Double Talk At UN From Obama

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

   Ramallah, Muslim center, formally a Christian town, 6 miles North of Jerusalem

Talk about mixed messages and how to try to stay friendly with opposing groups, Obama is an expert.  Tuesday at the UN annual meeting, he spoke about being glad to see a "growing recognition within Israel that the occupation of the West Bank is tearing at the democratic fabric of the Jewish state."

Where does he get that information?  The so called West Bank, named only by Jordan when they illegally occupied the land which was Judea and Samaria, long ago Jewish states from the days of Joshua and the 12 Tribes of Jacob.  Now that was an illegal occupation.  The land was officially part of the designated Jewish Homeland as described by the League of Nations.  The land now Jordan was part of that Homeland.  Then England backed off and altered the course of history.  The land West of the Jordan was still part of the Homeland.

Part of that land, which is divided into areas which then are designated as to who can settle there or not or what it is used for, is a buffer between Israel and Jordan, meaning the hordes of Arabs that have tried to come across previously.  It's necessary for survival.

 Instead of sitting down and making peace with Israel, Arabs have refused to recognize this Jewish state because it is a Jewish state and they seem to think that is  conflicting to their Muslim stand in the community.  That they all are monotheistic and that Arabs and Jews are both a Semitic people and have been cousins for thousands of years doesn't seen to cut it.  That the Jewish Homeland as found was in a terrible neglectful state after being held by the Ottoman Empire for 400 years doesn't seem to matter to them.  That it was only a latrine for wandering nomads on camels and was only bearing weeds makes not a speck of difference.  That the Jews have turned it into a Utopia makes them covet the land now.  NOW they want it.

Obama seems to want to forget that war of 1967 when all the greedy Arabs again attacked Israel and when Israel miraculously won the war without one American soldier helping out.  Alone in battle they withstood the enemy much to the consternation of those that wish to drive Israel into the sea for only G-d knows why, jealousy perhaps?  About 600,000 Israelis live in Eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.  Samaria, incidentally, is the name of ancient Israel whose capital was Samaria after King Solomon had died in 920 BCE.  Yes, we go back over 3,000 years to that date, far longer than most of the nomadic Arabs who actually came in from Syria and who thought of themselves as Syrian not too long ago.

Obama then commiserated with the Arabs of Ramalla who he recognized as understandably cynical and frustrated who have to "endure daily indignity of occupation."   What kind of indignity is he dreaming of?  He's intimating that Israelis, who have undergone the worst indignities of the Holocaust, of Pogroms, even of the indignity of living under occupation themselves in Jerusalem before Jesus was born and afterwards, wouldn't try to emulate?  The very words conjure up rabid pictures making Israelis look like the enemy of Obama.

The President  is being conciliatory with the Palestinians and shows that he is on their side of fighting Israel which has existed for the past 65 years.  Bringing in a state of Palestine which continues to teach people to hate Israel and that it doesn't even exist by showing maps without it is not a friendly move.   Israel has had to fight how many wars and constant skirmishes, human bombers, constant bombing of missiles, mortars and rockets in the past 13 years from Gaza?  It's because they've never been told straight that in order to have their own state for what ever reason they must be a friendly state.  Enough with these attacks from them and all their neighbors who lead them.

It was just 4 days ago that an Israeli soldier was shot dead by an Arab told to continue killing.  This happened in Hebron where 500 Jews dare to live among the 100,000 Arabs.  I wonder what Oregonians would do if suddenly Portlanders decided that they couldn't abide their Chinese community?  Or their Arab community?  Well, you see, the future Palestine will kick out all Jews.  It's to be Arab only.  This is called Apartheid, but who cares?  Only people who idiotically call Israel an Apartheid state, with its Jews from every corner of the globe along with 1.4 Arabs.  But then, who looks up definitions?

It's like this.  If you have a peaceful family oriented neighborhood, you're going to be upset when a drug warlord moves in who kills his neighbors if they complain about the traffic, the shooting of innocent nearby people, and the cops who have to constantly come to arrest someone for disturbing the peace and breaking the law.  If they want to live there, they have to shape up or ship out.  You don't side with these obnoxious characters who don't want to abide by rules of conduct in a civilized society.

