I am no political speech analyst, but are we not all at least a little worried by Obama’s speech in Cairo?
The truth is, at first I couldn’t decide whether his speech was brilliant or disturbing. Addressing all these Arabs as if they were actually moderates, you know, like when your child is misbehaving. Instead of berating him and reinforcing the negative, you speak to his potential, how he really isn’t bad. Something like, “I know how good you can be, show mamma what a good boy you are.”
Plus, it is smart for subconsciously putting us all on the same footing, highlighting that we all desire the same things, that we have more in common than what tears us apart.
That thought of mine vanished pretty quickly after the over-the-top and extended posturing, placating and apologizing that Obama expressed in the first half of his speech to the Muslim community.
Some good and direct points were embedded in the speech, but ultimately they were eclipsed by its totality, which painted a misleading, erroneous and delusional picture of the Islamic-Palestinian -Israeli situation.
Not once was the word jihad mentioned.
Not once was the word terrorism mentioned.
Not once was the word suicide bomber mentioned.
Not once was the concept of dhimmitude mentioned. A sanitized and skewed version of Islamic history, recent Middle East history and the current Middle East situation was put forth.
This was deliberate, by design to soothe and placate the Muslim audience, as though it is always the victim and never the aggressor.
A few specific examples that I found worrisome:
Mentioning that the State of Israel was created as a haven for the Jews because of their centuries old history of persecution, culminating in the horror of the Holocaust.
It’s true that Israel was formally, politically and legally founded as an entity a few years after the Holocaust, sequentially speaking. However, there were always Jews in the land of Israel for centuries, not to mention that earlier Israel functioned as a Jewish state, Jerusalem was its living and breathing capital, with a king, a temple (twice), an army, tax collectors — the whole nine yards!
Not to mention, even the modern history of Zionism and the current state of Israel began in the 1800’s. The idea for creating the state of Israel was not developed as a trigger idea catalyzed by the Holocaust in 1945.
As Obama likes to mention, he is a “student of history.” Well, this is a pretty bad representation of history. And, of course, a misrepresentation, which preys and presses on the already hostile sense of entitlement by the Palestinians.
Jerusalem was not coined the capital and soul of the Jewish people as a reaction to the Holocaust. Unlike the Muslims, who began venerating Jerusalem as their third holiest sight since the 1930’s, the Jewish people are tied to the land of Israel since time immemorial.
And you don’t need to be a student of history to know that.
PRESIDENT Obama, I too, want peace for my people in the Middle East. I, too, believe there are genuine moderate Muslims out there. Why, then white-wash the truth?
The juxtaposition of the Israeli “occupation” and the Palestinian refugee problem — never mind the fact that Obama was looking Egyptians in the eye while speaking and never mentioned their occupation of Gaza until 1967, contributing to this problem. And by the way, did Israel not leave Gaza a few years ago — and yet Obama still referred to Israel as occupiers of Gaza? I believe Hamas is currently ruling Gaza — this juxtaposition of Israel and the Palestinians, given his imminently planned visit to Buchenwald, hinted at an equivalence that was downright inaccurate and terribly offensive. In other words, according to Obama, the Palestinians of today are the Jews of yesterday.
I am not indifferent to the situation of the Palestinians or the “pain of their dislocation,” as Obama put it. But Israel has tried to negotiate with the Palestinians to gain their own state. The Palestinians have rejected it every time. As Abba Eban put it, “they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” In contradistinction, Israel has succeeded in negotiating agreements with other neighboring countries, Egypt herself being one of them.
And Israel has fought defensively against the onslaught of Arab attacks since the day she was created. It’s not so cut and dried, Mr. Obama, that the Palestinians are the victim and the Israelis the aggressors, to put it mildly! You say the Palestinian’s situation is “intolerable.” What about the Israelis who suffer from terrorist violence at the hands of the Palestinians?
When was the last time, Mr. Obama, that a “settler” blew up an innocent civilian in a pizza parlor?
FINALLY, one of Judaism’s most cherished and famous quotes and teachings was passed off as a peaceful Islamic dictum, about how saving one life is like saving a world. The source for it is in Talmud, and it is:
“He who destroys a single soul (nefesh) in Israel, it is as though he has destroyed an entire world — while he who saves a single soul (nefesh) in Israel, it is as though he has brought into existence an entire world.”
As a whole, what rang through the speech more than anything was a certain naivete or perhaps it was ego. I’m not sure which one, maybe a bit of both. But, for sure, Obama seems to be a bit out of his depth in the Middle East. As Obama emphasized, many Muslims are seeking basic life desires to make a living, take care of family, get a good education and build community. But many more than Obama realizes unfortunately are not.
Many are lusting for dominion and have a desire to supplant the current Western mode of living with an extremist Islamic one.
And when words are exchanged in the Middle East, what might be an assumed definition to Obama may mean something completely different to an Arab in the Middle East. Something you just pick up on as an American from a Western culture after living there a while.
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