GOP 2012: Back BiBi, not 43, 44

22 May 2011 |permalink | email article

Republican presidential hopefuls outdid each other in criticizing President Barack Obama’s speech on the Middle East Thursday, accusing him of betraying Israel, America’s closest ally in the region with his call for a two-state solution to the long festering Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Obama said the Palestinian people “have a right to govern themselves and reach their full potential in a sovereign and contiguous state.” There was nothing surprising in what Obama said. In January 2008 President George W. Bush made the identical proposal about Israel’s pre-1967 borders being adjusted to account for Israel’s security needs.

A petulant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,, meeting with Obama Friday in the Oval Office, promptly listed a series of nonnegotiable conditions that have kept both sides at an impasse for decades. Among his most heated objections were that Israel would not accept a return to the boundaries that existed before the war in 1967 gave it control of the West Bank and Gaza, calling them indefensible.

Netanyahu got wind that Obama planned to make a major speech on the Middle East, alerted Republican Speaker Boehner and House leaders that he would like to address a joint meeting of Congress this week and present Israeli’s proposals. But the White House timed Obama’s speech to make sure he went first. It appears to be a turning point for the two leaders and signaling a fatal lack of trust.

For many across the Middle East the Prime Minister’s performance suggests the possibility of his political demise. Does Bibi actually believe that Obama will renounce what he said to the entire world? 

The Anti-Defamation’s Abe Foxman, never shy about criticizing the administration, was quoted by the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent as a defense of Israel. “The speech indicated to me that this administration has come a long way to better understanding and appreciating the difficulties facing both parties, but especially Israel in trying to make peace with the Palestinians.”

But the ill-informed Republicans revealed their ignorance: Mitt Romney said Obama “threw Israel under the bus;” Michele Bachmann said he “betrayed our friend and ally Israel;” Ron Paul said “Israel is our close friend.” But the stupidity prize went to Tim Pawlenty, declaring his candidacy on Monday, who called a return to the 1967 borders “a mistaken a very dangerous demand. Has he talked with Bush 43? Such a partisan attack has the effect of cheapening the criticism of .Obama and making it more dismissible, The Daily Beast reported. 

 

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