I had too hopeful a reading of Obama's speech yesterday. Dana Milbank (who wrote a horrifying piece a year or two back calling Walt and Mearsheimer Nazis for their views on the Israel lobby) gets it right here, exposing the depths of Obama's pander with comic verve. I wonder if Milbank is getting ready to do a Jeffrey Goldberg, and denounce the lobby. Welcome aboard.
Most disturbing is Obama's call for a Jerusalem unified under Israel. Egad. Saeb Erekat from speaking on Al-Jazeera: "This is the worst thing to happen to us since 1967 … he has given
ammunition to extremists across the region".
I continue to believe that Obama is on the progressive side of this issue deep down. And that his angry heart, so evident in Dreams From My Father, now becoming more and more distant under that cold perfect exterior, makes an identification with Palestinians. Again I point to his words yesterday, that Jews Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were "willing to die" alongside James Chaney in Mississippi in '64. When do we hear that phrase "willing to die" now– we hear it about suicide bombers, or nonviolent resisters like Rachel Corrie. Unconsciously or not, those images people his meaning… (And no, myself I am not likening suicide bombers to Schwerner and Goodman. As for Rachel Corrie, she is exactly like Schwerner and Goodman and Chaney.)
