Happy Israel Independence Day
Hot off the wire:
Congratulations Israel on 62 years of independence! This is an opportunity to celebrate all that Israel has accomplished and to reaffirm the bonds that unite our two nations – our strategic partnership, our shared values, and our common aspirations.
You know, in 1948, it took President Truman only 11 minutes to recognize your new nation. And ever since, the United States has stood with you in solidarity.
Since my first visit to Israel nearly thirty years ago, I have returned many times and made many friends. And I have shared your pride in seeing the desert bloom, the economy thrive and your country flourish. I have a deep personal commitment to Israel. And so does President Obama. Our nation will not waver in protecting Israel’s security and promoting Israel’s future.
That is why pursuing peace and recognized borders for Israel is one of our top priorities. We believe it is possible – indeed necessary – to achieve a comprehensive peace in the Middle East that provides Israelis, Palestinians, and all the people of the region security, prosperity, and the opportunity to live up to their full God-given potential.
Israel today is confronting some of the greatest challenges in its history, but its promise and potential have never been greater. The United States will continue to stand with you, sharing your risks and helping shoulder your burdens, as we face the future together.
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You’ve got to be kidding:
“it took President Truman only 11 minutes to recognize your new nation. And ever since, the United States has stood with you in solidarity.”
In reality, it took you and President Obama one year to reverse that solidarity. Shame.
You are no friend of Israel, or for that matter, of the the United States. You and the rest of the Obama administration have subverted our nation has you cozy up to the Muslim world while giving them a free pass on the Sudanese genocide, violence against women, intolerance of other religions or free thought,suicide bombings in the name of Islam (as you strike the term Islamic terrorism from your lexicon),using children as combat shields, etc. The list goes on and on. You won’t stop until we have the same Islamic problems as Britain and the rest of the EU.
Hopefully the American people will wake up and evict you from office asap and rescue this wonderful country from your evil clutches.
What arrogance, not to mention a selective reading of current events. “Evil clutches?” Gotta love the melodrama.
I am really afraid for this country- I am afraid that uninformed, ignorant people like Steven Gilbert will take control and they will take us right back to where we were with the Bush administration- we’ll be hated by the whole world and engaging in ill-thought-out wars which end up making us all less safe in both the short and long term. I don’t want people like Steven Gilbert running things (again)- people who think that breaking every international law that has been followed by civilized nations for decades is a great idea because hey, if you can’t beat ‘em (the terrorists), join ‘em! People who believe that running around waging war against everyone will make us safe, people who have no understanding of the ethnic rivalries and politics in the Muslim world (for example in, say, Iraq). People who think that terrorists like Osama Bin Laden “hate us for our freedom” and if only we could bring Target, Shell Oil and McDonalds to the Muslim world, all would be well. People who totally fucked up both Afghanistan and Iraq because all they could think about was their military industrial stock holdings and building oil pipelines through Afghanistan. People who thought it was a swell idea to install oil buddy and fellow Carlyle Group shill Hamid Karzai as head of Afghanistan – that’s turned out well, hasn’t it?
Shameful.
Unbelievable. The mindless vitriol is incredible.
I think Hillary cares more about Israel than these commenters do- sometimes being a friend means speaking up when you think your friend is headed down a dangerous path.
So let me get this straight, because you disagree with Obama that makes him an unamerican traitor? I think it’s you two who need lessons in democracy and what it means to be American given you seem to put the interests of a foreign country above the interests of the US.
The fesrmongers have done a good job painting all the worlds Muslums as terrorists but hey, why let facts get in the way of a hateful rant?
Hillary Clinton, when her husband was President, held a
Camp David Peace endeavor between Arafat and Ehud Barak, and put pressure on the Israelis to go beyond what would have been safest for Israel. They offered the Palestinians more than they dreamed of ever getting, and still the Arabs stormed out and left the summit in anger. Hillary Clinton saw up-close how insincere the Arabs were in seeking peace! I find her message of congratulations to be self-serving and hypocritical.
