The Strange and Contradictory Perceptions of the Obama Speech on Israel: What did the President Really Say?
The point, Israel’s Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon clarified, is that “no one in the security Cabinet believes it’s possible to reach a solution with Abbas.” If that is so, Obama’s declaration that negotiations must continue — and still putting the onus on Israel for their failure — is meaningless. Ya’alon explains as follows:
The president divided the process into two phases; the worst part is that, according to the order set by President Obama, we first have to give up all the territory and return to the 1967 lines. This is a new and precedent-setting statement. This order of affairs is first and foremost suited to the Palestinians’ interests. That is why it is good that the prime minister made it clear that those borders are not defensible. In his speech, Obama in effect demanded of us to give up the territorial card without the substantive questions that are important to us — such as recognition of the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people — are solved.
As former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Dore Gold has noted:
Mr. Abbas’s unilateral move at the U.N. represents a massive violation of a core commitment in the Oslo Agreements in which both Israelis and Palestinians undertook that “neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of Permanent Status negotiations.” Palestinian spokesmen counter that Israeli settlements violated this clause. Yet former Prime Minister Rabin was very specific while negotiating Oslo in preserving the rights of Israeli citizens to build their homes in these disputed areas, by insisting that the settlements would be one of the subjects of final status negotiations between the parties.
Writing at Contentions, Jonathan S. Tobin, as usual, gets it just right:
What the world heard and what the world understood — even if many Jewish Democrats prefer to remain in denial — is that Obama believes Israel must be pressured hard if there is to be peace. His condescending manner at AIPAC made it clear that he considers Israel to be the primary obstacle to peace.
Pointing out that Israel has to date made many major concessions and hard choices, Tobin continued:
The Palestinians have compounded this refusal with an alliance between the moderates of Fatah and the terrorists of Hamas that even Obama understands eliminates them as a negotiating partner. And yet, he still insists that Israel must negotiate with them and make “hard choices,” which will start with their acceptance of his demand that the 1967 lines be the starting point for negotiations. Obama says that this means that the border ought to be different from those lines; yet the Palestinians insist they cannot be. And they will use, as they already have, his endorsement of those lines to buttress the very UN campaign for independent statehood that Obama says he will oppose.
Finally, one must look at how the Palestinian Authority took Obama’s speech: did they see it as one friendly to Israel, as the president’s supporters claim? Look no further than the statement released by chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat: that they would not resume peace negotiations unless Israel accepts the ’67 border guidelines mentioned by the president. In other words, what might be determined in final status negotiations is now, according to Fatah, to be accepted first as a starting point before negotiations are to take place! What should be then negotiated? The status of Haifa, Tel Aviv, etc.? As Erekat says:
Once Netanyahu says that the negotiations will lead to a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, then everything will be set.
Of course, as Erekat knows, that means half of Jersualem, including the Western Wall, would again be closed to Israel. What happened to Obama’s 2008 promise in the speech he then gave to AIPAC, that under an Obama administration Jerusalem would never be divided and would be Israel’s capital?
So we now all wait for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to AIPAC tonight, and his speech to Congress tomorrow. Will the PM make his own position clear, and challenge the president to put pressure not on our major ally in the region, but on the recalcitrant and intransigent Palestinian Authority, now ready for its formal alliance with Hamas? Or will he appear to try and make it seem that fences have been mended, and he fully believes that Barack Obama is truly Israel’s partner in the Middle East? We will know shortly.
Sometimes when we study history, we do not go back far enough to find what is necessary.
One only has to look up statements by Obama that the U.S. did not have to adopt a Likud point of view, when “defending” Israel.
In other words, one could adopt a J Street point of view, or a Soros-inspired or Chomsky-brain addled point of view.
The problem with interpreting Obama’s words is that nobody in the lapdog media will ever ask him to clarify. They will not parse them. Every utterance by a Republican is given the worst possible interpretation.
Every peep, stutter and belch by Obama is wrapped in gold leaf and preserved for eternal worship. Therefore, Obama can dribble out nonsense, non sequitors, vague, ambiguous, incoherent ramblings…and the lapdogs will be set out to build a shrine around them.
Therefore, the words are meaningless. To be changed as often as a diaper, filled beyond capacity as the diaper is filled.
