FEATURED JOBS
Sunday, May 22, 2011
7:45 a.m.
Later today President Barack Obama will speak at the American Israel Public Affairs Conference (AIPAC) annual policy forum. It will decidedly be the most skeptical Jewish audience he has ever faced. With his speech last week, he set himself up for an unlikely cold reception – despite what we will be dutifully polite applause. (But let’s see if the 500 or so usual college students there are polite about it).
That is tragic because the truth is most American and Israeli Jews (definitely not all) agree with large chunks of the president’s recent comments on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. How he said it, however, was disastrous for him as well as for the region.
So here’s some of what I hope the president says later today:
“Dear Friends:
“I know some of you are deeply concerned with my words from last week. So let’s be candid about what I did say and what I didn’t say. I said that the United States is Israel’s close friend in good times and bad. The vast and deep ties we have in social, religious, historical and military spheres attests to this. In fact, my administration has given more military aid and cooperation to Israel than any administration, as best seen in the Iron Dome system funding, which is critical to counter a clearly nuclear-aspiring Iran and a continually recalcitrant Hamas, which rejects the tenets of democracy and freedom so integral to the vision of humanity that you and I share. We reject Hamas’s violence. Hamas can indeed come to the negotiating table – after it decides to enter the community of responsible actors. It is far from there today.
“And I noted that Palestinian pressure on the United Nations to create an independent state is doomed to failure. We will not support such unilateral actions and we know they are non-starters. Likewise, a massive right-of-return for Palestinians to Israel is a non-starter. Tragically, as so many families know, there is a cost to war and history has moved beyond that point.
“Now I also said that the 1967 borders are the starting point for negotiations. So let’s be clear. That’s obvious because it is the Palestinian starting point and always has been. It is obviously not Israel’s starting point. Fair enough. However, while the Palestinians once saw that as a springboard to the rest of Israel, I reject that premise with, as it says in sacred scripture, all my heart and all my soul. And after all, successive Israeli prime ministers have agreed to discuss the concept of not sharing Jerusalem, and not a divided Jerusalem, but a Jerusalem with new borders.
“I am not here to negotiate. That is the role of Israel and the Palestinians. But we all know what the possible agreement could look like. President Clinton’s December 2000 parameters are an excellent vision of what could be. There may be other visions as well that are worthy of conversation. And let us get beyond the language of a peace treaty. Let us talk about a mutual co-existence agreement. Let us strive to figure out how to deal with Jerusalem with creative ideas, not rhetoric. Let us end Palestinian incitement in textbooks and media. Let us find a way to ease daily life restrictions for Palestinians. Let us find a way to better use the U.S. in observing what’s really happening. Let us push forward to create not a better tomorrow, but a better today.
“Again, I’m not here to negotiate with you. I am here to tell you that when push comes to shove, the U.S. and Israel do have an unbreakable bond, despite the rhetoric you may hear. Israel does not want to occupy another people. I understand that. I know the goal is how to break from that without threatening the preciousness of a Jewish democracy, the greatest political achievement of the modern era. I know this, understand this, ponder this, anguish over this.
“This is the message that I want to take to the Israeli Knesset soon, a visit that will have equally difficult words for the Palestinians and Arab capitals on a trip I want to make soon. Let’s not do this because of the Arab spring. Let’s not do this because of presidential politics. Let’s not do this because of domestic pressures. Let’s do this because there are five-year-olds who deserve to fight in the coming years not over land, but over who gets to pay the check when they have dinner together.
“May God continue to protect the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and may its leaders have the courage and conviction toward a more peaceful existence that is met with equal vigor by the Palestinian people.”
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