Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on Dec. 10 drew high marks from neocons as he minimized the bloody excesses of post-World War II U.S. foreign policy behind the five-word phrase "whatever mistakes we have made" and asserted the overarching morality of U.S. military interventions.
"The shift in rhetoric at Oslo was striking," observed neocon theorist Robert Kagan in a Washington Post op-ed on Dec. 13. "Gone was the vaguely left-revisionist language that flavored earlier speeches, highlighting the low points of American global leadership -- the coups and ill-considered wars -- and low-balling the highlights, such as the Cold War triumph."
If Lieberman succeeds in sinking Obama's chief domestic priority health care reform or waters it down so much that it alienates Obama from his liberal base, Obama may find himself essentially the captive of the neocons, needing their blessing to maintain any political viability in Washington.
Lieberman has been careful not to connect his disruptive behavior on health-care reform to his support for Israel, but there can be little doubt that a chastened Obama, either defeated on health care or forced to sign a bill that liberals will view as a betrayal, will have much less political capital to expend in applying pressure on Israel.
A hobbled Obama won't be able to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt expansion of West Bank settlements or to take other steps that might lead to a Palestinian state. Obama also could be pushed around himself if Israel itself an undeclared nuclear power decides to launch airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.
The Israel explanation for Lieberman's behavior on health-care reform is the one that seems to make the most sense.
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