I've seen Kerry in action on TV.  He could deliver the message, good and strong.  The USA will back a Palestine only under certain requirements.  Meet that and you might stand a chance.  Shape up or ship out.  Instead, Obama stated that  "allowing the PA to create the Arab state it seeks is the only way to peace."
No preconditions.  Give in to their demands.  That's going to lead to peace?  It's going to lead to them and everyone else in the Middle East to demand what they want and they will figure they will get it.  They've got leaders buffaloed.

Then Obama comes back rather weakly now after that statement with "Friends of Israel, including the United States, (not the USA and friends) must recognize that Israel's security....depends on the realization of a Palestinian state."  As I see it, this means a threat to Israel's security because they are changing their goals or their methods.  They will have a better chance than ever to attack Israel.  To Obama, Abbas just finally sitting down to talk is the greatest thing since the invention of ice cream, the true peacemaker now.  This is while there has been attacks continuing on Israel as I write.  Is it a downplay  I note that Obama then mentioned Netanyahu releasing murderers from prison as requested by this peacemaker, Abbas?  Already Israelis are being murdered again by Palestinians.  They get the green light from efforts like this.

Enough said from this armchair Yiddishe bubbe.  We'll soon see how Netanyahu and Livni assess all this.

Resource:  http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2013/09/24/obama-at-un-end-occupation-of-west-bank/
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2011/02/misguided-attitude-towards-judea-and.html
ttp://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/22/us-israel-palestinians-idUSBRE98L0F720130922
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramallah







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The State Israel Was In Ten Years Ago

Nadene Goldfoot                                            

On December 28, 2003, I noted the following in my speech about Israel.  I noted that there were 44 Muslim states with 1 billion people in an area 672 times the size of Israel, yet the Muslims were having a fit over the creation of the only Jewish state in the world that is in their neighborhood.  They were more than intolerant.  22 large sovereign Arab states are in the Middle East including oil rich Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who steadfastly refuse to absorb the so-called "Palestinian refugees;" preferring to keep them as political pawns in order to blame Israel for their plight!                                                                            
Arabs are living in Israel and are citizens.  They even have a political group and are in the Knesset.  Yet Jews are not allowed in Arab countries today.  The recent earthquake in Iran called for all people to come to help-except the Jews.

Israel has absorbed millions of Jewish refugees;  from the Holocaust, former Soviet Union, Ethiopian black Jewish community, and more than 850,000 Sephardic or Mizrachi Jews, many of whom were expelled from their homes in Arab lands where they had lived for generations, with no compensation for their property which was confiscated!

Since the moment of its recent birth on May 14, 1948, Israel was attacked by all the surrounding Arab countries.  Israel was then 55 years old, and its future was on the line.

              Let's start with some history about Israel.  

1.  Over 3,300 years ago, Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people.  this biblical kingdom was first ruled by Saul in 1020 BCE.(before the common era.).  King David ruled from 1010-970 BCE and King Solomon ruled from 961-920 BCE.  When Solomon died, the kingdom was split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.  Then the Romans conquered the area in 70 CE and they renamed the area "Palestine."  To the Jews who never left, it has always been known as Eretz Israel.  Yes, never left.  Though much of the land was decimated, the people taken prisoners or killed, some did remain.  Thus, we have always had a Jewish presence in the land.

2. The first Arabs arrived as conquerors in the 7th century, 2,500 years after the Jews had been there.  

3. In 1917 after WWI, Britain was given the task of supervising Palestine.  The Jews had fought with the British, and the Arabs had fought with the Germans.  Chaim Weizmann developed dynamite for the British, and the Jews were rewarded the homeland they had striven for.  The British promised them a Jewish Homeland; a territory consisting of both present day Jordan, Israel and the administered territories.  This was called the Balfour Declaration.  

Because the British had 2nd thoughts about it and wanted to appease the Arabs, they offered only half of the territory in the end to the Jews, who accepted it.  The other half was offered to Emir Feisal, ancestor of today's King of Jordan.  Then they offered half of Israel's half to the Arabs who rejected it.  Actually, the Arabs had thought of the area as belonging to Syria and wanted it to go back to them.

