Obama's Phony Common Ground

Obama loves to find common ground. The great speaker's favorite rhetorical tactic is to paint those who oppose him as extremists, and to welcome others to his cozy political center. In his speech in Cairo, he couldn't help but show off his affected even-handedness. The false equivalence he drew between our involvement in a 1950s coup in Iran and Iran's current support of violence throughout the Middle East -- including Iraq, Lebanon and Israel -- was shameful. Just as offensive was his reference in the same speech to the "occupation" of Palestine. Perhaps Obama should visit Palestine as I have, and note the complete lack of Israeli security forces. Or does he mean to suggest, as Hamas surely would, that all of Israel is occupied Palestinian territory?

This moral obtuseness has delighted the Palestinians. You hate to ascribe naivete to the President of the United States, and, s.o, in turn, it is tempting to question his motives. That is, he may -- as he like to accuse his opponents of doing -- be arguing in bad faith. We can't know his motives, of course. President Obama is famously enigmatic, which is the key to his conciliatory abilities. He may or may not be sympathetic to the Palestinian cause as he appears. Nonetheless, the appearance of sympathy serves to augment and give legitimacy to the anti-Semitic agenda of the Palestinians and others in the Arab world. That is, he strengthens the case for the whittling away -- or even destruction -- of Israel.

This is a serious threat, and Israel is a serious nation, not likely to be impressed by our insincere and unserious President. Their survival is always at stake in the peace process, so they cannot and will not be courted by easy promises of compromise and understanding. The Israelis have already conceded the existence of an independent Palestinian state. This is vividly illustrated by the wall built between Israel and Palestine -- a giant concrete, "leave us alone and go live your own lives," if ever there was one.

And what does our President offer the Israelis? A settlement freeze that may well necessitate the dislocation of 500,000 of their people. In a different setting, the international community would condemn such a suggestion as ethnic cleansing. To Obama, it is a necessary precondition to peace. But the Arab-Israeli conflict isn't a town-hall meeting, a reality show, or an American election. You can't solve it by trying to win over 51% of the room. If you give the Palestinians more concessions, more land, more whatever, you send a signal. You signal that their terrorist attacks on Israel, use of human shields, and media hoaxes have paid off.

Neither America, Israel, nor the rest of the world should reward such barbarism. More importantly, doing so will not achieve peace. American voters may be satisfied by mindless happy talk, because we don't have to fear rocket attacks or suicide bombers. We can reach a middle ground on taxes, education funding, etc. because picking the right answer isn't a matter of life and death. Unfortunately for Israel, Obama's mellifluous double-talk can't protect their security.