Let’s look at a little closer at President Barack Obama’s speech yesterday on the Middle East, whose section on Israel and the Palestinians infuriated many in the pro-Israel community.

That’s because the President said something in stark terms that no U.S. president has ever said – that the 1967 borders (the ones Abba Eban once called “Auschwitz borders”) – were the starting point for negotiations.

After that, nobody heard that he also said “… with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”

In principal, most American Jews (definitely not all) have no problem with that. Likewise in Israel. The rub is that President Obama has failed miserably to show empathy for Jewish/Israeli fears, which like it or not is an important component to peace making.

Contrast him to President Bill Clinton, who is still treated like a rock star in Israel. If President Obama goes to Israel in June as is currently being rumored, he will literally have eggs thrown at him, which will be a media/public relations disaster for the Jewish world.

That said, let’s look at a few other things that were said: “For the Palestinians, efforts to delegitimize Israel will end in failure.” And at one point the President added, “As for Israel, our friendship is rooted deeply in a shared history and shared values. Our commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable …”

That’s worthy of note. It means that the U.S. is prepared to stand by its pledge to block the Palestinian push for statehood at the United Nations in September. And well it should. After all, the Palestinian move would force Israel to annex some areas around Jerusalem that are currently in the West Bank (which admittedly will happen anyway if there ever is a negotiated settlement). The problem is the tinder box that is the Middle East could literally be set aflame by that because of a very predictable and violent Palestinian reaction.

In short, Palestinian unilateral statehood declarations will give strength to radicals and make all suffer. Who wins from that?

The President did – thank God – acknowledge the vicious nature of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and would love to do the same on the West Bank, let alone Jerusalem and the rest of Israel.

He said, “The recent announcement of an agreement between Fatah and Hamas raises profound and legitimate questions for Israel—how can one negotiate with a party that has shown itself unwilling to recognize your right to exist. In the weeks and months to come, Palestinian leaders will have to provide a credible answer to that question.”

Why wait? How about now? Let’s have Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas come to the U.S. Congress and make his case that deals with unrepentant terrorists are good for everyone. Let’s see how far that gets him.

Amazingly, the U.S. President did not publicly back Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who is the real hero of the region these days – building civil society (including meeting with Jewish groups) instead of focusing on media incitement and antagonizing rhetoric. The omission was a huge mistake.

Another mistake: He did not go out of his way to publicly name Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas as unlikely peace makers who can change history forever. He gave them no honor – critical in the Middle East.

Finally, a note on timing. This was politically the worst timed speech I ever heard. It was delivered two days after Jordan’s King Abdullah was in the White House, one day before Netanyahu was to arrive, and four days before President Obama spoke to the influential American Israel Public Affairs convention (which I will attend on Monday).

The President has backed the Prime Minister into a corner. (No doubt, Netanyahu aides have been busily rewriting speeches). The Prime Minister has a right-wing coalition to coax along, but the President has not given him any wiggle room. In fact, the Prime Minister will be under tremendous pressure to not budge.

Bill Clinton, in his December 23, 2000 talks in the Oval Office with the Israelis and Palestinians, came up with the “Clinton Parameters” (click here to see them: http://www.peacelobby.org/clinton_parameters.htm ).

They are now the generally agreed on outline for a final settlement – which President Obama seemed to endorse. Yet he did it so poorly that he has lost the trust of everybody. In fact, his already dismal public approval in Israel will hit record lows (which is actually impressive because they were already low). And I assure you that if a majority of the Israeli public doesn’t respect President Obama, no Israeli Prime Minister will ever feel forced to do the same.

The next few days will be as important as fascinating. This Shabbat, when in synagogue we again bless the leaders of the United States and ask God to give them the wisdom to act courageously and wisely, I will be praying a little harder than I normally do.

“And yet he [Netanyahu]seems to go out of his way to alienate the President. Why does he do this? It’s a mystery to me.”

No mystery.  It’s because Obama seems to go out of his way to alienate the Israelis.  And because Obama seems to forget that he is President of the United States, not President of the United States and Israel.

