Gingrich: Obama 'Has Made' Shallowness an Art Form

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich Thursday dismissed President Barack Obama's trip to Israel as nothing but show and suggested his comment that Israel should "reverse the undertow of isolation" is completely divorced from the reality of hostilities the Jewish state confronts every day.

"I think this president has made shallowness an art form," the Georgia Republican and former presidential candidate said on Fox News' "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."

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"He drifts across the land being pleasant, nothing changes, and he leaves. He couldn't even contain himself long enough to get out of Israel," Gingrich added, referring to Obama's speech Thursday at the Jerusalem Convention center in which he urged Israel to "resist the undertow of isolation."

"The fact is there is no undertow of isolation," Gingrich told Van Susteren. "There's a long- term systemic effort to isolate Israel. There's a deep historic tradition of anti-Semitism in much of Europe. Much of the Arab world is deeply committed to the destruction of Israel.

"This president . . . cannot even get the new Egyptian president to say that he's committed to the Camp David accords," he continued.

"So I think that to blame the Israelis for being isolated at a time when they have missiles shot at them from Gaza, they have chemical weapons in Syria, they have Hezbollah in their north, they have Iran trying to build a nuclear weapon to eliminate them, they have a Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt . . . It strikes me that is like attacking the victim."

Gingrich said he had "no idea" why Obama would suddenly decide to visit Israel in the beginning of his second term when he side-stepped the Jewish State during his first visit to the Middle East in his first term. But he suggested that his "polling numbers" may have "gone badly" and his advisers may have told him to "be nice."

"So he's had a charm offensive at the Jefferson Hotel [in Washington] with Republican senators and now he's had a charm offensive in Israel with [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu," Gingrich said.

"This is apparently the new happier, more pleasant Barack Obama."

The former speaker also dismissed suggestions that Obama might be able to move the peace process along in the region, given his emphasis during his trip on the importance of creating a Palestinian state that could coexist along-side Israel.

"There is no peace process. This is nonsense," Gingrich declared. "This is stuff western politicians do to feel good about themselves."

The fact is, he said, nearly every country, and every extremist Islamist and militant faction in the region, is determined and dedicated to the destruction of the Israeli people.

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He ticked off a long list of Israel's enemies, ranging from Iran to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, as well as Hamas, Hezbollah, and various factions in Syria.

"What are we talking about? You are in the middle of a very, very long war," he said.