by Mark Rhoads
Most Americans were willing to ignore President-elect Barack Obama's lack of experience and place their confidence in him based on speeches alone. The time for buyer's remorse may now come much sooner than expected. Obama has made no comment whatsoever about the indiscriminate firing of rockets by Hamas from Gaza into Israel and the air and ground retaliation attack of Israeli troops into the suburbs of Gaza City. Not a word in three days.
His aides say he has talked to President Bush and to the State Department. All anyone expects him to do is to call for a cease fire and for restraint by all parties to save the lives of innocent civilians on both sides including children. That is all he can do until he holds the office of president after noon eastern time on Jan. 20. President Bush in his radio address on Saturday correctly blamed Hamas for starting the fighting. UN officials have called for a cease fire and all Obama would have to do is echo that call or just say something.
Israel remains the only stable democracy in that part of the world. Israeli leaders in all parties know that on Jan. 20 they will lose the best friend Israel has had in The White House since 1948. It is legitimate to wonder how much the majority of American Jews really know or care about the security of Israel since only two months ago nearly 70 percent of Jewish voters supported a candidate, President-elect Obama, whose record of support for Israel has been among the weakest in Congress.
The silence of Obama is speaking volumes to both Islamic terrorists and to supporters of Israel and his silence does not encourage peace. It is another indication that Barack Obama is not ready for prime time as the curtain is going up on his administration. See The Guardian Online analysis for a liberal European perspective on the silence of Obama: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/04/obama-gaza-israel