Jeff,

You are blinded by the coolaid that the democrats have been making you drink for years.  If hugo chavez ran as a democrat for President you would vote for him.  Obama is President of the United States and not the World.  He has done a poor job and thats giving him to much credit by saying that.  He talks out of both sides of his mouth.  The only happy person out there is Jimmy Carter, and thats because now he won’t be considered the worse President of all time.  The President of the United States doesn’t have to be respected if he doesn’t earn it.  President Obama has not earned respect, as a matter of fact the rest of the Country’s in the world know he is a push over.  He has turned one of the most politically powerful positions in the world into a joke. 

If you want entitlements and your constitutional rights rights breached on a daily basis, then Obama is your man.  If you want to live in a free country where Liberty and Capitalism is still the most important standards to live by, then my 7 year old could do a better job than this so called President we have.

Lance Hersh

From jeffrey goldberg
Dear Mr. Netanyahu, Please Don’t Speak to My President That Way
INTERNATIONAL MAY 20 2011, 8:05 AM ET
For whatever reason, I tend to react strongly when a foreign leader disrespects the United States, and its President. I didn’t like it when Hugo Chavez of Venezuela insulted President Bush; I don’t like listening to Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan lecture the U.S. on its sins, and I’m not happy when certain Pakistani leaders gin-up righteous indignation about American behavior when it was their country that served as a refuge for the greatest mass murderer in American history.

And so I was similarly taken aback when I read a statement from Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday that he “expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004, which were overwhelmingly supported by both House of Congress.”

So Netanyahu “expects” to hear this from the President of the United States? And if President Obama doesn’t walk back the speech, what will Netanyahu do? Will he cut off Israeli military aid to the U.S.? Will he cease to fight for the U.S. in the United Nations, and in the many  international forums that treat Israel as a pariah?

I don’t like this word, “expect.” Even if there weren’t an imbalance between these two countries—Israel depends on the U.S. for its survival, while America, I imagine, would continue to exist even if Israel ceased to exist—I would find myself feeling resentful about the way Netanyahu speaks about our President. Netanyahu had an alternative, of course: He could have said, as he got on the plane to Washington, where today—awkward!—he will be meeting with President Obama: “The President today delivered a very fine speech. His condemnation of Hamas and Iran, his question about whether the Palestinians actually seek peace; his strong language against Syria; his recognition of Israel as a Jewish state; his re-assertion of the unshakeable bond between our two nations—all of this and more brought joy to my heart. There are a couple of points in the speech, having to do with borders and refugees, that I would like to clarify with the President when I see him, and I’m looking forward to a constructive dialogue on these few issues.”

Of course, he didn’t say this. Instead he threw something of a hissy fit. It was not appropriate, and more to the point, it was not tactically wise: If I’m waking up this morning feeling that the Israeli prime minister is disrespecting the President of my country, imagine how other Americans might be feeling. And, then, of course, there’s this: Prime Minister Netanyahu needs the support of President Obama in order to confront the greatest danger Israel has ever faced: the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran. And yet he seems to go out of his way to alienate the President. Why does he do this? It’s a mystery to me.

If you are blind enough to see that President Obama does not care about Israel, then shame on you.  Geographically everything he is purposing is setting Israel up to be attacked and suffer casualties.  He’s setting them up for a modern day holocaust.  Egypt founded the PLO to destroy Israel in 1964.  In 1967 Egypt, Syria, and Jordan (Egypt used Jordans military equipment supplied by the Russians) attacked Irael.  In May of 1967 the Israeli army defeated the terrorist forces in the 6 day war in one of the largest tank battles ever fought.  If you are dumb enough not to think an attack won’t happen again, then you learned nothing from WWII.  I find it unacceptable that Jews in America are still behind this SOB of a President we have.  I have an idea.  Let Syria and Egypt take care of the Palestians, but we know that won’t happen.  The reason being is that they don’t want those terrorists in their Country’s.  But they sure do like riding the backs of them and using them as an excuse to kill Jews.  Obama is a true Arab supporter and a supporter of terrorism as long as it doesn’t happen on US soil.  He doesn’t care about Israel and would rather Israel be destroyed so it would be one less foreign problem for him to deal with.  Truth is Prime Minister Netanyahu should return to Israel tonight and order a bombing of all Irans nuclear power plants.  Israel needs to flex it’s muscles to show that are not going to bossed around by a US President that has slapped Israel in the face on an international level.