And three days ago, Barack Obama had a White House press appearance with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and there was none of that hokum. Obama spoke first, addressing the issue, “how do we achieve a comprehensive peace.” But his concern re Israel was secure borders:
I have to commend President Abbas. He has been somebody who has consistently renounced violence, has consistently sought a diplomatic and peaceful solution that allows for two states, side by side, in peace and security; a state that allows for the dignity and sovereignty of the Palestinian people and a state that allows for Israelis to feel secure and at peace with their neighbors.
No mention of a Jewish state.
The Israel lobby isn’t getting the message, though. When Obama’s Jewish liaison officer, Matt Nosanchuk, spoke at a J Street event last week in New York, video below, (at 33:00) he goes all in for the Jewish state recognition nostrum. Nosanchuk quotes John Kerry speaking to the rightwing Israel lobby group AIPAC the week before:
[W]hat the end-game should look like is straightforward: security arrangements that leave Israelis more secure, not less; mutual recognition of the nation-state of the Jewish people and the nation-state of the Palestinian people; an end to the conflict and to all claims; a just and agreed solution for Palestinian refugees, one that does not diminish the Jewish character of the state of Israel; and a resolution that finally allows Jerusalem to live up to its name as the City of Peace
Of course, after that AIPAC speech, Kerry backtracked.
At the J Street appearance, Nosanchuk wasn’t the only one. Congressman Jerrold Nadler at 1:01 or so says, he’d prefer the Palestinians to make “de jure” recognition of a Jewish state, but de facto is good enough for him; Israel doesn’t need that recognition if it has a Jewish majority and limited right of return. (Note the air of grave concern throughout Nadler’s remarks about how important it is for Jews to have a safe state of our own in the Middle East; very retro-Zionist.)
And former Israeli admiral and security official Ami Ayalon (at 59 or so) says, “I’m not sure I can give you a good reason why it [the demand for recognition as a Jewish state] is important, but it is important. Because this is my identity.” Though then Ayalon says that some of Israel’s problems are internal: “We shall have to live with more than 20 percent of non-Jews.” Imagine a liberal organization hosting a white American talking about what we do with our non-white minority…
What always burns by britches when reading these grand pronouncements (besides the blatent bs wiggle language of stuff such as “end… of all claims”) is that the only state for which “security” is pronounced as a concern is israel. Frankly, the Palestine has always had more to fear from israel and has a bigger secuirity issue from them, than israel does from Palestine. It’s disgusting.
I took Kerry to say that there have acknowledgements of the Jewish character of Israel and that it was fine that these should have been demanded and given without any reciprocity, but that he objects to, and considers excessive, Israeli demand for endless repetition or endless refinements of terminology. This amounts to a crumb of rhetorical comfort for Abbas. But all these rhetorical ploys on all sides are only part of the game of managing expectations, not really substantial things.
On yesterday’s Dennis Bernstein’s KPFA Flaspoints program Ilan Pappe reminded listeners of Bishop Desmond Tutu’s observation that South Africa’s apartheid was designed by whites to exploit blacks whereas Israel’s apartheid was designed to eliminate Palestinians.
RE: And former Israeli admiral and security official Ami Ayalon (at 59 or so) says, ‘I’m not sure I can give you a good reason why it [the demand for recognition as a Jewish state] is important, but it is important. Because this is my identity’. ~ Weiss
MY COMMENT: Ira Chernus to the rescue!* [sound of trumpet fanfare]
SEE: Is Israel a “Jewish Nation”? Is the US an “American Nation”?, by Ira Chernus, CommonDreams.org, 1/31/14
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/01/31-0
>> … Ami Ayalon … says, “I’m not sure I can give you a good reason why it [the demand for recognition as a Jewish state] is important, but it is important.”
Shame on the Palestinians for having plenty of good – and valid – reasons for why their pursuit of justice, accountability and equality is important.
>> “Because this is my identity.”
He’s not defined by a belief in justice, morality and equality, but by a desire for Jewish supremacism in a supremacist “Jewish State”. Pathetic.