Marilyn, I am amazed at how some, including apparently you, see this issue as simple black and white- as though the Palestinians are somehow the bad guys all the time and Israel the good guys all the time or vice versa. The world just simply doesn’t work like that. Who has said, either here or among the administration, that the Palestinians have have always been in the right? NO ONE has said that. In fact, it is common parlance in DC to say that “the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
Yes, Arafat was an ass and a fool on top of it- he should have taken what was offered at Camp David, but lets not pretend that Israel has always been easy to deal with. Both sides, for their part, have at times been difficult (as has the US I’m sure). In fact, while Bill Clinton may have been frustrated with Arafat, we also know he was upset with the head of Israel at that time, none other than Benyamin Netanyahu. In fact, the very same issue with settlements reared their head when Albright was SOS and she was said to have been furious with Bibi. So lets not play the “four legs good, two legs bad” game.
I would also remind you that Arafat is no longer in charge of the PA and most see Abu Mazen as much more of a good faith negotiator than Arafat was. To penalize all Palestinians because they had a crappy leader in Arafat who squandered any real chance for peace back then, is a tad unfair.
Many of the comments here illustrate exactly what the administration is up against- people cling to naive and at times factually incorrect ideas about recent history. They cling to the status quo even though it is unsustainable and ensures that both short and long term, neither Israel and the Palestinians are safe.
I have to say, just as an aside, as I go around the blogosphere and read commentary and comments about the Middle East peace process, I am floored at the outright anti-Arab sentiment. Here’s my thing- I’m neither Jewish nor of Arab descent. But I do know this- anti-Semitism is morally and ethically repugnant, but so is trying to paint the whole Arab world (let alone all Palestinians) as nothing but a bunch of terrorists whose lives are somehow worth less than ours (or the lives of Israelis). Because that is simply not true. In other words, hate is hate, discrimination is discrimination and I am stunned at how many people think that being “pro-Israel” gives one the right to engage in rhetoric and even actions which they condemn when used against them. See the irony?
Hamas is a terrorist organization, there is no two ways about it, but they do not represent the wishes or desires of all the Palestinian people and conflating them with the PA is disingenous. We have to do everything we can to help the PA in order to prevent Hamas from gaining more ground. The more we alienate, demonize or neutralize Abbas (Abu Mazen), the more Hamas is empowered and that’s not good for anyone- particularly Israel (and the Palestinian people).
It would be nice to see people show a bit more humanity and empathy towards innocent people on ALL sides of this debate rather than just clinging to stereotypes and demonizing those with whom they disagree.
It’s funny to me that people who claim to be sooo American find it okay to make your government look silly. People act like BIBI is their president and how dare Obama upset him, Geez. I know when when I was in school we use to pledge alliegence to the United States not pledge alliegence to the state of Israel.
People are making a big deal beacause the what the state department wrote says recognized borders and not secured and recoginzed borders. Is there anything to that or our the rethugs whining again?
They’re whining again. Do they really think that the absence of one word means the State Dept. wants unsafe, non-secured borders? Jeeeeeeeeeeesus! Has the debate come to this.
Instead of trying to divine some hidden meaning from Secretary Clinton’s rather straight forward independence day message, if they are so concerned about Israels eventual borders they should be encouraging all the parties to do whatever needs to be done to get the process going.
Honestly, I give the Israelis and most of the Israeli media tons of credit for usually not letting the discussion become nothing but a silly recitation of platitudes that seems to define the debate here in the U.S. There is apparently some rule here that when a govt official mentions Israel, even in passing, the words “unwavering,” “steadfast”, “eternal” “self defense” and “secured” have to be thrown in the sentence lest the hawks have a kitten.
I meant to add this link which I think is more or less what JillforHill may have been referring to:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/04/hillary_clinton_drops_secure_b.html
Keep in mind that what some see as “secure” borders is open to interpretation. Also note the selective acknowledgement of UN dictates. I doubt the folks at American Thinker are all that interested in compliance with other UN determinations such as the illegality of ongoing settlement expansion.
