This morning President Obama spoke about the U.S. commitment to Israel, the Iranian nuclear deal, and anti-Semitism at a Washington-area synagogue to wild applause. Transcript here. Video here.
Obama spoke often of “shared values” between U.S. progressives and Israel, linking his participation in the civil rights struggle with Israel’s struggle to “make the desert bloom:”
“those values in many ways came to be my own values.
Then he said those shared values make him committed to a two-state solution:
Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people on their land, as well. (Applause.)
Now, I want to emphasize — that’s not easy. The Palestinians are not the easiest of partners. (Laughter.) The neighborhood is dangerous. And we cannot expect Israel to take existential risks with their security so that any deal that takes place has to take into account the genuine dangers of terrorism and hostility.
But it is worthwhile for us to keep up the prospect, the possibility of bridging divides and being just, and looking squarely at what’s possible but also necessary in order for Israel to be the type of nation that it was intended to be in its earliest founding. (Applause.)
And that same sense of shared values also compel me to speak out — compel all of us to speak out — against the scourge of anti-Semitism wherever it exists. (Applause.) I want to be clear that, to me, all these things are connected. The rights I insist upon and now fight for, for all people here in the United States compels me then to stand up for Israel and look out for the rights of the Jewish people. And the rights of the Jewish people then compel me to think about a Palestinian child in Ramallah that feels trapped without opportunity. That’s what Jewish values teach me. That’s what the Judeo-Christian tradition teaches me. These things are connected.
Jewish Voice for Peace promptly issued a statement that says nothing about the two-state solution but reminds us all of the civil rights struggle that Obama cited. “Shared Values Compel Us to Speak Out Against Israeli Policies”
May 22, 2015–As President Obama expressed in his speech at Congregation Adas Israel today, Jewish tradition and experience of persecution compel us to speak truth to power in the face of injustice. In this case, our shared values compel us to add that so long as the State of Israel persists in its military occupation of the West Bank, siege of Gaza and systematic discrimination against non-Jews both in and outside the Green Line, we cannot be silent.
Rebecca Vilkomerson, Jewish Voice for Peace executive director: “As Israel moves further away from democracy, entrenching policies of discrimination, segregation and inequality, now is long past the time for polite words of criticism. Israel’s recent election proves that it will take outside pressure to compel Israel to upholding the shared values of which the President spoke.”
We appreciate the President for clearly distinguishing between the problem of anti-Semitism and the need to criticize the policies of the State of Israel when those policies fail to live up to universal values. Growing numbers of progressive Jews are deeply disturbed by the Israeli state’s treatment of Palestinians, and increasingly willing to speak out to demand change.
About those growing numbers. Jewish Voice for Peace has been booming in membership in the last 9 months. Figures since the beginning of summer 2014:
Chapters: 40 ⇒ 65 (25 new)
Online Supporter Email list: 140,000 ⇒ +200,000 (60,000 new)
Facebook likes: 57,000 ⇒ 200,000+ (quadrupled)
Twitter followers: +40,000 (tripled over the summer)
Membership: Now over 9,000 dues-paying members
J Street, the liberal Zionist group, also issued a statement on the Obama speech, affirming the two-state solution.
“Making the desert bloom” is colonialist language, because it implies that before massive Zionist immigration, there was nothing of value there.
I doubt Obama would identify with those who approvingly talked of the policies of “civilizing the land” of the Native Americans.
Obama is many things but he is not dumb; he knows what that means and he would speak out against it. It is precisely for this reason – and for the reason that Obama seems to be so aware of race – that these comments are disgusting and unforgivable.
Obama knows better, but he chooses to disgustingly talk in this way. Why?
I can only conclude: speaking tour. He wants to have a comfortable life after his presidency. He is still (quite) a young man by political standards. Going after Zionism is a deathknell in the media circuit.
Of all the major failures Obama has committed in the foreign policy arena, this will be one of his greatest ones.
Or take his quote about how he is committed to preserving a Jewish majority. He would never say that to a country with a large white population and a similar demographic dynamic like Israel. Remember that he organized against SA in the 1980s.
Obama does these things because he knows he won’t pay the price for them for decades. But I’m telling you, once he gets really old, people will fuck him over for this. Hopefully before he dies. Because he deserves every second of it. This is a total betrayal and the last nail in the coffin for Obama’s authority of anything concerning race or discrimination.
What a prostitute he is(and I apologize to all prostitutes for comparing them to him).
“And as an honorary member of the tribe”
Interesting choice of words. So why should Palestinians trust him to be an honest broker?
“The Palestinians are not the easiest of partners.” (Laughter)
Yeah, and these are the liberal Zionists he is pandering to with that BS.
And the stuff about what Israel was meant to be–this is the President not so much denying the Nakba but simply pretending to believe Israel started out as a liberal democracy for all and is now backsliding.
I think the NYT left out the more offensive comments, but I’ll go back and check.
It looks to me like Obama is laying the foundation to bring the hammer down on Israel’s injustices to the Palestinians. While he’s not criticizing those injustices directly, yet, he is criticizing them implicitly. A few key quotes:
“As George Washington wrote to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island: The United States ‘gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.'”
“And where other nations actively and legally might persecute or discriminate against those of different faiths, this nation (America) was called upon to see all of us as equal before the eyes of the law.”
He characterizes the above as “values that we share”.
“Around the world, those values compel us to redouble our efforts to protect our planet and to protect the human rights of all who share this planet.”
He also refers to “the best of Judaism”, implicitly acknowledging there is a worst of Judaism.
He makes his case for the international peace deal with Iran. This deal would severely undermine Netanyahu’s push for war with Iran, and the continuing conflict in the Middle East that would ensue. Support from the Jewish American community would be a huge help.
He will probably favor international cooperative efforts to affect the change, given past strategies. He’ll also use executive actions, since Congress is essentially in the pocket of Israeli money. He’ll aim for the least violent way to end the conflict, hence the two state solution as a goal. He has recently spoken out on climate change as a security risk for the U.S., and will probably talk about U.S. military analyses that have identified Israeli injustices, and American support for them, as also a security risk.
Such moves will require as much public support as possible, especially with the mainstream media in the pocket of Israeli money. So it will remain very important for Americans, and especially Jewish Americans who oppose the injustices of Israel, which are definitely not “the best of Judaism”, to continue speaking up forcefully.
Obama: Israelis built a state in their homeland – wtf?
Good for JVP. Perhaps one day, it will become clear that Obama’s shared values on this issue (and some others) are those he shares with a few very rich people, not with a majority of U.S. Jews, or a majority of Americans. That day won’t be today or tomorrow, but good for JVP.