As Ron suggests in the article to some degree, Obama’s speeches intentionally contain contradictions. Those believing that he has noble intent will seize on the comments that support their own vision of what he means, without dispassionate analysis of what the words more likely mean. This is on purpose. It gives him wiggle room to denounce those that are ‘misrepresenting’ his meaning (without ever actually making a definitive statement), and suggest to those sycophants that hang on his every word that he is even more brilliant than they can imagine.
He’s a manipulator, or as some suggest, avery good politician, but pretty much useless otherwise.
That is precisely correct, Bear.
Obama does not give policy speeches, he gives verbal holograms.
What we heard/saw Thursday was an hour worth of teleprompter words. Though Obama reads well out loud, his teleprompter writers are doing drugs (it’s a Marxist-Lib thing).
I would just love to be a little ant insect and unplug teleprompter for him at every event! Bingo: teleprompter goes blank as does O.
Excellent..verbal holograms!!…i was just going to say he hates Israel, and us.
Yes, “hates”….read.. the “The roots Of Obama’s Rage”
If I heard correctly, the President said that Israel should go back to the ’67 borders with land swaps. I would take it to mean that sure, Israel can keep its current width, provided it gives the Palestinians something else in exchange. The question is: what?
but the Palestinian state has to be contiguous with borders on Israel, Jordan and Egypt.
How does Obama intend accomplishing that without dismantling Israel?
Cynic is correct. A contiguous Palestinian State is demanded, and I would add, not for the first time. During 1948, the UK, in league with the U.S. State Department tried to grab a large piece of the Negev as a land swap for the Israelis had taken part of Galilee in their response to the Arab invasion. I wrote about Obama’s transparently pro-Palestinian position here: http://clarespark.com/2009/09/11/oil-politics-and-obamas-view-of-israeli-history/. What I have not yet divulged however, is the pro-Arab politics that led up to the armistice agreements of 1949, although it will not surprise many of the readers of this website.
An overwhelming majority of Israelis on the street don’t believe a word of his two faced speech.
He is by a large margin one of the most hated western leaders in this neck of the woods.Mentioning his name in a conversation brings a harsh response, both from secular and religious Zionists.
Of course, the fringe left sees him as one of theirs.
Adina,please let everyone know that most of us American Jews (and other friends of Israel) don’t believe him either!
And yet most of you support and vote for him.
What Obama really said was, Israel has no reason to exist (but I support you anyway), has no friends in the world (but me), is weak, militarily impotent,and needs America (to fight) or she will cease to exist; and whose only path to survival is..wait for it…THRU Obama! (the Nobel Prize/3 wars at a time peace broker).
Aside from a much needed ego deflation, I think Obama needs another Mid East history lesson. And maybe one in diplomacy, too.
Insulting allies is not a way to keep them…oh, wait..was that the point?
This man continually demeans and deserts our allies, while bolstering those who disdain us, America, and all we stand for. No, I do not think he is clueless any more.
The Israeli Anglo electorate, over 100,000 strong, overwhelmingly sent in ballots against Obama.
As to American Jews -they did vote en mass for him(except for the Orthodox community) but so did many Catholics vote for him, and their numbers are way larger and consequential!!
Adina, Not necessarily.. Catholics were roughly half and half for obama. If American Jews were not for him to the tune of 80% the outcome could have been different. Obama being president is a problem, don’t look to blame. Many Jewish people that I am around still support him. None of the Catholics do.
When making foreign policy statements world leaders should remember the old comedians axiom; “If you have to explain it, the joke ain’t funny”. In other words, if a host of people have to come along behind you and explain what you ‘really meant’ then your words made things worse, not better.
As for peace negotiations you have to remember that the Palestinians and the Islamic world as a whole want a dead Israel and dead Jews first, everything else second. In a negotiation both sides will give up on lesser desires to achieve their most valued goals.
They want to destroy the Jewish state.
They want to kill the Jews.
They want that more than resettlement, more than their own state, more than peace or economic prosperity, more than anything else.
They want to kill the Jews. Now, negotiate with that.
Nice essay, Ron. I’ll will reread it again, because it has some great points to ruminate.
First of all; Please don’t expect Obama has read the Oslo Agreement, nor has any grasp of it’s meaning. That’s so far over his head, he’ll never comprehend anything about it. And none of his czars has the intelligence to paraphrase it for him to simplify it enough. It only gives Barracky boy a headache, and makes him sneak out for a cigarette.
