Egypt lies to the west, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the east, Lebanon and Syria to the north. Geography is not her friend.
Fewer than 8 million Israelis cling to a little sliver of land on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, surrounded by hundreds of millions of hostile Muslims.
At the end of World War II, after more than 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, most of the civilized world was shocked by the horrors of the Holocaust. World opinion was shamed into a brief period of sympathy for the Jewish survivors, who soon began emigrating from Europe to Israel.
By the time Israel declared itself a nation in 1948, there were over a million Jews living there, and Democrat President Harry Truman immediately established diplomatic relations with the new Jewish state.
We have had a special relationship with Israel ever since. Israel glistens as an oasis of democracy in a mid-eastern desert of tyranny. Israel was our staunchest ally throughout the Cold War, and more recently, the war on terror.
For reasons only he knows, our president disdains the nation of Israel. Soon after his election, Obama made a bee-line for Egypt so that he could grovel before the Muslims during his "world-apology" tour. But he didn't have time to visit Israel.
Obama has had time to host lavish state dinners for the Communist Chinese. He has invited groups of imams over for several Ramadan dinners at the White House. But the first time Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu came to visit, Obama made a point of publicly snubbing him.
No state dinner for Netanyahu. No dinner at all, for that matter.
When the president finally agreed to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister and his aides in March 2010, Obama gave them an earful about making concessions to Arab demands. Then he excused himself to go upstairs and have dinner with Michelle and the kids, leaving the Israelis to stew by themselves in the Roosevelt room.
Later that evening, Netanyahu was unceremoniously shooed out the side door of the White House. NBC report of Obama/Netanyahu meeting
I suppose we should be thankful that Obama stopped short of offering him a ham sandwich and poking him in the eye with a stick.
Fast forward to today: With Iran on the brink of possessing nuclear weapons, Israel is understandably alarmed. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly declared for years that Israel should be "wiped off the map."
The Jews will soon be threatened with annihilation. There is a tiny window of time left for Israel to decide how to neutralize the grave threat posed by Iranian nukes. Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to Washington later this month to attend the U.N. General Assembly, and he has asked for a meeting with President Obama, presumably to discuss this dire situation.
But our president does not have time to meet with the Prime Minster. The Israelis were told, "The president's schedule will not permit that."
Obama has time to do the Letterman show. He has time to play golf. He has time to do celebrity campaign fund-raisers with Jay-Z and Beyonce.
But time for a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, our only democratic ally in a middle east on the brink of war? Not so much.
*Also see When Israel Draws a Line in the Sand
