Posted on 05/20/2011 6:42:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
President Obama's major speech on the Middle East Thursday will come back to haunt him. He said nothing that will have any impact in deterring Syrian government violence against pro-democracy protestors, but the president did make pronouncements that threaten another state in the Middle East: Israel, America's strongest ally in the region.
In his speech Thursday, the president paid lip service to Israeli security but laid down dangerous markers for restarting peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. With this speech, Obama became the first American president to require that Israel accept its pre-1967 borders as a starting point to negotiations with the Palestinians.
This is a dramatic departure from U.S. policy, which recognized that agreed-to final borders would be the end product of negotiations between the parties, not a precondition to starting talks. In essence, what Obama has called for is unilateral concessions from Israel without a single concrete concession from the Palestinians.
What makes this even more dangerous is that a terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of Israel -- Hamas -- governs Palestinians in Gaza. On the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority is in the hands of a Hamas-Fatah coalition, with the two groups having agreed to put aside their differences in order to demand recognition of a Palestine state by the United Nations this fall. If that happens, there will be no such thing as what the president termed "a secure Israel."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to respond, calling Israel's pre-1967 borders "indefensible." History proves he's right. In 1967, Israel was on the eve of an all-out assault by its Arab neighbors when it took out the Egyptian and Syrian air forces. Within six days, Israel had defeated Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon and gained significant territory, including the Arab-controlled parts of Jerusalem.
Nonetheless, Israel was attacked again a few years later. In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched an offensive on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. Again, Israel was successful in defeating both countries and gained more territory in the process.
Even though Israel was twice the victor, both wars were the result of Arab aggression. Yet Israel has proven its willingness to return territory gained in war. Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt after negotiating a peace settlement with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Israel has been the one country in the area willing from the start to negotiate away land in return for recognition of its right to exist and a promise of peaceful coexistence from its neighbors. But instead of encouraging that precedent, Obama wants unilateral territorial concessions from Israel in return for empty promises.
The good news is that the Obama plan will go nowhere. There is no chance that Congress will support the administration's heavy-handed pressure on Israel. And the Israelis will never agree to such conditions as a prerequisite to peace negotiations.
And Obama has hurt himself domestically as well. Jewish donors and voters were an important part of Obama's winning coalition in 2008. But many in the pro-Israel community are deeply disturbed at what they see as the president's lukewarm support for Israel and will not likely give him the same level of support in 2012.
On Sunday, the president is set to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), one of the most influential lobbying groups in the country. I expect he'll say all the right things about how important an ally Israel is to the United States and that our two countries share common values and principles. The audience will applaud politely -- and some die-hard Democrats in the group may even tell themselves that Obama is a good friend to Israel.
But the president can't have it both ways. He can't give a speech Thursday that makes dangerous demands on Israel and pretend a few days later that his words have not damaged the important U.S.-Israeli relationship.
Obama has abandoned Israel. Now its time that Israel's supporters in the U.S. abandon him.
From Cliff Asness email blast: "In the spirit of inherently "reasonable" historical precedent, and given the current situation is “unsustainable”, we propose rolling back the giant ever-growing socialistic regulatory liberty-crushing nanny state to its pre-1967 borders."
This should not come as any surprise from the Jewish-hating Muslim trash currently inhabiting the White House.
White independents not voting for him due to insane spending/deficits
Middle and lower class not voting for him due to $4/gal gas and 10% unemployment
Jews not voting for him after throwing Israel under the bus
College students and recent grads not voting for him because they can't find jobs and the novelty has worn off
etc.
heard Obama’s speech yesterday in which he is calling for Israel to pull back to its pre-1967 borders. Obama claimed to speak for the American people—that is a bald-faced lie. America has been a friend to Israel since its formation; our Founding Fathers had great respect for ‘the people of the book’ and Obama’s call for Israel to shrink her borders is inconsistent with the will of the American people. Obama is clearly siding with the Muslims as he has consistently done since he took office. It is past time for Congress to wake up and impeach this unamerican poser who currently calls himself President. He continues to bring nothing but shame and reproach upon America and needs to be removed from office.
FRAUD
1) Obama has some reason to think that he has a lock on 2012 and is confident that he will be re-elected. If his friends in the media can make Romney the GOP nominee, I would say that Obama is right to feel confident.
2) Obama loses confidence and realizes that he will not get a second term. He has less than two years to complete the destruction of this country. Time for Gotterdammerung. He will cause a nuclear war to begin. Israel? Iran? Pakistan? He has multiple options and he seems to be setting the stage for each possibility.
Yes, I agree except for American Jews. Schumer, Lieberman, Dianne Feinstein, Rahm Emanuel, I hear the chirping of crickets.
Did you notice this decision wasn’t made by the “gutsy” Barack Obama? It was made by “WE”. When did he learn that word?
I picture Herman Cain’s hand handing him a frying pan through a door ala the opening credits from the TV show ‘The Odd Couple”
The 'good' news for the Palistinians is: The POS C.I.C declared yesterday that the U.S. will not intervene on behalf of Israel. And that's the point. The writer forgets who we are dealing with: a madman that couldn't care less if Congress supports what he says because he will proceed anyway.
Yesterday I e-mailed my congressman, Doug Lamborn of Colorado (a great conservative), urging him to initiate a statement in the House of unreserved support for Israel, and then to sponsor a bill ending all foreign aid to every country that is hostile either to Israel or the U.S.
Last night I e-mailed the Israeli Embassy in Washington, asking them to let Bibi Netanyahu know that I, along with millions of other Americans, completely reject the statement made by our current president yesterday. I told him that we stand with Israel, and that we hope within two years to have a new president who does not hate Israel and his own country.
Oh I am sure it will cost him votes, Many of those who voted for him in 2008 have already regretted that they did, and his billion dollar campaign won’t help him a bit
Two ways: the GOP nominates either a putz, or the reincarnation of Barry Goldwater.
Maybe he has ACORN ramped up to a level that will be impossible to defeat.
Obama didn’t abandon Israel. He was never with Israel. He played the Jewish vote by pretending to be pro Israel but make no mistake. He was never with them.
I was so offended in hearing the clips of his speech. He kept saying, “...we believe..... we believe....”. I thought that is 100% BS. WE don’t believe that. He might believe it, but WE don’t.
That, too, was an empty statement.
If something big happens with respect to Israel, they will use nukes. No US president -- even Obama -- can allow that to happen.
What Obama has done, though, is made it much more difficult for the US to respond.
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