Israel’s Tilted Negotiating Table 

Two things have happened in the last week in the lead up to talks between Israel and the Palestinians that illustrate why negotiations are unlikely to produce peace. First, under pressure from the Obama administration, the Israeli government announced that it will release 104 Palestinian prisoners. 

It’s bad enough that the administration believes it helps the cause of peace to force an ally to release murderers. (All of those to be released were convicted of murder or accessory to murder.) Even more disturbing, these thugs will be welcomed back into Palestinian society as heroes. To give you a taste of the kind of people who will be released, among the 104 is Salameh Abdallah Musleh, who was convicted of beating a convenience store owner to death. 

As the Wall Street Journal notes, while there are murderers and psychotics in every society, most societies don’t celebrate them as warriors and heroes. But Palestinian society does. As we have reported for years, while Palestinian cartoons depict Jews as monsters, Palestinian terrorists are portrayed as heroes for children to emulate. Textbooks celebrate jihad and homicide bombers get streets named after them. 

When 26 Palestinian prisoners were released today, they were greeted with fireworks, dancing, chanting and a handshake and kiss from Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas. 

As the Palestinians celebrate the release of their heroes, the world is collectively yawning. No world leaders are condemning the Palestinians for celebrating. That’s partly because some of them feel sympathy for the Palestinians. But it’s also because many governments, including the U.S. State Department, are too busy denouncing Israel’s recent decision to build more housing in Samaria and Judea.

The disparate reactions to the prisoner release and the housing announcement shows how badly the negotiating table is tilted away from Israel, even before its negotiators sit down to talk. It’s absurd that Israel must release more than one hundred Palestinian killers just to get a seat at the table. 

By the way, my friend Elliott Abrams reported that Secretary of State John Kerry recently met with key Jewish leaders and told them that Israel’s security assurances would be negotiated separately from the general peace negotiations. Abrams believes this suggests that Israel is negotiating security concerns with the Obama Administration instead of directly with the Palestinians. 

But will the Obama Administration negotiate Israel’s security in good faith? That’s an open question considering that Obama made it clear when he entered office that he was not bound to an Israeli security agreement negotiated under President Bush. That agreement was conditioned upon Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. The Obama Administration won’t respect the guarantees made by its predecessor, so how can Israel expect the Obama Administration to respect the new guarantee? 

Clowning Around 

You may have heard about the Missouri State Fair rodeo clown who violated every rule of political correctness and good taste by performing while wearing a mask of President Obama and asking the crowd if they wanted to see Obama “run down by a bull.” 

I don’t like it when performers of any kind use their positions to score political points. Hollywood actors do it all the time. And I wish the office of the president were treated with more respect, by the public and, come to think of it, by those who occupy it. That said, it’s sad that so many people are hyper-ventilating over this. 

Reactions to the stunt have been, in a word, predictable. Missouri State Fair officials have banned the clown for life and social media exploded with condemnation. The NAACP is calling on the Justice Department and Secret Service to investigate the incident. 

But this type of mockery happens all the time under Republican presidents. George W. Bush was regularly depicted as a monkey, often by famous actors and comedians, including HBO’s Bill Maher. 

As Rush Limbaugh said today on his radio show, the over-the-top responses to the rodeo clown’s antics are, in at least two ways, reminiscent of the disproportionate responses to cartoons of Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper in 2005. Then, as now, mockery that would have gone unnoticed had it targeted a different subject was immediately condemned as beyond the pale, or as the Missouri State Fair put it about the Obama clown “unconscionable.” 

The other similarity is that in both cases the offenders committed a form of blasphemy against a figure many regard as a deity. 

Join Me In D.C.! 

Join me at the 2013 Values Voter Summit, in Washington, D.C., October 11th - 13th. 

The Values Voter Summit is sponsored by my public policy organization, American Values, the Family Research Council, AFA Action, Heritage Foundation, Liberty University and Liberty Council. 

This year's Summit features an incredible line up of speakers, including: 
 

• Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) 
• Dr. Ben Carson 
• Lt. Gen. William Boykin (Ret.) 
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 
• Former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) 
• Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) 
• Rep. Steve King (R-IA) 
• Star Parker 
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) 
• Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 
• 2012 Vice Presidential Nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 
• Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) 
• And many more outstanding conservative leaders!

There will be educational sessions on a broad range of topics including: the threat to religious liberty, radical Islam, restraining Big Government and responding to the left. 

American Values will host a special luncheon on Saturday, October 12th. (To attend the luncheon, you must purchase a separate ticket.) Later that evening, there will be a gala dinner honoring Dr. Ed Feulner, founder of the Heritage Foundation. 

To learn more or to register online, click here now. I look forward to seeing you there!