Eyewitness AIPAC Report -Bruce
In an only slightly less dramatic day at the jam packed AIPAC conference, another leading Democrat, soft spoken Harry Reid, broke ranks with President Obama and criticized his party's leader on his feud with Israel. Senator Reid stated:
The parties that should lead those negotiations must be the parties at the center of this conflict – and no one else. The place where negotiating will happen must be the negotiating table – and nowhere else. Those negotiations will not happen – and their terms will not be set – through speeches.
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| Paltry but loud protesters Click photo for larger version |
Protesters were slightly more bold today [see photo at right], but their paltry numbers were in stark contrast to an AIPAC Gala Dinner that could not fit all of their 10,000 plus delegates in the same room! A separate room was set up to accomodate the spill over. An AIPAC representative told the crowd that [paraphrasing] "we have grown so large that no venue in Washington, DC can accomdate us."
His polished speech was notable for it's noble, statesmanly character, and his emphasis that Israel is not the central problem in the MidEast. No trace of the confrontations of the last few days. He stated:
"Israel's not what’s wrong with the Middle East. Israel is what’s right about the Middle East."
He plans to hammer home that point tomorrow in his speech to Congress.
[Bruce's MidEast Soundbites]
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2 comments:
Nice soundbites here, from Reid and Netanyahu. And very accurate. I have been working on a post about this, not something I usually feel the need to post about, not when I can just visit Mideast Soundbites! But I realized, wherever you may come down on the issue, this was a poor choice for Obama to make. Even, if as he claims, this is the position of the US for some time, Reid is quite correct that this part of the issue is for the negotiating table. It is inappropriate for Obama to bring this kind of pressure on Israel when the first people and pressure to be applied should be on the Arab people to proclaim Israel's right to exist and on the Palestinians to show real physical efforts towards ending terrorism and making peace. If Obama wanted to make headlines about Israel he should make it clear that we will fight alongside Israel against any invader and nuke any country that attempts to nuke Israel. Let us stand by our allies and pressure them behind the scenes, not create untenable and unstable positions publicly.
Thank you LHWrites.
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