Secondly; Obama and his gang of ‘stupids’, will wait to see what shakes out in the media, then they’ll say, “Yeah! That’s what he meant!”. They won’t let anyone pin down anything specific on any of his speeches.
This is their ‘standard operating procedure’ that gets used over and over again. I think everybody recognizes this strategy by now.
What you said!
The sub-headline reads, “The MSM is still projecting what they want to believe about Obama onto everything he says. All that really matters: the literal substance of his speech.”
Why should that matter? It hasn’t mattered to the speaker in the past.
But it should matter to his audience.
It is not surprising that Jews want to turn away from the horror of an American President whose policies would bring forth another holocaust-not just in the Middle East but around the world. Right now the world is aware that even if Israel should fall to the enemies of the Jewish people the cost would be that not one blade of grass would remain alive on the planet. In other words, this time the fate of the Jewish children would be the fate of their own children.
Jewish people are, by culture, students-and students are consumed with words. But those who would save Israel and the West must look beyond words to actions. The President’s actions around the world and in the American economy say it all. He actions are geared to the defeat and destruction of America and the West.
Although I appreciate the pro-Israeli and pro-Judaica tenor of your comments, the idea that Jews are so consumed with words is a very Ashkenazi concept. Israeli Jews vary a good deal in this respect and are certainly not paralyzed by over-reflection and verbiage a la some of the characters created by Isaac B. Singer (novelist), if that, at least, is the direction of your thoughts. Were Israelis such consumers and exponents of words, they never would have been capable of such vicious fighting in defense of themselves.
Nothing from Obama’s lips can be trusted as being true or enduring. As a narcissist, his only concern is to woo the person or audience he is with this very moment. The sooner we embrace this truth, and the more often the press, foreign leaders, and the Republican opposition challenge Obama, the sooner our national nightmare will come to an end.
With each challenge to Obama we will see his petulance and rage erupt. This will undermine his otherwise highly scripted persona. The truth will out, but please let it emerge before the 2012 elections.
God save our Republic from this twit.
I think that round two from the Birthers will put him over the edge. They are not going to go away, and it’s not just about the BC as much as the MSM tries to reduce it to that.
By insisting that the pre 1967 borders are the starting point for negotiations – which are destined to fail in any event because the Palestinians want Israel, not peace – Hussein has ensured that Israel will be blamed for the failure. The anti-semites who control the UN will have all the justification they need to impose a Palestinian state on whatever portion of Israeli controlled lands they wish.
Israel should prepare for war and pray that the U.S. – under this President – is not part of the attacking forces.
Obama will say anything to anybody at any time, in order to oil his way past their intellectual and emotional defenses as they temporarily lower their guard. Then when the time comes to act, he will do exactly as his leftist masters order him to do.
Obama is the Prince of Lies.
Remember Who We Are
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ1ifi8wC5k&fe…
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
George Washington
All that matters with a moral relativist, and a truth relativist Alinsky-ite, is never what they say -it is only what they believe.They are not only allowed to lie – but encouraged to.
The President was given three options in relation to the Palestinian/Israel question.
1. Broker a two state solution via direct talks, to remove the threat to the US.
2. No two state solution support the status quo of the occupation and face the adverse consequences to the US. Which is considered untenable and unsustainable.
3. Adopt a disengagement policy to disengage the US from it role in the peace process, to remove the threat to the US. But still provide military cooperation to Israel and maintain Israel’s security.
As you can see that all three options have been put into play, 1. the US still seeks to broker a two state solutions if possible albeit unlikely but the option is available. 2. Provide Israel with support for the occupation, the veto at the UN, due to domestic pressure from the lobby and Israeli interference in US politics. 3. Disengage from the peace process, due to how the environment has been shaped 2. led to 3. it is not just possible due to the lobby for the US to withdraw from the peace process in a unilateral form and disengage. After September General Assembly vote being bought to the UNSC and the US veto being used the US no longer has political capital and its position as peace broker becomes untenable. Allowing the US to disengage from peace process limiting US exposure to the threat. The main contact between the US and Israel is via the peace process, so there would be less visits, less photo ops, less contact. Thus limiting US exposure. It is a gradual process.
I will write a lesson for the secular world system, and these United States CFR globalist controlled government to remember.
Spain around 1492 when Colombus sailed the ocean blue, Queen Isabella forced all Jews to convert to Christianity (pagan Univeral Church Christianity), or depart Spain. A few years later, the Empire of Spain was no more.
