This past Friday afternoon the foreign ministers of the G-8 met in Trieste, Italy. Representing a broad-based international coalition, they called upon Israel to freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank and to lift its
The whole litany of world problems were set aside by the G-8 ministers so as to censure the Israeli policy.
blockade of the Gaza Strip, backing US President Barack Obama's Mideast policy. A policy that demands of Israel to stop even "natural growth" and to dismantle every settlement established since 2001.

Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press reported:

"The Quartet of Mideast negotiators and foreign ministers of the Group of Eight industrialized nations took advantage of what the UN chief said was a 'historic' opportunity with the new Obama administration in issuing nearly identical calls for the resumption of direct peace talks, an end to violence, and economic reconstruction for war-battered Gaza. 'We are now trying very hard to seize the very favorably created political atmosphere of Obama's election to push the peace process forward,' UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference."

Apparently, the killings in Darfur, the starvation in Haiti, the beating of dissidents in Iran, the bellicose nuclear activity of North Korea and the whole litany of world problems were set aside by the G-8 ministers so as to censure the Israeli policy of protecting its immediate national security interests. It's transparent that the leaders of the nations of the world want everyone to know that because President Barack Hussein Obama sits in the Oval Office, it is therefore okay and correct to force destructive and dangerous policies upon the people and land of Israel.

If this is not a two-faced, anti-Semitic double standard against the Jewish people, then pray tell me what this is all about.

This past week, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu returned from his first meeting with European leaders. He hoped to find support from France and Italy so as to strengthen his bargaining position with Washington. Now we find out that Netanyahu was outsmarted by the Obama administration, which called upon these leaders even before they spoke with Netanyahu to hear his concerns first hand. Mr. Netanyahu was told in no uncertain terms that he does not have their support to have Jewish communities remain in eastern Jerusalem, or in Judea and Samaria.

As a result, over 300,000 of our Jewish brethren are facing the same fate - Heaven forfend - as that dealt to the flourishing Jewish communities of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip.

I wonder why Netanyahu thought he would gain the sympathy of once-fascist Italy, which joined the Axis powers and worked hand in hand with Hitler's Nazi Germany. And what indeed did he expect from the French, who turned Vichy and collaborated with the Nazis and the deportation of its Jewish population little more than 60 years ago?

Furthermore, what does Israel expect from the Obama administration, when its own Madam Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is brought to task and scolded publicly by Elliot Abrams, a senior fellow on Middle Eastern Studies at the Council of Foreign Relations and a member of the National Security Council from 2001-2009, in his most recent article in the Wall Street Journal. Mrs. Clinton states for the record that there are no "enforceable agreements" between former President George Bush and the State of Israel in regards to natural growth of existing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Abrams, who is a firsthand eyewitness to these events, writes that agreements do exist, clearly spelled out, between President Bush and then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

That only proves the point that even recent agreements between the United States and Israel, which allowed Sharon to evacuate and relinquish the blossoming communities of Gush Katif to Israel's mortal enemies, gained for Israel absolutely nothing but mayhem, heartache and causalities; and unending missile barrages on Israel, daily.

Senior political analyst Michael Barone of the Washington Examiner writes that there are three rules that are adhered to by president Obama: "One, dodge the facts; two, skip details; three, govern Chicago style." At the conclusion of his criticism of the Obama administration, he writes, "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-Il of North Korea have proved to be harder to charm than the American mainstream media."

Things are so hard pressed for Israel that even the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is running a series of articles that are painting the settler movement in less than glowing terms. At the very least, the headlines of their "special report" indicate an unfair characterization of Israel's most loyal patriots and peace-loving citizens. An article called "View from the West Bank Hilltops - a special report on Jewish Extremists" causes one to pause, and to read and reread what is being written about them.
Even the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is running a series of articles that are painting the settler movement in less than glowing terms.

I, for one, came away with the impression that the inhabitants of these communities are not extremists at all. Considering that many are close relatives of victims of organized Palestinian terrorism, they are determined more than ever to not permit Israel's mortal enemies the victory they seek. Some of these inhabitants were mere teens who witnessed their families being thrown out of their homes in Gush Katif, and they are determined that it not happen to them again. Sounds pretty sane and proper to me. In fact, these people are practical, honest, fair, devoted to Israel, observant of Torah and hardened by the cynicism of the Israeli Left.

In fact, it is the Jewish communities of Efrat, Eli, Shilo, etc. that are waging the battle for what is right and just. They are indeed against the misguided goals of Jstreet, Tikkun, The New Israel Fund and Peace Now. They are against the far-left because the Left has left Israel, the Left has left Jewish values, the Left has corrupted the concept of tikkum olam, the Left has left security, and the Left has left Israel's most devoted citizens flapping in the wind.

American Jews are obligated to contact their representatives, and especially congresspeople serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee, to let them know that we do not agree with the new Obama policy of forcing Israel to negotiate away its security and future in return for agreements that are unenforceable. We know from recent events that they only beget more terror and more mayhem, hurting both Jewish and Arab interests in the region. It's time to stop using Israel as the whipping post for our own foreign policy blunders; and it's certainly time for Israel to circle the wagons and not allow itself to be taken in by false promises, and even well-meaning but naive leadership, at a time of existential danger not only for Israel, but for freedom-loving people the world over. The time to circle the wagons is now.