It was sad that President Obama felt it necessary to point out that the Holocaust actually happened and was evil, that Israel should be accepted as a legitimate state and that nuclear weapons should not proliferate. It was sad because many in his audience reject these notions; it seems unlikely that more than a very few of those who previously rejected these notions changed their views as a result of the Cairo speech.
President Obama went on at some length to promote his "two state solution" for Israel and her rather quarrelsome neighbors as the keystone for peace in the region. He did not mention the previous failures of similar solutions.
It seems to me that Israel is considered by many of her neighbors to be a thorn in their sides, principally because she approaches democracy and the freedoms which are thought to accompany democracy to a far greater extent than does any other collection of people in the region; because she has thereby turned her previously barren lands into fertile and prosperous ones; and because she has thereby become a leader in various areas of military and commercial technology. If this is so, then the "two state" solution embraced by President Obama in his Cairo speech and elsewhere as the policy of the United States will not produce a scintilla of change — at least not for the better. If Israel survives the two state solution, she will presumably continue to have these same pesky attributes, she will continue to be an unwelcome example to her neighbors, her neighbors will continue to lob missiles and suicide bombers at her, and she will have no choice but to try to make them stop. Should the interesting but hardly novel two state experiment fail, as seems quite likely to me, it will not be exclusively at the expense of the United States; it will be at the expense of another sovereign state, Israel, as well. It will also be at the expense of those "universal principles" which President Obama praised in Cairo and elsewhere.
Perhaps the gushing reactions of President Obama's supporters to his Cairo speech, noted in paragraph one above, accurately reflect President Obama's own views. If so, his narcissism knows no bounds. In any event, he clearly wants to be remembered as the Great Peace Maker. That is a worthy ambition; it would be even more worthy if his words and deeds had a realistic chance of success in actually bringing forth the blessings of peace. However, I fear that they are little more likely of success than was the spectacular willingness of Neville Chamberlain to turn Czechoslovakia and other countries (but not, of course, England herself) over to the Nazis in 1938.
Chamberlain believed passionately in peace for many reasons . . . thinking it his job as Britain's leader to maintain stability in Europe; like many people in Britain and elsewhere, he thought that the best way to deal with Germany's belligerence was to treat it with kindness and meet its demands. He also believed that the leaders of people are essentially rational beings, and that Hitler must necessarily be rational as well. Most historians believe that Chamberlain, in holding to these views, pursued the policy of appeasement far longer than was justifiable . . . (emphasis added)
I very much wish that President Obama did indeed have at least a chance, for the first time in recorded human history, of producing a lasting "peace in our time." However pure may be his motives, as things now stand, I consider this very unlikely.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Zedd
I wish some sort of peace would come of it but i think the intention was to express the idea that we see the humanity in the people of that region. A lot of rhetoric from these parts suggests the opposite. I think it was intended to quell the increasing disdain for the US by many in that region. I think it was meant to say "you guys(Israel and Palestine) have a beef and we see both sides" because it hasn't so articulately been stated.
Many of us watch with frustration at the uneven handed way that we conduct policy in many parts of the world and it was really, really refreshing to hear the people of this region being engaged in a respectful manner. I was beyond overjoyed and relieved that this guy's perspective would bring so much to the world. But again, its all about perspective.
2 - Zedd
Only two pages?
3 - M a rk
...she approaches democracy and the freedoms which are thought to accompany democracy to a far greater extent than does any other collection of people in the region; because she has thereby turned her previously barren lands into fertile and prosperous ones...
Before one gets all creamy about how Israel's democracy has led to her becoming the land of milk and honey, it would be wise to study the history of how she took control of and holds the headwaters of the Jordan River by military conquest.
4 - Ruvy
In this speech, Obama did exactly what I hoped he would do - he moved the government of the United States from its false position of "friendship" and "special relationship" to Israel over to the dark side of Arab dictatorship and lies. This is where the government of the United States has been for decades - the enemy of the Jewish State.
It's good to see so many Jews discomfited by this dropping of the mask by the US government. The truth hurts and they are seeing the truth - at long last. Netanyahu has to choose between his paymasters in Washington - and between his homeland. And he is having a bitch of a time contorting himself to the "new realities" - realities which were extant for decades but carefully hidden by all the talk of "the democracy in the Middle East" and special relationship and all the other delusory talk which Jews (PARTICULARLY AMERICAN JEWS) used to hide the ugly truth of the relationship of imperial control of Israel by the States.
Obama talks to the Moslems of not dictating terms - and immediately dictates to the Jews terms of peace as if the Jews were his dogs. Any Arab in al-Qahir used to screaming al-yahúd klabná - the Jews are our dogs - can see the symbolism.
Obama was indeed masterful in his speech. He lied and distorted the facts with the smoothness of a preacher. Those years listening to Jeremiah Wright - a Moslem learning how to lie like a phony - were obviously not wasted.
The irony is sweet - the symbolism Divine.
A generation of Jews devoted themselves to the betterment of the civil rights of the American Negro - who dubbed himself "African-American" to get away from the humiliation the word "Negro" (and its derogatory variants) occasioned only to find their own "homeland" and their Israeli compatriots stabbed in the back by a real African-American, a first generation American whose mother was raised in Hawaii and whose father was raised in Kenya. And the vast majority of Israelis are afraid to call this the betrayal it is - because indeed it isn't. The American government is doing what it wanted to do since Secretary of State George Marshall resigned over the partition vote on UN Resolution 181 partitioning the Mandate. The American government is out to screw the Jews and is doing it with gusto!
G-d indeed has a very sharp sense of humor.
5 - Jeannie Danna
What a bunch of crap!Hope is generally a good thing, even for obviously terminal cancer patients; change is sometimes a good thing. However, there are times when hope is delusional and change is for the worse. There are also times when delusional hope can lead to disastrous change.
