China has announced the formation of a development Bank and Israel has applied join. The Big Zero and the eternal dim bulbs at State are not happy with either development.
In Western institutions there is an almost reflexive rejection of all things Israel these days with assorted one horse dictatorships and failed Islamic States demanding it’s exclusion for various – not anti Semetic they hasten to assure you – reasons. And wimpy Euro States jump right in to support their little brown and black brethren, post colonial cringe and elite fear of growing Muslim populations fueling their loathing of that “shifty little country.”
China has no such prejudice. For better or worse, as the workshop of the world, China has interests and none of those interests require ritual obeyence to the Palestinian cause and the dreadful people who support it. The Arabs want to sell China oil, the Euros cars and financial services, the Turks would like to continue as a terminus on the New Silk Road. Thanks to the genius of the Obama administration, much of the Middle East is in flames and the Saudis need Israel far too much in the absence of coherence from Washington to even think of blackballing them.
As the Chinese, Indians, British and French know, finance and diplomacy are adult activities: Israel is the single nation in the Middle East which is technologically, militarily and financially competitive in the modern world. When the Saudis need good satellite pics of Yemen and the US is too busy tongue bathing Iran to provide them… Who do they call?
In six years, Obama and the ladies who surround him have relegated the US to the children’s table in world politics. Assad made fools of Obama’s red line drawers. Russia has largely ignored Obama’s hot and cold stance on Crimea and the Eastern Ukraine. While Kerry pretended that global warming is real and a threat, ISIS has proven it is very real and an actual threat.
Have Chinese have decided to go their own way diplomatically and economically. They realize that entities like the IMF, World Bank, UN are stuck with having to take Third World countries “seriously”. Worse, in the older forums, they have to take the junior varsity of American foreign “policy” into account if only because the US is very large and randomly self righteous. Rather than trying to reform the structures of a vanished world the Chinese are erecting new structures and leaving the obsessions of the old world behind. Which means working with Israel and leaving the Palis and the Americans to grow up.
Jay Currie 