’s obnoxious tough guy act – something that’s rapidly becoming a veritable tic with these tools – when it comes to engaging Syria and the UN Human Rights Council. Here’s Clinton defending outreach to Syria in the immediate aftermath of the Syria-to-Hezbollah SCUD revelations, which came right after Assad and Ahmadinejad publicly mocked her by name, which came right after Damascus threatened to saturation bomb Israeli population centers:
Despite Syria’s failure to satisfy long-standing U.S. demands that it cease interfering in Lebanon’s affairs and make greater efforts to forge peace with Israel, Clinton argued that it was in the U.S. interest to have an ambassador in Damascus. “This is not some kind of reward for the Syrians and the actions that they take which are deeply disturbing,” Clinton said. “It’s a tool that we believe can give us extra leverage, added insight, analysis, information with respect to Syria’s actions and intentions.”… The Obama administration’s plan to return an ambassador to Damascus has been criticized by some Republicans, including Representative Dan Burton, who this week said that the Syrians “just spit right in our face.”
That was late April, a few days before State Department officials scratched their heads over Damascus’s behavior and concluded – no joke – that “U.S. messages to Syria may not be getting through.” Because Assad just didn’t understand how heartfelt our intentions were or something.
Then last week State got called out on Obama’s UNHRC engagement fetish, this time after the UN body declared that Israel’s legal use of arms in its legal enforcement of its legal Gaza blockade justified condemnation of – and investigation into – violations of international law. Courtesy of of Rick Richman over at Contentions, here’s State spokesman P.J. Crowley explaining how granting legitimacy to a cesspool of anti-Jewish despots and thugs has paid dividends:
“Well, I mean, we understand that. One of the reasons why we joined the Human Rights Council was that we hope that over time that it would take a more balanced and appropriate response to urgent situations… we believe that this particular resolution is a rushed judgment… But we respect the fact that other countries may have a different view… We will continue to work – I mean, we’ll engage in the Human Rights Council just as we’re engaging on the margins of the International Criminal Court Review Conference… But we understand that there’ll be times where our view may carry the day, and there’ll be times where our – other countries have different points of view.
And what might those points of view be, those which the US “understands” in the context of multilateral engagement? Dig:
Meeting today in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council heard the following statement from the Syrian representative, First Secretary Rania Al Rifaiy: “Israel… is a state that is built on hatred… Let me quote a song that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school and I quote ‘With my teeth I will rip your flesh. With my mouth I will suck your blood.’” … There is a reason that none of the members of the UN Human Rights Council thought this statement was sufficiently repulsive or shocking to complain. The blood libel against the Jewish people is a calling card of UN proceedings, with UN members usually casting their anti-Semitism as vicious anti-Israel attacks.
What particularly bothers me about all this is that the song doesn’t even rhyme in Hebrew. I played around with a couple of translations, and there’s absolutely no way to make that into a catchy tune. And they expect us to believe that kids are actually memorizing this? It’s insult added to injury, ya know?
Hey, remember during the Bush years when foreign policy specialists were like you’d have to be a fucking idiot not to realize that we can peel Syria away from Iran with just a little bit of engagement? And then during the campaign, when Obama was like you’d have to be a fucking idiot not to understand that hard negotiations are conducted between enemies rather than friends? And then during the first few months of the administration, when the media was like you’d have to be a fucking idiot not to acknowledge the brilliance of Obama’s high-minded outreach to the Arab world?
Working out great.
References:
* Merely Tweeted, “Smart Cleanup…” Edition [Mere Rhetoric]
* Obama on BP: I want to know “whose ass to kick” [Hot Air]
* Clinton defends outreach to Syria despite Scud row [Reuters]
* Omri Ceren Show – 6:30pm PDT – SCUDS, Iranian Proxies, and Israeli Civilians [Mere Rhetoric]
* Syria Responds To Obama’s Engagement, Publicly Mocks Clinton And Embraces Iran [Mere Rhetoric]
* Obama: We Must Achieve Peace By Forcing Israel To Give Up Jerusalem And Open Its Borders [Mere Rhetoric]
* U.S. messages to Syria may not be getting through [WaPo]
* You Don’t Have to Be a Weatherman… [Rick Richman / Commentary Contentions]
* Syrian Rep Promotes Blood Libel at UN Human Rights Council [Weekly Standard]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Engagement
* Diplomacy
* Syria