4. There has never existed, in all of history, an independent Arab state of Palestine.  It has been since Roman times fairly recently belonging to the Ottoman Empire.  The British had the mandate of caring for it.  It has been practically uninhabited, a wasteland made of swamps and desert.  No one did anything with it.  It was as if it was waiting for Israelis to come back and build it again.  

5. In 1922 Britain transferred 2/3 of the mandated Palestine to the Hashemite Bedouins who were driven out of Saudi Arabia by a rival clan.  That became Jordan and no Jews are allowed to live inside it today.   Yet Jordanians came across the bridge to work daily in Israel.  This is how Jordan came to be.  Today Jordan is made up mostly of people called Palestinians.  The king of Jordan is married to a Palestinian woman.

6.  This brings us up to the end of WWII.  6 million Jews were killed due to Nazi Germany.   Those that survived could not longer live in Europe.  People there were still trying to kill them, especially in Poland.  They needed a home of their own to go to.  

Jews had been returning to Eretz Israel in the late 1800's and creating kibbutzim.  They had legitimately bought land, drained swamps and started building towns.  They wanted their homeland back. They worked toward that goal with several Zionist congresses.  They conferred with Arab leaders.  Much of the land was owned by Arab landowners who were living in Europe, and they bought it at high prices, because  it was precious to them.

In 1947 the U.N. partitioned mandated Palestine into Jewish and Arab states which the Arabs rejected and then started war to drive the Jews into the sea the minute Israel was declared a state.  200,000 to 570,000 Arabs needlessly left the area so they would not obstruct the victorious Arab armies in their planned massacre of the Jewish defenders.  Many were told to leave by their own leaders.  The Arabs did not win in their attack on the infant country and did not return.  They settled in refugee camps.  The whole situation is used as a club against Israel.  These people came from the surrounding areas such as Greece and the closer Arab neighbors seeking work with the new immigrants who were building a country.  If they had only been in Palestine for 2 years they were deemed "refugees" by the British who were keeping records, such as they were.

160,000 Arabs stayed in Israel in 1948.  200,000 had left their homes.  Many of the successful Palestinian Arabs are the Christians who live in Haifa.  They are not the terrorists.  Israel has had good relations with the Christian Lebanese who were in trouble in 1981-82.  Major Hadad, their leader, would come to Israel for his R&R.  He also came to our hospital.  We had a deal with him to take care of is family if anything happened to him.  I might add that Arab income is the highest in Israel compared to the rest of the Arab world.  

7.  At the same time, 700,000 Jews who lived in the Arab countries such as Yemen, etc, were driven from their homes and needed to come to Israel.  They came and were settled.

8.  Israel is less than 1/3rd the size of Oregon, or 1/19th the size of California.  It is made of 10,840 sq. miles.  California has 160,222 sq miles.  Without the territories it is only 8,000 sq miles, or 2 1/2 times the size of Rhode Island.  It's slightly smaller than New Jersey with a population of about 6.7 million.  5.4 million were Jewish as of May 2003.  Only 17% of the land is arable.  It's 260 miles long, 60 miles at the widest, 3 to 9 miles at the narrowest.  This is roughly the distance from La Guardia airport to downtown Manhattan.   We're talking about a very small piece of real estate.  In comparison, in the year 2,000, New York City had 8,008,278 people.  

9. Jordan is 70% Arab Palestinian Arabs.  Jordan is made of 2/3 of the original mandated Palestine.  Jordan is an Arab Palestine.  In actuality, they already have their state that is ruled by a Hashemite king, which their political leaders reject.  

Why is it that people call Israel aggressors?  Since its inception, Israel has had to be defensive to exist.  It is constantly being attacked.  We haven't started any war nor do we want their land.  We have always wanted peace.  

