I was moved by President Obama's speech at Notre Dame today. He has tremendous power to redirect negative energy. He showed humility in his self-deprecating jokes. He didn't fight the protesters at all; he almost seemed to welcome them.
Most significantly, he made it clear that he was part of the community in the hall.
He said he had come to the Christian church when he was a community organizer in part thanks to the inspiring model of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin; and he said he had been fed by the Roman Catholic parishes he worked with on the South Side. Obama intertwined his own story with that of former Notre Dame president Theodore Hesburgh's when he told of Hesburgh's leadership of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, which Eisenhower had set up after Brown v Board of Education, so that "all God's children" could share in our country's promise. He referred openly to himself as African-American, something he doesn't often do.
While Obama made no pretense to being able to bridge the divide between his views on abortion/stem cells and the views of many in the hall, his statement that the country will be divided on this issue for years to come was honest, and his call for continuing dialogue seemed sincere. I felt he took his listeners to a higher ground: the struggles against global warming and economic injustice and intolerance that has fostered wars. His conclusion, in which he described all people as "fishermen," touching on an anecdote in the Hesburgh story, was religious and quietly stirring.
I liked the way he uses religious language without being exclusive. He spoke again of non-believers, as he did in his Inaugural, and mentioned "humanism" as a faith. He urged people to step outside their "parochial" ideas of community and accept the golden rule as a guide in all their dealings. While he referred to Christ, I sense that Obama's idea of Christian faith, and God, is pretty loosey-goosey.
Of course I apply Obama's lessons to Israel/Palestine. Parochialism has wrecked American foreign policy there, and Israeli's brutal understanding of civil rights treatment has hurt our country's image everywhere.
And the golden rule? Today Adam Horowitz mentions the importance of addressing the Nakba and the refugee issue at the root of the unfairness in I/P. he Palestinian refugees have been in camps for 61 years; and I reflected that an American president was moved by the situation of Jewish refugees in DP camps in Europe, two and three years after the end of World War II, to recognize the state of Israel. It's about time there was some fair play; and if anyone has the ability to calm the Israel lobby and lead us forward, it's Obama.
Good post Phil. Obama is the man. Sober, mutually respectful, assertive.
Time has always measured humanity; President Obama knows this, bringing years of study and introspection to a table where each of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but each of us has the inner strength to see in ourselves and each other the power of acceptance over rath.
RE: …and mentioned "humanism" as a faith… MY COMMENT: Oy vey iz mir!
One of the best specches there is
I heard George Galloway speak today. Superb speaker, funny and charming. He said that we have to show Obama that he will not commit political suicide by supporting the I/P issue fairly. He seemed to have hope that Obama can come through with enough support. He's also organizing an American convoy to take to Gaza. The ballroom was full, in which he spoke. Lots of tears at the stories he told. He was more critical of the Arab regimes and the Muslim countries for being puppets and collaborators. He said that the Palestinians in the room were lucky to be here. Others were languishing under repressive Arab regimes. Lot of applause at the criticisms of Arab regimes. He told of a nine-year-old orphan girl who asked him in Gaza: Where is the Arab world we read in school about? Where is the Ummah (roughly translated as one Muslim community world-wide) I have heard so much about?
The Jews are expert at co-opting the agenda, setting the terms of the debate, liquidating Christian ideals they disagree with (ideals of mercy, justice, and fairness to others (even if they're the hated Arabs)), pushing their own slanted agenda, and making it look like someone else did the dirty (deed). After the useless Trillion dollar war they personally caused in Iraq, the untold blood suffering of others (not of their tribe) and without skipping a beat or having a twinge of conscience they move on to crucify Lebanon, Gaza, and Iran next. And they complain about "blood libel" ?? We killed 147 Arabs the other day in Afghanistan, no biggy, we just lie through our teeth (same as the IDF did in Gaza, without a conscience and without morals). The Jews have blood on their hands, in their minds, and in their dreams for Israel's security.
Arabs in Afghanistan?
