Thought you might at least want to be aware of this: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=139552073434 Consider it a follow-up to yesterday’s Palin post, and also just an item for the ongoing discussion of the relations between Jews and populist/social conservatives.
Agree by the way that it was a great speech – a great statement if not exactly a great piece of oratory – the second possibly very important speech by Netanyahu this year. Hugh Hewitt has taken to calling him the Churchill of our times – don’t know if that’s quite justified.
We can change the link to an embed if anyone thinks that would be preferable.
@Zoltan Newberry – He may let Ø put two and two together by himself.
In Ø’s defense, as awful as his speech was in many ways, he did say the other Middle Eastern countries have to accept Israel as a Jewish state. In that part of the world that’s considered extremist pro-Zionist rhetoric.
He had nothing whatsoever to apologize for to that audience, so he didn’t. Good for him. But of course, unlike some people, he recognizes that his primary obligation is to defend the nation that freely elected him.
Peter, I think that Obama has by now successfully set up an itnernational code like his code for internal Democratic Party consumption. There are certain things he says, such as his opposition to abortion, that Democrats know he doesn’t mean. Similarly, Muslim countries understand that when Israel has been cut back to its indefensible 1967 borders, and cannot add rooms in Jerusalem, they are a step closer to no Jewish state.
@Margo – Obama has apparently dropped his demand that Israel freeze settlements. I think he’s ready to drop his whole stupid attempt to revitalize the “peace process,” which nobody in the region has taken seriously since September, 2000.
In any case, all this stuff is a meaningless side show. The really important thing is the Iranian bomb, and he’s pretty clearly not going to do anything about it. The big question is how much he obstructs Israel from doing something about it.
He won’t do anything to stop Israel from doing something about it. Remember, in addition to his many other fine qualities, our President prefers to not have to make decisions. If Israel does take care of it – one thing off the “to decide” list. Of course he will make a speech in Damascus despairing of their unilateral action, but he won’t do anything about it.
Netanyahu seems to be the closest thing to a Churchill in our modern world, at any rate. I thought it was an excellent speech, and wondered if Bibi’s obvious moral passion was increased by OSlash’s inexcusable stab in the back the day before.
I suppose others here saw Brett Baier’s interview with Bibi, and the passage in which Bibi loyally, and with great diplomacy, put OSlash’s posture on the Palestinians and the West Bank settlements in the best possible light. I have no doubt that OSlash has communicated a reassuring message to Israel in that regard over the past several weeks — including during the photo op with Bibi and Abbas. Bibi couched his comments in the most careful terms, not rising to Baier’s (justifiable) bait about OSlash appearing to take the Palestinian Arab side. He cited OSlash and his negotiators as the source of the true US position.
Within hours, OSlash had made hash of Bibi’s diplomacy and restraint by proclaiming to the UN that the US would never accept the legitimacy of “continuing Israeli settlement activity” in the West Bank. OSlash’s entire reference to this issue was stated in the terms of the Palestinian Arabs.
Israel’s, and Bibi’s, decisions have not gotten any easier, even if some decision factors are being clarified with each passing day. Scary as it may be for fuster, I hope Jews and Christians the world over are praying for wisdom and courage, for Netanyahu and his advisers, in the coming months.
@JEM – Thanks for the note of optimism. That’s the positive side of Obama’s general uselessness—he’s useless in the service of his own awful goals. Caroline Glick makes a similar point here.
Comments 11
Thought you might at least want to be aware of this: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=139552073434 Consider it a follow-up to yesterday’s Palin post, and also just an item for the ongoing discussion of the relations between Jews and populist/social conservatives.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Agree by the way that it was a great speech – a great statement if not exactly a great piece of oratory – the second possibly very important speech by Netanyahu this year. Hugh Hewitt has taken to calling him the Churchill of our times – don’t know if that’s quite justified.
We can change the link to an embed if anyone thinks that would be preferable.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:25 am
My first reaction:
Is he now telling our dear Oslash to bugger off?
Hope so.
September 25th, 2009 at 7:50 am
That would be great, Colin. I posted this just before I went to bed and didn’t even want to think about embedding it. Thanks!
September 25th, 2009 at 8:00 am
@Zoltan Newberry – He may let Ø put two and two together by himself.
In Ø’s defense, as awful as his speech was in many ways, he did say the other Middle Eastern countries have to accept Israel as a Jewish state. In that part of the world that’s considered extremist pro-Zionist rhetoric.
September 25th, 2009 at 8:03 am
He had nothing whatsoever to apologize for to that audience, so he didn’t. Good for him. But of course, unlike some people, he recognizes that his primary obligation is to defend the nation that freely elected him.
September 25th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Peter, I think that Obama has by now successfully set up an itnernational code like his code for internal Democratic Party consumption. There are certain things he says, such as his opposition to abortion, that Democrats know he doesn’t mean. Similarly, Muslim countries understand that when Israel has been cut back to its indefensible 1967 borders, and cannot add rooms in Jerusalem, they are a step closer to no Jewish state.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
@Margo – Obama has apparently dropped his demand that Israel freeze settlements. I think he’s ready to drop his whole stupid attempt to revitalize the “peace process,” which nobody in the region has taken seriously since September, 2000.
In any case, all this stuff is a meaningless side show. The really important thing is the Iranian bomb, and he’s pretty clearly not going to do anything about it. The big question is how much he obstructs Israel from doing something about it.
September 25th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
He won’t do anything to stop Israel from doing something about it. Remember, in addition to his many other fine qualities, our President prefers to not have to make decisions. If Israel does take care of it – one thing off the “to decide” list. Of course he will make a speech in Damascus despairing of their unilateral action, but he won’t do anything about it.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Netanyahu seems to be the closest thing to a Churchill in our modern world, at any rate. I thought it was an excellent speech, and wondered if Bibi’s obvious moral passion was increased by OSlash’s inexcusable stab in the back the day before.
I suppose others here saw Brett Baier’s interview with Bibi, and the passage in which Bibi loyally, and with great diplomacy, put OSlash’s posture on the Palestinians and the West Bank settlements in the best possible light. I have no doubt that OSlash has communicated a reassuring message to Israel in that regard over the past several weeks — including during the photo op with Bibi and Abbas. Bibi couched his comments in the most careful terms, not rising to Baier’s (justifiable) bait about OSlash appearing to take the Palestinian Arab side. He cited OSlash and his negotiators as the source of the true US position.
Within hours, OSlash had made hash of Bibi’s diplomacy and restraint by proclaiming to the UN that the US would never accept the legitimacy of “continuing Israeli settlement activity” in the West Bank. OSlash’s entire reference to this issue was stated in the terms of the Palestinian Arabs.
Israel’s, and Bibi’s, decisions have not gotten any easier, even if some decision factors are being clarified with each passing day. Scary as it may be for fuster, I hope Jews and Christians the world over are praying for wisdom and courage, for Netanyahu and his advisers, in the coming months.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
@JEM – Thanks for the note of optimism. That’s the positive side of Obama’s general uselessness—he’s useless in the service of his own awful goals. Caroline Glick makes a similar point here.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:30 pm