Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says he's a happy camper tonight.
Until today.
We get it.
For the record, it remains extremely unclear exactly what those "legitimate claims and rights" of the palestinian Arabs are. What Obama might have meant by that phrase (he certainly didn't clarify it) is assuredly (?) much different from what Mahmoud Abbas understands it to mean, and even more different from what Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the leaders of Israel's neighbors near and far, including Iran, surely understand it to mean. One would hope that the "legitimate claims and rights" Obama was talking about don't include the "claim" that all of "Palestine" is an Islamic waqf that must forever and always remain under exclusive Muslim control; or the "right" to reclaim for themselves and their posterity all of the land between the river to the sea; or the so-called "right of return" that would be synonymous with the end of Israel.
One would hope, but one never knows.
Over the past few months, One Jerusalem has been posting warnings that Obama was going to throw Israel under the bus today.
Really?Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised US President Barack Obama's UN address Wednesday, which backed Israel's right to live securely, stressed its legitimacy as a "Jewish state," and urged the Palestinians to relaunch negotiations without preconditions.
The speech was "good and positive" for Israel and for moving the peace process forward, the prime minister told The Jerusalem Post.
...To break the old patterns, to break the cycle of insecurity and despair, all of us must say publicly what we would acknowledge in private. The United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians. (Applause.) And -- and nations within this body do the Palestinians no favors when they choose vitriolic attacks against Israel over constructive willingness to recognize Israel's legitimacy and its right to exist in peace and security. (Applause.)In the past, Obama has repeatedly reassured Israel and her supporters that his commitment to her security is unwavering. We've heard that over and over and over again, and never before with a caveat.
Until today.
The United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians.Nothing here about coupling an unwavering commitment to palestinian statehood with an insistence that the incitement, vitriol, rocket attacks and suicide bombs be terminated and repudiated. Nothing here about coupling that unwavering commitment with an insistence that the Arabs respect the legitimate claims and rights of Israel, starting with its right to exist. Nothing about that. Just a rap on the knuckles for their refusal to do so. Very different language.
We get it.
For the record, it remains extremely unclear exactly what those "legitimate claims and rights" of the palestinian Arabs are. What Obama might have meant by that phrase (he certainly didn't clarify it) is assuredly (?) much different from what Mahmoud Abbas understands it to mean, and even more different from what Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the leaders of Israel's neighbors near and far, including Iran, surely understand it to mean. One would hope that the "legitimate claims and rights" Obama was talking about don't include the "claim" that all of "Palestine" is an Islamic waqf that must forever and always remain under exclusive Muslim control; or the "right" to reclaim for themselves and their posterity all of the land between the river to the sea; or the so-called "right of return" that would be synonymous with the end of Israel.
One would hope, but one never knows.
Over the past few months, One Jerusalem has been posting warnings that Obama was going to throw Israel under the bus today.
One Jerusalem recently reported that the Obama Administration was seriously considering using the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in September to box Israel into a corner in the presence of officials representing the nations of the world.I tried to write that (and similar speculations elsewhere) off, optimistically, as slightly overheated alarmism. Time for a re-write.