Saleema, the truth finally shock you out of being a hate-monger? Yes, Arabs in Afghanistan. It is misleading statements like that that are rife in the Arab Islamic world (let alone the world inhabited by the other 900 million muslims) that lets hate mongers like you run rampant.
Shut the fuck up moron. You knock someone for what you perceive as antisemitic remarks and then you make anti-Arab remarks.
Does it really surprise you that Arabs are in Afghanistan? Who do you think drove the Russians out and who do you think the CIA went running to to ask them to help drive the russians out. Try this, Isarelis in Darfur, Israelis in Iraq, or is that a surprise.
Good luck to this guy, he is climbing the highest mountain in the land as his first task, i hope he has the stamina. Although his first contact with one of the key players, Syria was dismal. Seymour Hersh summarized this country's role very well in his article Syria calling. I hope Obama reads this stuff and manages Hillary a little better before she drives the foreign policy the same way Bill did.
The Palestinian refugees have been in camps for 61 years Can you imagine the hew and cry if Jews had been in camps for 61 years?
We killed Afghans. None of the reports indicated that they were Arabs. The idea of Afghan-Arabs is from the 80s.
Jackass.
why be so ignorant? moslems are moslems and arabs are people who speak arabic. there are christian arabs as well as jewish arabs. in afghanistan, the the local language is not arabic!
Our brethren would have come to our aid, and ASSIST or resettlement elsewhere. We KNOW that our home is our community, moreso than a piece of land. In some ways, that is one of the failings of Zionism, to regard a specific piece of land as home, moreso than family and community and people. So, some regard Zionism that is fixated on the land, as a spiritual failing, an admiration of a less mature political approach. Others regard Zionism as comparable to the Native American or Palestinian intimacy with the land. Apartment block settlements conflict with that theory.
the arab nation has almost 3 million square miles. israel is barely 10,000 square miles. how can arabs be refugees in their own land? there never was an arab country called palestine! arabs kill each other like flies. from algeria to lebanon to sudan to….. jordan killed more arabs than in all the wars with israel. and 150,000 arabs were killed in the lebanon civil wars in the last 30 years
Keep going you missed a few more stats. The moslem world is ten times bigger than the arab nation. Of course you forget arabs are, moslems, chritians and jews. The 2nd world war killed over 26 Million people. Europeans killed more people than at any time in history, does that mean they kill each other like flies? There never was a state called Isarel until the UN created in 1948 and it is not even half of what it looks like today, the rest was stolen by wars. How far back do you want to go in history before you draw the line and say, history starts now. History has many examples of killings, none justifies the continuation of killings.
You think the settlers should live in teepees? Honestly, Richard, you are a preposterous person.
It has been the Arab states that have kept the Palestinians in DP camps. Israel should take responsibility for what they did to the Palestinians in '48 when the Arab states take responsibility for more than sixty years worth of human rights abuse. To go after Israel and ignore what the Arabs have done to the Palestinians is to engage in anti Semitism.
The community that assisted the Jews during and after WWII were the non-Jews, lest you forget. Some of your own from the community were acting as Kapos.
Arabs are not a monolith group of people. They have their own distinct culture and dialects. Many adopted Arabic as their language after they accepted Islam and hence became Arabic. My aunt has her own home, and my mom has her own home. That doesn't mean that my aunt's neighbor can force her out of hers and tell her to live in my mom's home becasue it has two extra bedrooms not being used.
No, it was the Nakba that caused them to live in those lands. It was the Jewish hatred of the Arabs that drove them to slaughter and forced them out. Going after tyrants of the Arab world will be much easier once the Palestinians have their own state. I'm pretty sure they are not going to forget that or forgive them. The biggest camp of all is in Gaza and in the West Bank and the worst crimes are comitted there. Once that's resolved we can move on to the other stuff. So don't try to play that game. No one here cares about anti-Semitisim as you are defining it. Go pull someone else's heart strings. As far as I'm concerned and as far as most Mulims/Arabs are concerned, our tyrants wouldn't be ruling over us were it not for Washington's support and money.
Of course you don't care.