The Palestinians and the surrounding neighbors have not accepted a Jewish presence in their Muslim neighborhood.  Their goal has always been to drive the Jews out and take over the land.  Only after the War of 48 (War of Independence) where 6 Arab armies attacked Israel, and the War of 56 and the war of 67 (6 day war) when Israel conquered the Gaza Strip, the vast Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, and also repossessed the provinces of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and the eastern part of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by the Jordanians 19 years earlier when they invaded Israel in 1948, and the war of 73 (Yo Kippur) has Egypt and Jordan, the two closest neighbors, begrudgingly accepted Israel's presence, much to the horror of their Arab brothers.  To make peace with Egypt, Israel returned all the Sinai to Egypt.  Israel has always been prepared to give autonomy to Arabs living in Judea and Samaria and has wanted to keep it for security reasons.  

Israel is one of the smallest countries in the world.  It is the only democracy in the area.  

Since Israel's inception, all men and women are in the army by age 18.  I had to get used to seeing so many soldiers with their guns on the streets when I lived there from 1980-1985.  You get used to it after awhile.  All men serve in the IDF for a month every year until the age of 55.  It's called, "going into the milueem."  that affects wherever they are working.  They just usually don't get replaced.  There are no substitutes, even in school.  

You learn to never  pick up any trash on the streets.   It could be a planted bomb.  Every building, such as schools, stores, etc., have checkers at the door going through your purse, etc., before entering.  children have to learn this as soon as they learn to walk.  

One time while shopping in the Hadar area in Haifa, I saw the police robot at work.  A box of cookies had been left on the sidewalk.  The police were called, and the robot shot at it.  Luckily, it was only a big box of cookies, but you never know.  It could have been a planted bomb.  I almost picked up a loaf of bread I found outside my school.  That's when I learned that bombs had been planted in such loaves.  This was in 1980.  We learned that bombs were placed in every sort of container imaginable, even toothpaste boxes.  

Our apartment had a bomb shelter in the building, but our German shepherd, Blintz, was not allowed in it, so I decided that I would not go in, either.  

Everywhere you looked you saw young soldiers, both men and women in uniform carrying rifles.  I was told they even have to sleep with their rifles.

We trained for the civil guard and did our duty every month.  We rode in a police van and I took Blintz with me on my tour.  

                                                The 1982 Lebanon War

While going to Haifa to the hospital to check on my crushed elbow that had 6 screws in it, I saw tanks coming up the highway and thought that there were so many of them, and wondered what was going on.  The hospital was empty.  The doctors were in a hurry and couldn't make an appointment for an operation for me to take out the screws.  It was an army hospital, and the doctors knew that we were at war and they would soon be swamped with patients.  Israeli hospitals take in any wounded, Israeli or Arab.  My junior high male students went there and talked to the Arab injured by using English in order to help the nurses and doctors in their care of them.  

People live in high rise apartments.  There are very few homes except in the new towns in Judea and Samaria.  I saw a few homes in Safed.  One belonged to my writer friend, Dov Silverman.  Some had been excavated from an ancient earthquake and were restored as lovely homes.  I visited a friend who lived in one of those.  

This is a very brief summation of the history of Israel.  I suggest the following books for further information:

The Case For Israel by Alan Dershowitz.  it is excellent.  In his summation, Dershowitz doesn't even count the ancient historical claim of the Jews for the land.  He starts with the United Nations charter as a legal state.

Palestinians have constantly been offered a chance to have their own state alongside Israel and  always Israel has accepted the offer and the Arabs have refused it.

The Palestinians want to be able to allow all Palestinians to return to the area.  This would flood the land.  Actually, there were very few original Palestinians (stateless people, migrants as you will) in Israel in 1947-48.  They would want to overpower the area by population in this "return"

Sharon has said he will trade land for peace.  The Arabs do not want to recognize Israel's existence.   Arafat continually made other Arab leaders angry by not accepting offers.  

Another book to read if you're really into it is From time Immemorial by Joan Peters.  It was written by a non-Jewish woman reporter who originally thought the Palestinians were being given a raw deal by Israel.  In her research she discovered just who Palestinians really were.  Peters spent 7 years researching for this book.  The main thesis of the book is that the Palestinians were a ragtag group of workers who came into the area  from the surrounding countries.  The president of the USA thought so much of the book that he had Peters working for him in the White House.  

