Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Obama Diminishing Doctrine

Aaron Lerner pointed this out, from President Obama's press conference remarks, concerning the need for peace:

"... some sort of clear settlement...for Israel to feel that the possibilities of rockets raining down on their families has diminished."
[full paragraph below]


Sorry, Mr. President, but a diminished threat to our existence, our lives, our security just will not do.  It has to be as close as possible to no threat.  You should have said "zero-tolerance".

Earlier in the day, on the tarmac, you said:



(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
 

Why does the United States stand so strongly, so firmly with the State of Israel? And the answer is simple. We stand together because we share a common story -- patriots determined “to be a free people in our land,” pioneers who forged a nation...We stand together because we are democracies...We stand together because it makes us more prosperous...We stand together because we share a commitment to helping our fellow human beings around the world...

Those are nice words.  They are closer to the truth about Jewish nationalism that you have dared to utter until now.  Your previous indications that you have come, as opposed to what you spoke at Cairo, to grasp the truth about our history as a people in this land for 3000 years.  And what we can extrapolate about the rest of the Middle East, including the so-called state-coming-into-being of "Palestine", is that you really do know how non-democratic and how poor their economies are despite the oil and that their cultural atmosphere is not conducive to peace.

Here is Netanyahu on the possibility of another rocket raining down - from Iran:

It relates to our very existence, and to something also that the President correctly identified as a grave, strategic threat to the United States and to the peace and security of the world.  I'm absolutely convinced that the President is determined to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.  I appreciate that.  And I also appreciate something that he said, which I mentioned in my opening remarks: that the Jewish people have come back to their own country to be the masters of their own fate.  And I appreciate the fact that the President has reaffirmed, more than any other President, Israel's right and duty to defend itself by itself against any threat.


Mr. President, our future is dear to us and a "diminished" threat is simply not enough.


_______

Full paragraph:

With respect to the peace process, as I said, I'll have more to say about this tomorrow, but I think you are absolutely right that over the last year, year and a half, two years, two and a half years, we haven't gone forward. We haven't seen the kind of progress that we would like to see. There are some elements of good news. I mean, the fact of the matter is that even with all that's been happening in the region, the Palestinian Authority has worked effectively in cooperation with the international community, in part because of some of the training that we the United States provided, to do its part in maintaining security in the West Bank. We have seen some progress when it comes to economic development and opportunity for the Palestinian people. But the truth of the matter is, trying to bring this to some sort of clear settlement, a solution that would allow Israelis to feel as if they've broken out of the current isolation that they're in in this region, that would allow the incredible economic growth that's taking place inside this country to be a model for trade and commerce and development throughout the region at a time when all these other countries need technology and commerce and jobs for their young people; for Palestinians to feel a sense that they too are masters of their own fate; for Israel to feel that the possibilities of rockets raining down on their families has diminished.
 
^

1 comment:

Anonymous said...


Interesting, that the goal of the President's endeavor is all about feelings... The only exception being the incredible "privilege" Israel would have of escaping our current isolation - 'allowing' us to provide a technological and commercial model for the cultural/technological backwaters that surround us - (which we somehow achieve despite our profound perception of isolation) Wow.




But the truth of the matter is, trying to bring this to some sort of clear settlement, a solution that would allow Israelis to feel as if they've broken out of the current isolation that they're in in this region, that would allow the incredible economic growth that's taking place inside this country to be a model for trade and commerce and development throughout the region at a time when all these other countries need technology and commerce and jobs for their young people; for Palestinians to feel a sense that they too are masters of their own fate; for Israel to feel that the possibilities of rockets raining down on their families has diminished.







Now that I'm out of kindergarten - I'm a little more concerned with sticks and stones than name-calling and feelings. Not that feelings aren't important drivers of action - but this is a strange vision of an end-game.