Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Washington Post Editorial, "President Obama’s To-Do List for His Mideast Trip": The Wrong Symbolic Gestures

The Washington Post, in an editorial entitled "President Obama’s to-do list for his Mideast trip" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-obamas-to-do-list-for-his-middle-east-trip/2013/03/18/87cd61d0-8ff0-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239_story.html?hpid=z3), notes that "Mr. Obama’s visit beginning Wednesday is primarily aimed at allowing him to build bridges both to Israelis and to Mr. Netanyahu," and as such, the president plans various symbolic gestures:

"The president’s schedule is loaded with symbolic affirmations of his commitment to Israel’s security, such as a U.S.-funded Iron Dome anti-missile battery that will await him at the airport, and with correctives to mistakes Mr. Obama made in his first term. In his 2009 Cairo speech, the president inadvertently implied that Israel’s existence was justified by the Holocaust; on this visit he will visit an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls as a way of affirming the historical Jewish claim to the land."

Note, however, that Obama will not speak before Israel's parliament or visit the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem so as to avoid offending Israel's Muslim neighbors.

Sorry, but visiting an exhibition of the Essenes' Dead Sea Scrolls is not what it will take to improve the popularity of Obama among the 68 percent of Israelis who have an unfavorable view of him.

4 comments:

  1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CYgWsKQJcLo

    So, here we have an adjunct law professor advocating Weather Underground tactics to a group formerly known as "Students for Palestinian Liberation" but apparently changed it's name to "better address border and immigration issues between the United States and Mexico".

    I wonder if Bennett, Lapid or even Bibi realize that Washington's current Middle East policy makers belong to the same school of thought.

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  2. just wait until Hamas finds out who Herzl was :)
    THAT part of the O-trip actually does signify something real.

    otoh, plenty of opportunity for the Hummus War to damage the optics!

    K2K

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  3. http://freebeacon.com/obamas-middle-east-map-erases-israeli-territory/

    Now we know why BO will not be visiting the Western Wall or speaking in front of Israel's Knesset. According to this WH map, they aren't located in Israel!

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  4. BTW, do you know that Soviet Union textbooks erased Israel entirely.

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