Read Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad.  It shows just how empty Palestine was at his time in the 1860's.  

Read Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell G. Bard, PhD.  

Accept Israel, the Jewish State or No Dice

Nadene Goldfoot
Obama brought a very important message about Israel to the Palestinians on his visit last week.  The Palestinians must recognize Israel as the Jewish State.  Our original documents such as the Balfour Declaration in 1917  says so.

The UN General Assembly Resolution 181 written in 1947 that partitioned Palestine into half mentions the term "Jewish state"  30 times.  The whole world understood this diplomatic recognition of an Israel meant accepting it as a Jewish state.

In 2007 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said that unless the Palestinians accepted Israel as the Jewish state, diplomacy would be aborted.  Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2009 as the succeeding Prime Minister that Israel expects the Palestinians to first recognize Israel as a Jewish state before talks about 2 states for 2 peoples.  It's something the Arab have been refusing to do.

Obama said in his speech that "Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state."

Daniel Pipes, President of the Middle East Forum,  feels that this expectation from the Arabs is the most lasting and most constructive contribution to Arab-Israeli diplomacy.

I believe they should also be well aware that Israel lost 80% of the Jewish Homeland by the act of Britain not in the plan which was to give away this much of it to create TransJordan.

Resource: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/26/obama-to-palestinians-accept-the-jewish-state/ by Daniel Pipes

Abbas Not negotiating Yet But Wanting All of Jerusalem

Nadene Goldfoot
Abbas at first only wanted East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state of Palestine.  Israel is not adverse to the Palestinians having a state next door to them, and of course taking part of their city which is one again with the other 3 parts is more than being next door.

Except on August 21, 2012 Mahmoud Abbas made a speech saying that there would be no peace, security or stability in Jerusalem.  That's what they have right now under Israel's authority.  It's a happy and very beautiful city.  His threat went on.  Unless the occupation, settlements and settlers are evacuated from "0UR HOLY CITY".   Now that's a threat.  He's saying he wants Israel to disappear out of Jerusalem and suddenly it's their holy city?  Now he's talking about the whole city of Jerusalem.

Wait a minute.  Islam didn't come along until about 620 CE with Mohammed (570-632 CE)  .  Jews were in Jerusalem with King David of Israel in 1,000 BCE.  In fact, Saul, son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin,  was the first king of Israel in the 11th century BCE,   Preceding Saul we had Judges like Deborah.  Before settling in Canaan, the elders of the community acted as judges.  Samuel was a judge.  David appointed 6,000 Levites as offices and judges.  Jehoshaphat set up a special court in Jerusalem, where the judges were taken from among the priests, the Levites, and heads of fathers' houses.  Abbas is denying that we have history here a good 1,500 years before Mohammad came along.  So where does he get the bit about "our holy city"?

As for the people who call themselves "Palestinians,"  I suggest that Abbas become familiar with his own history by reading "From  Time Immemorial-the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine" by Joan Peters.  Peters was a reporter who felt sympathy for the Palestinians and set out to do research to prove their case.  Instead, what she found showed where they came from and  how this problem all started.  There were very few actually living in "Palestine."  Most came along looking for work when the aliyah of returning Jews from Russia started in around 1880 CE by Arab men looking for work with these newcomers who were building up cities.  They came in from all the surrounding lands.  Peters was so respected for her work that she became an advisor with presidents.  Besides that, there were always a certain number of Jews living in Palestine.  They didn't all leave after 70 CE when Jerusalem fell to the Romans.

When a man has to lie and create such a cover to convince his people that he is doing the right thing, he is pretty desperate.  So let me be clear on this point.  Jerusalem is a Jewish city.  The whole city is the capital of Israel.  The land was Canaan before the Israelites conquered it with Joshua.  It wasn't a state then but made up of little city-states, somewhat like Greece had been.  The people who had lived there were the Jebus.  They worshipped the Semitic god Shalem among others. When Canaan was taken, most all the Canaanites were killed and those few left alive were assimilated into the Israelite population.  These Israelites were Jewish.

