Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Thursday 14 January 2016

David Singer: "Obama Got it Wrong from the Start & Nothing was Going to Save Him from Failure in the End"

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.  It's entitled "Palestine – Obama's Ignorance Becomes His Nemesis".

Writes David Singer:

President Obama enters his final year as President having given up on trying to resolve the Jewish-Arab conflict – following in the footsteps of so many other American Presidents whose similarly-shared lofty and noble aspirations ended in abject failure.

In Obama's case his inability to fully comprehend Jewish history and the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel was the catalyst for his inevitable failure – as tellingly illustrated in his landmark speech in Cairo on 4 June 2009:
"Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed – more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve."
Israel's current Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dore Gold, has now revealed how Israel's then leadership viewed Obama's above remarks in this frank exchange published in Frontline on 6 January:
"When the president goes to Cairo for the speech, and you heard him speak, what did you think?
Well, everybody that was in my entourage focused on the whole notion that the state of Israel rose as a response to the Holocaust. That was something that was unacceptable.
Why?
Because Israel has an eternity to it that goes far back before the 20th century, the 19th century, and even earlier. All we have to do is know that there was a Jewish majority in Jerusalem already at the time of the American Civil War. All we have to know is that we had a civilization here that was destroyed by the Romans. You can now find the catapult, the Ballista, used to fight the Jewish resistance at the time of the 1st century, 70 A.D. Our history is all over this city and all over the country. Therefore, an explanation that sees us as a bunch of Europeans who are looking for a refuge from the Nazis is a partial and not terribly accurate understanding of the soul of this country.
Does it surprise you that the president of the United States would make that error?'It surprised me that they have a speechwriter who would be allowed to write that kind of document, because I think Sen. Obama was presented with the four dimensions of Israel, but someone decided to take this partial approach in a presidential speech, and it didn’t earn him confidence with the people of Israel. …"
Blaming Obama's ignorance on a speechwriter is being very charitable to President Obama and his administration including the State Department and his equally failed Secretary of State, John Kerry, who all must accept collective responsibility for Obama 's further statement:
"The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop."
Questioning the legitimacy of the right of the Jewish People to live anywhere in their ancient biblical and historical homeland – sanctioned by both the League of Nations and United Nations – was catastrophic.

Question the political wisdom – but not its legitimacy.

Obama got it wrong from the start and nothing was going to save him from failure in the end.

[Photo credit:  americansstandwithisrael.blogspot.com]

7 comments:

  1. Well put, thank you. I'm almost done writing a (regrettably, overly long) expose of Medecins Sans Frontieres biased presentation of the current Palestinian situation: http://inbetweenwars.msf.fr I finally broke down and drafted a history, dating from ~1,000 BCE, in an effort to lay out an objective history (with a few references). Just the facts. The reader can then have a look at the MSF exhibit, and compare what is written there with the actual history, and reach their own conclusions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like a very worthy expose, Borhani. Good luck with it.

      Delete
  2. I am with ya, Daphne.

    As I am guessing that you know, I am not exactly a huge fan of the Obama administration.

    There is one thing that I want to challenge you on with this piece, tho.

    I can find nothing in the Obama comment above, from the 2009 Cairo speech, that suggests, as Dore Gold claims, that Obama "focused on the whole notion that the state of Israel rose as a response to the Holocaust."

    Certainly many people believe that and Obama may very well be one of them, but this is not reflected in the part of the speech highlighted above.

    What am I missing?

    And a happy new year to you and yours.

    Peace,

    Michael

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael

      You miss the point.

      Dore Gold has revealed that Obama's comments were unacceptable to Israel. That you do not agree is irrelevant.

      The following outrageous statement was also made by Obama in the same speech - which further reinforces Gold's comments:
      "On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people -- Muslims and Christians -- have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they've endured the pain of dislocation."

      No mention of the fact that this "dislocation" resulted from the invasion of Western Palestine by six foreign Arab armies and not from Jews coming to Palestine after the War - their numbers having been severely restricted by Britain during World War 2.

      No mention of the fact the Palestinian Arabs had been offered a homeland in 1922, 1937 and 1947 and rejected them all. No recognition they had from 1948-1967 to establish their homeland in the area they now demand - when not one Jew lived there - and failed to do so. No recognition they had rejected offers made by Israel in 2000/1 and 2008.

      Obama was acknowledging there was a "Palestinian people" in 1947 when the UN did not recognise such a "people" in voting to partition Western Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab State.

      Obama's speech -and the ignorance displayed by him in that speech- set America on a collision course with Israel.

      History has shown Israel's concern - as now revealed by Gold - to have been totally justified.

      Delete
  3. Hi, Mike. I'll leave it to David to explain.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy New Year to you too, Mike.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The fool who wrote the Cairo speech is Ben "ChickenS@#t"
    Rhoads, you can read the truly unbelievable background
    on 0bama and his successes in foreign policy here:
    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/we-caved-obama-foreign-policy-legacy-213495?o=1&utm_content=buffer5617d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.