Nazi Germany murdered Jews by the millions. Germany was destroyed.
Briton supported the Belfore Declaration, then sided with the Arabs not allowing Jews on ships from Europe to land causing them to return to Nazi Germany. Briton’s Empire was lost. An Empire that sent Christian missionaries out to the world.
DaOne has stated Treason against the majority of Americans by stating Israel should go back to the 1967 borders. A border 9 miles wide, and for the first time siding with the moon god worshipers.
G-d will curse those who curse Israel. G-d said that to Abraham.
The CFR globalists think themselves as gods, and worship the creation. Repent now!
Leatherneck – Wouldn’t it be a little simpler if Jews were left alone (and in peace) in the Land of Israel rather than have one empire after another fall because of how they abused the Jews?
Oorah! Recon! Well done, Marine!
I’m just a regular Platoon Sgt. grunt. Not some pretty boy Recon.
Kill!
From a joint statement from Secretary of State Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu this last November 11,2010:
The Prime Minister and the Secretary agreed on the importance of continuing direct negotiations to achieve our goals. The Secretary reiterated that “the United States believes that through good-faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state, based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements.”
Bibi is playing the Republicans and others for fools. That is his statement just a few months ago! This is and always has been our official policy. My sympathies are with the Israelis need to have defensible borders- it’s a damn hard nut to crack. But unlike others I know when a hard right Likud leader is playing Americans for fools- unfortunately successfully.
Does it really matter? I mean, what if he did seem to clarify a point? What if he does say that the bond between the US and Israel is strong, and so forth? The man has made his views clear enough. We know where he stands.
It took a while, but the generic liberal sites are starting Obama protection mode.
Here is the best argument for Obama’s contradictions:
First speech, Hamas and Fatah hooray! and make new plans, publicly.
Second speech, Hamas and Fatah boo, claim Obama failed them.
Liberals: Obama’s speeches were consistent.
Therefore, from the liberal side, Hamas and Fatah must be stupid.
You should focus on the different Hamas and Fatah reactions.
“What happened to Obama’s 2008 promise in the speech he then gave to AIPAC, that under an Obama administration Jerusalem would never be divided and would be Israel’s capital?”
the same thing that happened to most of his campaign promises. he threw it under the bus as soon as he had gotten the votes and money he needed from the Jews.
I hope and pray they’re not that stupid in 2012!
Interesting that Obama went directly to Ireland after his AIPAC talk
–and mentioned the very recent visit there by the UK Queen
–citing it as an example of reconciliation after centuries of tribal/religious/land conflict.
Was he making a metaphor or an analogy?
There are 40 Million Irish American voters in America.
If he just picked up an extra 20% that is 8 Million potential votes.
He is guaranteed 75% of the total of 2 Million Jewish American votes
So he risked 500,000 votes at AIPAC and gained 8+ Million votes
I guess he can do the math.
The true measure of the level of evil complicity in the “Palestinian cause” – which is nothing but an arm or radical Islam -of the NYT and the other dominant mouthpieces for anti-semitism in America, will be whether they make any mention, even on page eight of the second section, of Eric Cantor’s wonderful and truthful broadside, and the applause it received.
The PA is so poisoned by its pathological hatred of Israel, Quran-based but inflamed to white heat by the rise of a dynamic, prosperous Jewish nation which exposes their incompetence and worthlessness, that it will never, ever, make even the tiniest concession, much less truly negotiate. Yet the UN and the MSM sponsor them!! How many decades does it take for the Carters and the OBamas and their disciples to admit what is obvious to any rational mind?
“…contiguous…”
No parsing needed.
Barack divides, and Islam conquers.
Saying that the Old Media is projecting onto Obama is too kind a term to apply to these hacks. They are sweeping his myriad mistakes as far under the rug of public awareness as they possibly can. They know that voter dissatisfaction with Obama is growing by leaps and bounds. They can’t afford to play around with ‘projecting’ onto the Bamster when they know he might be responsible for turning the dem party into a minority party for at least a generation—an outcome so terrifying they will soon be volunteering en masse to stuff ballot boxes when the time comes.
Palestine a country which does not exist now and has never existed at all so how can it be ‘occupied’ and how can you be a ‘refugee’ from it. This misuse and abuse of the English language is illogical and is just a cover for the evil intentions of Mohammedans and left wing antisemitic Islamophile moonbats against a LEGITIMATE and Democratic Country Israel.