There are no more Canaanites left.    The earliest evidence of man in the Jerusalem area was in the Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age.  However, the actual foundation of the city goes back to the Early Bronze Age of 3,500 BCE to 2,000 BCE to the period when the Canaanites first moved into the land.  In the Middle Bronze Age (2,000 to 1,550 BCE, Jerusalem seemed to be the capital of a Canaanite city state.  Archaeologists think it was the Salem ruled by Melchi-zedek "priest of the most high god" who was honored by Abraham as written in Genesis 14:18-19).

There was a Hyksos revolution where some Hittite and Hurrite people were left behind.  In the Tel 3l Amarna Period of the 15th century BCE the city was ruled by a king who was having problems with the HABIRU.  These invaders appealed to his suzerain, the pharaoh, for help.  The Egyptians had maintained a Cushite garrison in Jeruslaem.  At the time of Joshua's conquest in about 1,320 BCE, Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, was defeated at Aijalon.  His city remained as an independent enclave between the tribal land belonging to Benjamin and Judah.  In the 12th century, Jebus-Jerusalem kept its independence with Philistine help until its capture by David in about 1,010 BCE.  Now it became the capital of a united Israel.

King David was lenient with the JEBUSITES, but took over the city and added the fortress of Zion and also a House of Heroes for his guard.  He built a tomb inside the city for himself and his dynasty.  He had the Ark of the Covenant there.  Jerusalem was made the religious center of Israel.  It was the capital of his empire reaching from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River.

His son, King Solomon,  (970-930 BCE) brought in riches from his commercial ventures and heavy taxation.   He added a Palace and the Temple.  The Temple made it definitely the center of Judaism.  When Solomon died,, the northern tribes broke off and formed the state of Judah. which included Jerusalem.  They maintained the Davidic dynasty.  This lasted until 586 BCE.  Even with Jews living in the Diaspora (outside of Israel and Judah) Jerusalem was the center of Judaism.  

Abbas may not have ever read the Torah, which is the first part of what the Christians call "The Old Testament," but there it all is, the whole history of this land and the Jews. The rest of our history is there, too, found in the Hebrew word for Testament, "Tanach."   which are the Prophets and writings or the 24 books of the Bible.  The only time "Jerusalem" is mentioned in the Koran is one time where it tells of Mohammad going from Mecca to Jerusalem on his flying horse and then going to heaven on him as well. Jerusalem is mentioned 881 times in the Old Testament.  It is mentioned 144 times in the Christian's New Testament.  No descendants of Ishmael ever claimed any part of the land for themselves.  Therefore Jerusalem is not a holy city for the Muslims.  Their holy cities are Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia where Mohammad was from.

Yes, Judah fell in 70 CE and in 135 CE there was a final battle by the brave Bar Kokhba and his men, but no country ever became rulers.  Muslims built their Mosque over the temple, something they seem to do when they conquer a people.  The Ottoman Empire held the title for 400 years but did not create a state or do anything with the land.  It lay in ruin until the Jews returned, as if it were just waiting for them to bring it back to life again.

Resource:  http://jcpa.org/article/is-jerusalem-really-negotiable-an-analysis-of-jerusalems-place-in-the-peace-process/ by Alan Baker: Is Jerusalem Really Negotiable?  Jerusalem's Place in the Peace Process
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110116004858AAI2Gg7

Obama Endorsing Palestinians Forcing Israel to 67 Lines

Nadene Goldfoot
The biggest disappointment came today in Barak Hussein Obama's speech where he endorsed the demand of Israel's neighbors, the Palestinians in Gaza and Judea and Samaria,  to force Israel back to the indefensible 1967 lines, which imply boarders.   

Our President hasn't visited Israel.  He hasn't experienced how small it already is, and he's telling Israel to go back to borders where Syria can  rain down rockets, missiles and anything else from the ledge above onto a very thin strip about 9 miles wide called Israel.  Has he looked at a map?  Obviously he has and is okay with his decision.  I'm not.