The pety party of no gave their opinion again....I am sooooo not impressed.
How dare you link a book about Hitler to the President of the United States! You don't live here and you don't pay taxes. [I just censored myself!]
Now I will look for a worthwhile article to read here...
6 - Dan(Miller)
Four books are linked; two about President Obama and two about Neville Chamberlain. One of the Chamberlain books principally concerns Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler. There is no suggestion in the article that President Obama resembles Hitler. Now that the possibility is mentioned, however . . . .
Perhaps the references to President Obama as "god like" and as showing great humility are getting more traction than I had thought.
No, I don't live there. I do, however, pay taxes there.
Dan(Miller)
7 - Ruvy
Jeannie,
Give the man credit (wait, one should not give Obama credit - he'll just flush America further down the toilet than it already is)
Alright, give Obama his due. Within the context of American culture, he is a master speaker and orator. And within the context of German culture, Hitler was a master speaker and orator. They don't physically resemble each other, but the skill with words is most assuredly there.
And Dan is right about hope and change also. False hope is deadly, because once you realize its falsity, it makes it even harder to carry on. I know how many job opportunities have fallen through for my wife since we moved here. Each time it happens, Ruvy has to help her pick up the pieces of ruined hope. It's been painful each time - but it has drawn us together.
As for change, was it bankruptcy you voted for when you pulled the Democratic lever last November? Somehow, I don't think so....
8 - Clavos
I do, however, pay taxes there.
As do all expat Americans (with a few exceptions), and which is grossly unfair, since you receive no benefits or services for the taxes you currently pay.
Should you ever get in trouble overseas, the lack of services and benefits will extend to a failure on the part of the State Department to assist you in any meaningful way with your local authorities -- circumstance I know from experience.
The USA is a great and good country because of its people, who are, for the most part, decent, caring hard working individuals with discipline and respect for others and the law.
Their government, however, is shit.
9 - Dan(Miller)
Clav,
Their government, however, is shit.
I think that is very unfair. Shit can be useful; we use chicken shit to fertilize our pastures as well as our orange trees. At seventy cents per 80 lb. bag, it is quite inexpensive -- unlike the Government.
Dan(Miller)
10 - ma rk
No, I don't live there. I do, however, pay taxes there.
So incorporate yourself and this could easily be avoided.
11 - Jeannie Danna
I dreamt last night that I had to climb over a bunch of dead horses to get back home.
Today I'm in this thread trying to beat a bunch of dead horses. these political views
ma rk is excluded from this comment!
12 - Dan(Miller)
The Dead Horse Syndrome, known as the DHS, is but little understood. However, it is well known in psychiatric literature.
Dan(Miller)
13 - ma rk
although excluded, ma rk -- a farrier -- turns pale and backs out of the room...
14 - Ruvy
The USA is a great and good country because of its people, who are, for the most part, decent, caring hard working individuals with discipline and respect for others and the law. Their government, however, is shit.
Quoted for truth.
15 - Ruvy
Speaking of tying up Obama's policies with Hitler's, we have George Jonas in the National Post (Canada) writing of Hitler's Dream Come True
From the article:
Hitler's dream come true
Expelling people from their homes, a crime against humanity in the Balkans, is now U. S. policy in the Middle East
The 86-year-old widow of the nuclear physicist who played a pivotal role in boosting the Kremlin's military bang before reducing its moral bang to zero, mused about how the ostensible decapitation of race-or class-based tyrannies actually brought the world closer to their monstrous visions.
"At first, anger and horror was provoked by the terrorists who knocked down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and by their accomplices in London, Madrid and other cities," Bonner recalled. "Later, [president George W.] Bush was blamed for everything, and as always, the Jews -- that is, Israel."
Two states for two people sounded good, until one looked at the numbers and the fine print on refugees, the scientist's widow told the hometown of the stillborn Oslo Accords. The population of Israel is about 7.5 million, of whom 5.4 million are Jews and 1.5 million Israeli Arabs. A two-state solution, in which the Palestinian state permits no Jewish settlements but the Jewish state offers the right of return to more than 4.5 million Palestinians classified as refugees, adds up to a Palestinian state cleansed of Jews neighbouring a nominal Israel in which Arabs outnumber Jews substantially.
Remember Yelena Bonner, folks?
16 - Jeannie Danna
This conversation is like my dream. pointless I'll end it here...
17 - Clavos
ma rk,
although excluded, ma rk -- a farrier -- turns pale and backs out of the room...
i had no idea there was a demand for shoeing dead horses!
18 - Clavos
ma rk,
When you're grumpy, is it fair to say you're a horseshoe crab?
OK, I'll stop now...
or not.
19 - Baronius
But Dan, they invented algebra!
Someone over at the National Catholic Register blog wrote up a version of what President Obama didn't say, that he said in the speech at Notre Dame.
"But remember too that the ultimate irony of faith in Islam is that it necessarily admits doubt in Mohammed the prophet....This doubt should not push Muslims away from their faith. But it should humble Muslims." etc.
Obama may talk to non-Americans and non-Christians with respect, but he condescends to American Christians.
20 - ma r k
Clavos, perhaps the strangest exercise in farrier school is doing just that...putting a shoe on a dead hoof.
21 - Clavos
Sounds logical -- medical students practice on cadavers first.
22 - Clavos
Another one:
When you're angry, do you get all hoofy?
OK, OK, I"LL STOP!*
*(maybe)
23 - Dan(Miller)
ma r k,
Does one use hot shoeing or cold shoeing with a dead horse?
Dan(Miller)
24 - Clavos
And do you beat it before shoeing it?
25 - ma r k
Me, I just nailed to the coffin bone...you know, to make sure the shoe stayed on.