Back last spring, Obama made a big speech on the Middle East. At the time, many people pointed out that like most Obama speeches, it was long on nice-sounding talk, but very short on specifics. Especially any specifics that might push Israel towards peace.
At the time, Obama's supporters could point to only one area of US foreign policy as a place where the US was not kowtowing to every Israeli whim. That was the supposed pressure that the US was putting on to Israel to freeze and roll-back the settlements.
Of course, that seemed like all talk as well at the time, so a wait-and-see approach appeared wise.
Now we've waited and we've seen. The US now has no objections at all to Israel stealing as much land as they can grab. Add this to the statements in recent weeks completely supporting Israel's war-crimes in Gaza. And of course the constant aid the US has given to an immoral and inhumane policy of keeping Gaza in a state of siege and limiting and controlling all food and medical supplies in the region.
Gee, sounds like George W. Bush's pro-Israeli policy. Or has it gotten even worse? Oh yeah, Obama did give a nice speech. But generally, if there's been any of Obama's oft-promised 'change' in this area, it appears to have been for the worse. But Obama did give a nice speech.
This just in .... Clinton ‘Re-Backtracks’ on Israeli Settlements
Over the weekend, Secretary Clinton was visiting with top Israeli officials, and publicly praised Israel for its commitment to peace despite its repeated refusals to halt settlement growth, and chastized the Palestinian Authority for holding on to demands that themselves were at the center of the Obama Administration’s position only a few months prior.
Now, following what is being described as a rather awkward meeting with Arab foreign ministers in Morocco, Secretary Clinton insists that the position she took just 24 hours ago isn’t really her position.
Instead, she praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for taking steps toward peace and pressed for Israel to “reciprocate,” insisting that the United States still wanted Israel to freeze all settlement construction. At least that’s the position today.
So, was SOS Clinton completely clueless that her statements about letting Israel do what it wants with settlements would cause a strong reaction amongst the Arabs? Or, was this just yet another case of a Democrat saying whatever it is they think their audience wants to hear?
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