Original essay by Benyamin Korn
(Benyamin Korn, former executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, is director of Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin andJewsForSarah.com.)
A Republican former governor, solidly pro-Israel, is running for the White House, but mocked by the pundits for allegedly lacking foreign policy expertise – yet ends up time and again being proved right on the major international issues of the day. Thinking Ronald Reagan?
Try Sarah Palin.
Nearly one month ago, the incumbent GOP vice presidential candidate became the first major American political figure to call for imposing a no-fly zone over Libya. Finally, in the past week, Palin’s idea was adopted by – in quick succession – the Arab League, the UN Security Council, and President Obama. Finally this week allied ordnance began striking Moammar Qaddhafi’s forces. Let’s hope it’s not too late.
Libya is just the latest major foreign policy challenge where Gov. Palin has confounded her detractors and demonstrated that, just as with Reagan, good instincts and a sound worldview are what count when a leader’s telephone rings at 3:00 a.m.
The Palin Doctrine –
allies should be supported,
dictators reviled,
terrorists hunted down
and enemies defeated
We call it the Palin Doctrine. It’s based on the principles that allies should be supported, dictators reviled, terrorists hunted down and enemies defeated. It also means the western world will not stand by at the bloody repression of a democratic revolution.
These notions might be self-evident to some, but they’re not to President Obama, who cannot bring himself even to utter the words “Islamist” and “terrorist” in the same sentence. One of his top intelligence officials actually told Congress last month that the Muslim Brotherhood is a “largely secular” organization. Ms. Palin, by contrast, denounced as a “shame” the administration’s offer to the Brotherhood of a seat at the table of power in Egypt’s newly evolving system.
Last week Governor and Mr. Palin were in New Delhi where she delivered the keynote address at a high-level political conclave. As the first visit to south Asia by a potential 2012 GOP contender, her attention was welcomed in a democracy justifiably concerned about the unstable behavior of Pakistan, its nuclear-armed neighbor to the northwest, and a China rapidly arming, under a regime where state capitalism and rigid control of political power go hand-in-hand.
The Palins’ stopover in Israel likewise came at a critical moment. In the wake of the Itamar massacre and the renewed rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, Gov. Palin expressed only solidarity, even wearing a Star of David during her tours. She promised to return soon for a longer visit.
Contrast that with the behavior of Mr. Obama, who has yet, as President, even to visit the Jewish state, pays only lip service to the threat of ceaseless Palestinian incitement, and has returned to carping about the “illegitimacy” of Jews building houses where they already live.
Most important for the long term, Mrs. Palin has extensive experience administering energy policy, and proven success in tough negotiations with the giant energy firms, and the former Alaska governor always links U.S. security interests with “responsible development” of America’s abundant fuel resources.
The president’s most effective critic recently declared that his “war on domestic oil and gas exploration and production has caused us pain at the pump, endangered our already sluggish economic recovery, and threatened our national security.” In her India address Mrs. Palin chastised the White House aversion to energy development as a form of “social engineering.”
Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy was marked by indecision, weakness, and a the abandonment of long-standing U.S. Allies. The resolute Reagan Doctrine of peace through strength restored America’s standing in the world and brought down the Soviet empire without firing a shot. Barack Obama’s foreign policy is looking more like Carter’s every day. And Sarah Palin’s looks more and more like Reagan’s.
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