Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Obama speaks up, but fails to come to Israel's side


Obama Breaks His Silence: Vows to Work for Peace Deal -Glenn Kessler

President-elect Barack Obama promised "to hit the ground running" on achieving a broad Middle East peace deal. "We are going to engage effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflicts that exist in the Middle East," he said, adding that "the loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern to me, and after January 20th I am going to have plenty to say about the issue."
(Washington Post)


Iran's Postmodern Beast in Gaza -Robert D. Kaplan

Gaza constitutes the western edge of Iran's veritable new empire. Israel's attack on Gaza is, in effect, an attack on Iran's empire. U.S. diplomacy with Iran now rests on whether or not Israel succeeds. We need to create leverage before we can negotiate with the clerical regime, and that leverage can only come from an Israeli moral victory. If he is smart, President-elect Obama will now be quietly rooting for Israel.
(Atlantic Monthly)

2 comments:

LHwrites said...

I think the title of this post is premature. I think Obama has been trying to strike a very open-minded inclusive tone, but I have not heard anything non-supportive or damaging to Israel.

Bruce said...

Perhaps. I hope you're right. But the statement sounds a bit like the "both sides" argument. Many in the American Jewish community have been pressing behind the scenes for Obama to make a clear statement supporting Israel, or to reiterate his previous statements doing so. Unfortunately, that's not what he did. Remaining vague during a war is not what a friend does.

But i will conceed that he's not the president yet...and i do hope you are right.