I have his speech concerning Israel.  His words are lovely.  The message is not.  He mentions knowing about the change and uncertainty in the region and believes that with it all  it is the time to move forward, but he is only seeing the Arab viewpoint, I'm afraid.  He feels he's coming out with THE TRUTH as he sees it: that the present status quo is unsustaninable.  It sounds to me like he has given up and that there is no hope for Israel.  He doesn't know Israel.  He thinks that now "Israel too must act boldy" as if she hasn't always done this.  At the same time in his speech he raises the issue of Hamas recognizing Israel and just drops it as "it's an issue."  Obama talked about swaps but Israel first has to be concerned with defensible borders.  Swap what?  Israel is already so tiny from losing past land that she gave up that there isn't much left to give up without completely disappearing.  Obama is endangering Israel by suggesting that she become a 9 mile strip and allow missiles to reach every corner of her as it has been in Southern Israel from Gaza.

He feels that the Palestinians must be able to govern themselves in order to reach their potential.  They were given the chance when with the USA's assistance, held elections in Gaza, something no Arabs in any Arab country has been able to do to my knowledge.  They voted in Hamas.  That shows their true colors.  When the Israeli Jews pulled out of Gaza they left all their businesses for them and what kind of potential did they display?  They destroyed them.  It's easier to remain on the dole with the UN, and besides, they didn't want Jewish businesses.  

Israel has already said that they will go along with a two state solution, but they really want some nice people next door who respect them if they want to be respected and it hasn't happened, has it.  Hamas just wants to destroy Israel.  Some trustworthy neighbors Obama is pushing onto Israel.  He feels the Palestinians really need a state and now.  Oh yes, they certainly do; they did not come from a Palestine.  They came from the assorted states in the Middle East looking for jobs and  work,  and building was going on in what became Israel.  That's where the action was and now they want a piece of the action, or the whole thing, depending on how powerful Hamas's charter becomes.  Obama approaches his speech with the closing of that this is a choice between hate and hope.  Well, I think he should have made it clear to the Palestinians to quit hating Jews and Israel and get over it for "tomorrow's" sake.  It's been their hatred of Jews that they have been born into and raised with in the families and schools.  Israelis have been the ones to have been hoping for only peace, so much so that they have given many pieces of their already slithered piece of land away in the name of peace and have received bubkus for it. 

If we had had a president today that had stood up for Israel in no uncertain terms saying with strength that the Palestinians must recognize Israel for the sake of peace for all and cut out all the shooting and killing, they just may have realized they couldn't continue on this destructive path.  No, that isn't happening.  Instead I'm afraid that Obama is trying to make points with the Arabs who still regard him suspiciously. 

As Netanyahu is saying sternly, a Palestinian state cannot come about at the expense of Israel. 

This was all announced the day before Netanyahu's meeting with Obama, who Obama knew was coming with a proposal of his own.  Now Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel is NOT going back to the 67 borders. 

 http://www.theblaze.com/stories/read-the-presidents-prepared-remarks-for-arab-spring-speech/
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obama-endorses-palestinian-border-demands/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110519/wl_nm/us_obama_mideast_netanyahu
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110519/pl_afp/mideastusdiplomacypoliticsvote

Obama's Promise to AIPAC Renegged

Obama spoke to AIPAC and declared his complete, unqualified support for a Jewish Jerusalem. The Holy City, he said, "will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."

Within hours the Palestinian leader Abbas complained and Obama renegged. He caved in and altered his decision by saying that it will be on the table. The Palestinians plan on having Jerusalem for their capital. This was first reported on the radio Thursday night, June 5th. Now it has finally come out on internet news.

Everyone knows that Jerusalem is paramount in Jewish history and in its religion. We have a saying that if we forget Jerusalem, may we lose our right hand. The United States has not helped in the past. They have their consolate in Tel Aviv, afraid to anger the Muslims.

This is the major sticky point in any peace talks with the Palestinians. Jerusalem was in major ruin when we rescued it in 1967. Arabs were using cemeteries as latrines, destroying many important places. Now that it has been in Israeli hands, all major religions enjoy their place in Jerusalem. That wasn't the case before. Jerusalem is not a major city in the Muslim religion. It's only high point is that Muhammed rose and went to heaven there. What Israel has, the Palestinians want. It's that simple.

So much for a strong speaker and promises to AIPAC.
Resource: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0608/obama_aipac3.php3