Go back to the Mandate for Palestine. (google and read it on the avalon yale web site) On July 24, 1922 the League of Nations unanimously set aside the area that the Romans called Palestina (after an ancient people, the philistines who disappeared from history over 2700 years ago) as the Jewish national home. Why is so hard for you to accept Israel as the Jewish State? Israeli Arabs love to live in Israel. They got hysterical when they are offered a chance to live under the tyrant pederast called Arafat and surely do not want his partner Abu Mazen and certainly do not want the Hamas gangsters.
Neither should your Aunt's friends force your aunt to live like an animal in order to gain political benefit. Maybe your aunt should not have joined with criminals who wanted to murder your aunt's neighbor. indeed under certain circumstances, your aunt should be fairly compensated for the home she abandoned in the hope of eventually returning with murderers to destroy your neighbors home and his very life. In fact all refugees, including 900,000 refugees from arab lands since 1948, should be fairly compensated.
Arab tyrants have been murdering innocent people since they emerged from the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century. 'Very little has changed. No need to blame Washington. Washington was born over a 1000 years after the Arabians started their rampage from India to Spain.
Don't blame US money. The Arab Oil Moguls can buy and sell Washington 5 times over. How do they spend their money? not even pennies for "refugees", but billions for ski slopes in the desert.
Mark. Neither the League of Nations Nor the UN have the right to expel people from their homes to give it to another people. Promising a home for jews does not mean destroying another people, it does mean, living together. I have no problem with accepting a jewish homeland, but not at the expense of another people. History is full of dispossed people for one reason or another, where do you draw the line. Isareli Arabs have no choice but to live in Israel and accept their rulers, the alternative is to become refugees with no homes. Do you really think these people would rather be ruled by a people who see them as outsiders and 2nd class and harrassed daily to force them to leave. Isarel's history is full of focrcing arabs to leave, that's how Gaza became a dumping ground and why Hamas became the only option.
as you very well know, prior to the arab total rejection of the 1947 UN partition plan, no arabs left their homes. after the state of israel was attacked in 1948, there was a war. i suggest that you examine what has happened as a consequence of war. you need not go back in history. see what is happening in pakistan and dafur today. at least we cannot blame the jews for those tragedies. the religious nature of the arab war against israel is very clear. if all jews in israel became arabs tomorrow morning, guess what would happen. see an arab scholar's analysis: Is the Palestinian crisis a land dispute? click on it. you will not be happy….to hear the truth http://www.democracybroadcastingnews.com/
Mark, It's not your problem where they spend their money. It's the Arab people's problem and let them handle it. And handle it they will, because tyrannies do not last forever. Hold your own people accountable before you hold someone else. The Palestinian refugee problem was caused by Jews, when the declared Israe. UN had not right whatsoever to give away land that did not belong to them. If I, as a Muslim, or if an Arab, comments on the barbarism of Muslim/Arab countries, don't get too gleeful–we will deal with our problems our way. Meanwhile, you get the fuck out of Palestine! And stop treating Arab Israelis like second class citizens.
How can you say that you are holding Arab tyrannies accountable when you refuse to put pressure on them to improve the conditions for Arab refugees; when you even refuse to hold them responsible for the problem? To me this sounds like the ultimate apology for tyranny. If you say that it is Israel's fault in the first place then that still does not absolve Arab governments from what happens on a day to day basis. If we held to that logic than no one would ever have to lend aid to anyone. I am not responsible for making anyone in the city of Columbus homelss. As someone who lives in Columbus though I do have a social responsibility to help the homeless in this city.
I'm an American. I live in Houston. My dad pays a lot of taxes. I pay some too. My responsibility is to be nice to my neighbor. I also am responsible for those tax dollars to make sure that they do not go to Israel to kill people. When America starts sending my and my dad's tax dollars to Iran to kill innocent Israelis. I will do all i can to hold my government in check. If I don't reply to any of your other comments to me, know that you are being ignored. I don't talk to sick zionists. This is one of the few exceptions. The only two Zionists i like are Witty, whose comments I read and respond to. And my other firend in Houston, who is a die-hard supporter, but he is not ignorant. I have read a few of your comments when you first started posting here. You are just silly. You will be ingored, mostly, from now on.