Thanks,that helps.
Antiwar.com is a far left site but they do do some good investigative fact-finding so don’t discount the article below outright.
When you read this story, ask yourself what the chances would be of an Arab American making it that far in the Pentagon had they been in the military of an Arab nation. Honestly, it’s politically incorrect to say, but I really think some American Jews have a real loyalty problem. They see it as their duty to advance the interests of Israel even if it means trashing our POTUS and making us less secure. How many Israeli spies have been found to be at the highest levels of government in recent years? Quite a few. And almost all of them used AIPAC as a vehicle. Also ask yourself, if the subject of this article were Arab American would the media be covering the story? I think Faux News would be all over it.
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/04/14/dr-strangelove-made-in-israel/
I saw a story that linked to that article over on Taylor Marsh. I’m not sure it’s fair to say outright or even imply that American Jews have a loyalty problem- just as with Evangelical Christians, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, in other words, the AIPAC crowd tends to yell the loudest so unfortunately people tend to see them as representative of “American Jews” when that simply isn’t the case. In the general election, Jewish people overwhelmingly voted for Obama and I think what Netanyahu, AIPAC and the GOP are trying to do, with some success, is to scare Jewish people into voting GOP next time around by hysterically claiming that Obama hates Israel, Obama sympathizes with the terrorists, Obama is mean to Israel, blah, blah blah. None of which is true of course.
I hate to say this because it would be overtly political but Obama should probably plan on going to Israel in the not too distant future. I don’t think now is the time because he can’t give the impression that he is pandering to Bibi- he can’t reward the far right Israeli government for treating his administration so shabbily. But perhaps if he and SOS Clinton can somehow get proximity talks started, then maybe after that he could travel to Israel and if I were him I’d take Hillary- she’s a huge asset. I think he would need to give a major speech but not have it be like the usual pandering speeches politicians give to AIPAC. Instead, it should reaffirm our ties to Israel but make clear that he is committed to Mideast Peace not just to stick a feather in his cap and not just for the security of Israel, but for the security of the U.S. He should bring a couple of Republicans too for good measure- that would put them on the spot and decrease the chance that they would politicize it and attack him irrespective of whatever he said. If he did go, it would be really important to ensure that it wouldn’t be seen in the Muslim world as more of the same- ie. the US being given its marching orders by Israel or kissing up to Bibi. I remember his speech on race during the election and think he should strike that sort of tone- not about race obviously, but in terms of being truthful about what the options and the consequences are.
I know this is OT but I saw this and it’s driving me nuts- I can’t figure out if the media doesn’t report on this stuff because they are in love with Obama or because it’s too complicated for them or because their conservative bosses tell them to ignore it but if progressives think they won this past election, then a daily read of Glenn Greenwald will get that silly idea right out of their heads. Obama’s War on Terror is pretty much the same as Bush’s except we’ve changed the semantics a bit. Obama’s DOJ has actually INDICTED the NSA whistleblower who uncovered the illegal acts of the Bush administration in warrantless wiretapping. Greenwald also believes that Obama is not going to pick a true progressive for the SCOTUS to replace Stevens but rather someone like Elena Kagan who is apparently in love with Bush’s Executive Powers arguments- someone who will rubber stamp his crappy decisions in other words.
If Obama picks Kagan I hope the progressive Democratic base totally revolts. Barack Obama’s whole campaign was a total fraud. And the best part is, he’s actually being portrayed as some sort of wild-eyed liberal. Unbelievable! That just shows you how far to the right we’ve moved in this country.
For anyone interested, here is the link to Greenwald’s site:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html
So let me get this straight…anyone who supports Israel and questions the Obama Administration is loyal to Israel and disloyal to the USA. As one commenter stated, such a posture:
“put[s] the interests of a foreign country above the interests of the US.”
It just so happens that loyal Americans can disagree with their government and be loyal. Defeating terror is in the shared interest of Israel & the US.
Shame on you for playing the dual loyalty card.