David Horowitz on Obama's Cairo Speech. Take Two

The other day, I used my blog to comment critically on what I considered too favorable reactions to President Obama’s Cairo speech. One of the people I felt  who had a far too optimistic interpretation of his remarks was David Horowitz.

Now, Horowitz has answered my assessment of his comments. Here is his response:

A Reply to Some Comments

Many of the judgments passed on Obama’s Cairo speech from the right have seized on particulars — distorted historical references and false moral equivalences designed to position Obama as a mediator — which have become an all too familiar feature of Obama’s speeches. In doing so they have missed the forest for the trees. My friend Ron Radosh has written a blog which mischaracterizes what I wrote as an uncritical reading and a completely favorable response which is most certainly not. I began by warning that Obama rewrites history to ignore the rapacity bigotry of the Islamic record. Notwithstanding that his defense of America and of the American bond with Israel was refreshing, and somewhat unexpected given his previous statements. Many people fail to distinguish between new policy and what is only a new speech. The worst aspect of the speech, the remarks about settlements is a bad policy the Obama Administration has been pushing for weeks. If settlements are unacceptable then the 1.2 million Arab Muslims settled in Israel should be removed to the West Bank or Jordan or Gaza. The only reason Jewish settlements are regarded as unacceptable is because the Muslim Arab states are bigoted racist regimes that can’t tolerate non-Arabs and non-Muslims. Obama’s blindness to this is bad; his call for religious tolerance on the other hand, if taken seriously, would undermine the entire Arab case. In my analysis of Obama’s speech I didn’t make a big deal out of the settlement issue because it wasn’t an innovation of the speech. What the speech did was say, the American way of tolerance, democracy, equality of women and religious freedom is the way of the future. Embrace it and we will support you. That was the Bush line that the Democrats hated before their man entered the White House. Michael Ledeen looking at the speech drew pretty much the same conclusion in Pajamas Media. For an insightful critique of Obama’s delusions, which concludes by being over the top take a look at this piece in the Ottawa Citizen. 

David is, as PJM readers know, one of the most astute and intelligent of conservative commentators. Our readers therefore should have the opportunity to read his own take on my criticism.