by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n Roger Cohen wrote in the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0<\/em>of Obama’s putdown of Netanyahu: “The former Soviet leader [Khrushchev] thought he could browbeat Kennedy only to discover, in Vienna, that the Kennedy charm was not unalloyed to steel (‘It will be a long, cold winter’). Netanyahu was the first foreign leader to think he could steamroll Obama. He earned a frosty comeuppance.”<\/p>\n The paean goes on to praise the new steely Obama who used Netanyahu, like Kennedy did Khrushchev, to establish his fides.<\/p>\n But this is absolutely lunatic for at least five reasons:<\/p>\n a) “Netanyahu was the first foreign leader to think he could steamroll Obama.” Hardly. Right out of the blocks Putin did it with his phony missiles-for-Iran deal. Under “reset” diplomacy, Ahmadinejad for a year now has been pressing ahead as never before. The Chinese certainly assume that they can “steamroll” this administration, as we saw from the last meeting there.<\/p>\n b) Khrushchev was our enemy trying to destroy freedom from Asia to Eastern Europe; Netanyahu is the head of an allied democracy, one that is a beacon of constitutionalism in a sea of autocracy.<\/p>\n c) The Soviet Union was a massive superpower with thousands of nuclear bombs and missiles and an entire bloc of communist client states; Israel is a tiny country of 7 million and mostly alone; how heroic is it to bully an allied small democracy versus a huge communist dictatorship?<\/p>\n d) Kennedy said later of that summit in Vienna that Khrushchev “beat the hell out of me” \u2014 an accurate assessment, since Khrushchev came away determined to press his luck during the Cuban Missile Crisis to come. So we don’t know the reaction of the Israelis or Palestinians to all this \u2014 only that anytime the U.S. gratuitously seeks to humiliate Israel, we can expect its enemies to see a green light and escalate, whether on the ground in the Middle East, at Arab Summits, or in the U.N.<\/p>\n e) A shaky American leader usually seeks to stand up to powerful regional dictatorships rather than pick on friends \u2014 that is, if the point is that the United States is still there for its allies and a formidable foe to its enemies. But apparently that was not the intent at all with Israel.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner Roger Cohen wrote in the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0of Obama’s putdown of Netanyahu: “The former Soviet leader [Khrushchev] thought he could browbeat Kennedy only to discover, in Vienna, that the Kennedy charm was not unalloyed to steel (‘It will be a long, cold winter’). Netanyahu was the first foreign leader to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[590],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-rB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9736,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9736-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":0},"title":"01\/12\/16 From an Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"01\/12\/16 From an Angry Reader: Dear Mr Hanson: I would like to comment on your Room for Debate in the Daily Southtown regarding treatment of Israel. Where does the Prime Minister of Israel, with a population of 8 million, get off slamming President Obama of the United States with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12996,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/diplomatic-lessons\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":1},"title":"Diplomatic Lessons?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers PX 96-33:12 03 June 1961 President Kennedy meets with Chairman Khrushchev at the U. S. Embassy residence, Vienna. U. S. Dept. of State photograph in the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston. WikiCommons A forty-something inexperienced JFK in June 1961 was clobbered at the Vienna\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/John_Kennedy_Nikita_Khrushchev_1961.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/John_Kennedy_Nikita_Khrushchev_1961.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/John_Kennedy_Nikita_Khrushchev_1961.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/John_Kennedy_Nikita_Khrushchev_1961.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8272,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/israel-jews-and-the-obama-administration\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":2},"title":"Israel, Jews, and the Obama Administration","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJ Media Even some Democrats in Congress have come to the conclusion that after the brouhaha over Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s speech before Congress, President Obama wants to radically downgrade the long American special relationship with democratic Jewish Israel \u2014 and perhaps has a dislike\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"President Obama meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Oct 1st, 2014. (Rex Features via AP Images)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/obama_netanyahu_3-8-15-1-500x310.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8263,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-audacity-of-weakness\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":3},"title":"The Audacity of Weakness","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama\u2019s morally confused foreign policy is making the world more dangerous by the day. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress on Tuesday to warn Americans of the anti-Western threats from theocratic \u2014 and likely to soon be nuclear \u2014 Iran. Netanyahu\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Russia"","block_context":{"text":"Russia","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/russia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8300,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/at-the-white-house-theres-nobody-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":4},"title":"At the White House, There\u2019s Nobody Home","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The absence of true leadership has created chaos at home and abroad. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online What has gone wrong with the U.S. government in the past month? Just about everything, from the fundamental to the ridiculous. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United States\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Photo: White House via Flickr)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/pic_giant_031915_SM_White-House-500x278.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9704,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-resilience-of-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":5},"title":"The Resilience of Israel","author":"Megan Ring","date":"January 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Despite the mess around it, Israel is in its best geostrategic position in decades. Israel would seem to be in a disastrous position, given the inevitable nuclear capabilities of Iran and the recent deterioration of its relationship with the United States, its former patron\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Russia"","block_context":{"text":"Russia","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/russia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1713,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}