Obama won the election in 2008 by being an eloquent speaker and stating nothing controversial. The liberal press did not press him for specifics or clarification. They just dutifully became stenographers, not journalist and so it remains today. Obama was a blank canvass on which everyone that bought into to his mutterings painted their own portrait of what they wanted to see.
Two years later he has a track record that must be defended. He can not be merely taken at his word. His Jewish supporters, limousine liberals. must now analysis his words by his actions or inaction. Obama must also be judged by the company he has kept, like Jeremiah Wright and Saul Alinski.His position on Israel should be clear by now, not ambiguous. He is on the side of the side of the Palestinians period. The American Jews need to see Obama in a more realistic light. For to do otherwise is self destructive.
“The American Jews need to see Obama in a more realistic light.”
If, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, then the friends of my enemy are my enemy. Does that make me the enemy of American Jews, although I support the Israelis? Does that make me an anti-Semite, as some will attempt to portray me?
Barack Obama has an obsession with Israel, probably because he was raised as a Muslim who sees Israel as the Original Western Sin against Islam, and as a Left wing American who views Israel as largely negative and responsible for Muslim hatred of America.
Thus Obama misses no chance to exercise his anti Semitism and his hostility towards the Jewish State of Israel and even makes up chances to hammer Israel.
For any reasonable person, the turmoil in the Arab Moslem Middle Eastern countries is due to internal tensions and the violent, primitive, and intellectually deprived cultures these countries enjoy.
But Obama, instead of addressing these pertinent issues, attacks Israel and makes unfair, unreasonable, and even potentially dangerous demands on the Jewish State to deal with Arab Muslim problems.
This is because Obama views the problems of the Middle East, the Arab countries, and even Islam through the prism of an oppressive, aggressive, and greed driven Israel and by extension, a capitalistic and selfish Jewish People.
I would point out that this is exactly what the Nazis did, they blamed the Jews for everything from crop failures to potholes to causing world wars. In fact Hermann Goering was reputed to have said that in the Nazi rise to power that the Nazis should blame the Jews for EVERYTHING, and that is what they did.
So does Obama.
What did the president really mean? Good question. He was for Israel before he was against Israel? He really agrees with his soul mate Samantha Power that we may have to pull a Libya and invade Israel to disarm the IDF to protect the Arabs from genocide without congressional approval? That’s OK, he don’t need no stinking approval, because the UN, a legacy institution of the League Of Nations, will doubtless sign off on the “kinetic exercise.”
To the people of Israel, don’t trust our Muslim President,not for one minute!!
Nethanyahu’s speech before Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday 5/24/11 showed the world how weak and ineffectual Mr. “O” really is. That’s why the MSM, left, far left, radicals, etc. are just quivering in FEAR. They rested their hopes and aspirations for a truly communist, socialist system in the USA upon this weak, ineffectual President, Cabinet, et al. Now, in one fel swoop, Israel’s Prime Minister has 1) shown the world how truly weak Mr. “O” is, 2) How Mr. “O’s” muslim roots are exposed, 3)Mr. “O’s” Foreign Policy is a series of gaffes, errors, and plain diplomatic missteps. 4) Mr. “O’s” attempts at supplanting USA’s Constitution with a UN Charter have been met with a Tea Party resolve. Mr. “O” a one term President. Let’s vote!!!! Retake our Country back from these small groups seeking the downfall of the USA. Defeat Mr. “O” in 2012.
The other thing that matters:
http://wwwtwosetsofbooks.blogspot.com/2011/05/1947-vaad-leumi-to-un-timeline-of.html
Interpreters of the demagogs in power.President Bush looked once in the eyes of the president Putin and have made his interpretation of the seen.I think the acts and intentions of president Reigan is the beneficial theme of the researcher of this great individuality. Demagog`s speeches reflect the casual circumstances no more.
Obama’s speech about Israel was just another hollow speech. What should be of significance is how silent Obama will continue to be while outlanders continue to poke, prod and attack Israel’s secured borders . . . What should be worth noting is Obama silently supporting and encouraging rising Middle East tensions while Code Pink’s second flotilla engages in raising the ante for military conflict . . . and listening to Obama silently push for the UN to recognize a sovereign Palestinian nation that will lockout Israel’s participation in the process. It goes without saying: What Obama says is completely irrelevant . . . It is what he does and does not support that counts.