Learning to understand Obama. Lesson ONE
Obama said he told Abbas the Palestinians must find a way to halt the incitement of anti-Israeli sentiments that are sometimes expressed in schools, mosques and public arenas. “All those things are impediments to peace,” Obama said.
Translation: please don’t be so public about your hatred of Israel, because you’re making it really, really hard for me to convince anyone that you have any interest in peace whatsoever, let alone a desire to live peacefully with Israel in a separate Palestinian state.
Obama, like predecessor George W. Bush, embraces a multifaceted Mideast peace plan that calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The president refused to set a timetable for such a nation but also noted he has not been slow to get involved in meeting with both sides and pushing the international community for help.“We can’t continue with the drift, with the increased fear and resentment on both sides, the sense of hopelessness around the situation that we’ve seen for many years now,” Obama said. “We need to get this thing back on track.”
Translation: we have to work really, really hard to get Israel to give land back to the people who want them dead, because those same people promise to be nice after that. (Except, of course, that they never made such a promise, and never will.)
Abbas is working to repackage a 2002 Saudi Arabian plan that called for Israel to give up land it has occupied since the 1967 war in exchange for normalized relations with Arab countries. Abbas gave Obama a document that would keep intact that requirement and also offer a way to monitor a required Israeli freeze on all settlement activity, a timetable for Israeli withdrawal and a realization of a two-state solution.
In other words, if it weren’t for those nasty Israeli settlements, all would be peace and joy in Palestine.
Sure.
