By the way, I didn't write that - MJ Rosenberg wrote it. I totally agree with you that whatever Obama says in a public speech doesn't mean that much, one way or the other. Obama gave a great speech in Cairo in which he denounced the settlements. That denunciation was reflected in US policy for a while in rhetorical pressure for a settlement freeze, but Bibi resisted and Congress backed Bibi and Obama let it drop.
All other things being equal, I'd rather have Obama say good things than say bad things. He made a direct appeal to Israeli youth to support Palestinian freedom, which was apparently well received by the Israeli youth. That's good, as far as it goes. But of course, people have a right to expect more from the President of the United States than a nice speech. They have a right to expect that he will use the many levers at his disposal to put pressure on Bibi to stop the settlement expansion, or at least stop the expansion that directly threatens a peace deal. Whether he will do that remains to be seen. I'm not optimistic. But it's far from impossible. He tried before, and conditions are somewhat more auspicious now than when he tried before. On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 3:49 PM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > On 3/21/13 4:39 PM, Robert Naiman wrote: >> >> I don’t think any president previously has used the language of justice >> in discussing Palestinian rights, which is, of course, how Palestinians >> rightly see it. >> > > > Well, that is Obama's forte, using language. When I was in high school, > they called such people bullshit artists. I have fond memories of Adele > Wasserman coming to my dad's fruit store on New Year's Eve in 1959 with > these cardboard shell-shaped things behind her ears fastened around her > head with a string. My dad did a double-take and asked her, "Adele, > what's that on your ears?" She replied with a chuckle, "Jack, I'm going > to a New Year's Eve party tonight and expect to run into a bunch of > drunks so I made bullshit protectors." > > This is a true story. > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
