Opinion: Israel's God Won't Abandon the Jews - CBN News

Opinion: Israel's God Won't Abandon the Jews

By Tzippe Barrow

CBN News Internet Producer - Jerusalem

Friday, August 15, 2014

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- If the U.S. administration's decision to impose an arms embargo on Israel, reported in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, proves to be true, it would just be the latest in a long list of injustices that started within months of President Barack Obama's first term in office.

Though Israel and the U.S. both made light of the report, denying there'd been any substantive changes, a look back at Obama's track record tells a different story.

After giving a jump start to issues close to his heart, such as the pro-choice and gay rights movements, Obama began making amends on America's behalf to the Muslim world.

He traveled to several Muslim majority countries and gave his famous "New Beginning" speech from Cairo University on June 4, 2009, promising to make up for his predecessor George W. Bush,  whom he said  "severely damaged" America's relationship to the Muslim world. Less than two years later, Obama would abandon long-time U.S. ally, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood.

For whatever reason, perhaps not to offend the Muslim world, Obama excluded Israel from his itinerary, though the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reportedly topped the agenda during meetings with Turkish, Saudi Arabian, Jordanian and Egyptian heads of states.

Obama reiterated his support for the Arab League's 2002 peace initiative, calling for an independent Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 armistice lines, with Jerusalem as its capital.

At the same time, the president's lack of support, sometimes bordering on distain, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became increasingly apparent.

Most Israelis remember Obama's decision to publically shun Netanyahu during one visit to the White House. There was also his conversation, inadvertently overheard on microphones that had not been switched off, with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In March 2013 during his second term, Obama paid his first state visit to Israel. Netanyahu, joined by senior Israeli officials, warmly welcomed him upon arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. The two leaders embraced one another like long-lost friends.

The Jerusalem Post banner headline read, "In J'lem, Obama asserts Israel's right to defend itself," subtitled with "Leaders meet for 5 hours, decide to begin consultations on a new military aid package."  

The paper's political correspondent, Herb Keinon, titled his front-page analysis, "Finally showing the love," a sentiment embraced by many Israelis at the time.

Today, you would be hard put to find too many in Israel who believe the Obama administration "has Israel's back."

As Israel continues to battle worldwide condemnation of its military efforts to stop Palestinian rocket barrages and expose the Islamists' anti-Israel rhetoric, this latest change in U.S. policy is all the more difficult.

While it's hard to imagine what will happen next, many Israelis know God has never and will never abandon them. It seems we're coming closer to the day when all the nations of the world will turn against the Jewish homeland. When that happens, God Himself will defend Israel.

"In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." (Zechariah 12:8-9)