Israel/Palestine: Obama gets it partly right…

May 20, 2011 at 10:36 pm (Jim D, Middle East, Obama, palestine)

OK, he’s a bourgeois politician, and he’s not prepared to go all the way and back Palestinian statehood at the UN. But he’s surely right that the pre-1967 borders and two states are the only viable, realistic and just way foward. For that, he deserves our critical support, especially in the face of Netanyahu’s belligerent rejectionism (not to mention the nihilistic, incoherent sub-Chomskyite sneering of the likes of Fisk):

It’s not necessary to be an Obama fan to recognise that on the question of pre-1967 borders as the starting point for a peace settlement, he’s got it right – and to back him against Netanyahu.

1 Comment

modernityblog said,

May 21, 2011 at 12:05 am

America’s Right are attacking Obama over the issue:

“Republican presidential hopefuls were quick to criticize President Barack Obama’s speech on the Middle East Thursday, accusing him of betraying America’s closest ally in the region with his call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Their condemnations came hot on the heels of Obama’s late-morning speech, in which he advocated borders “on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.” The Palestinian people, Obama said, “have the right to govern themselves and reach their full potential in a sovereign and contiguous state.”

“President Obama has thrown Israel under the bus,” Mitt Romney charged in a statement. “He has disrespected Israel and undermined its ability to negotiate peace. He has also violated a first principle of American foreign policy, which is to stand firm by our friends.”

Michele Bachmann said Obama had “betrayed our friend and ally Israel.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55338.html#ixzz1MwO7Httz

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