A lot has been made out of Obama's speech calling for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, with the pre-1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations. Its hard to make sense out of Obama's statements, but I think Netanyahu gets it. And he's made it crystal clear that he's not having any of it. And for his efforts at standing strong for his nation while trying to very diplomatically help Obama save face, he is now the newest political rock star, possibly the biggest since Clinton, or maybe even Obama himself. His reception first at AIPAC, followed by an appearance before a joint session of Congress, was a triumphal appearance by any standard.
That has to be a bitter pill for Obama to swallow, but if you saw the video of the photo-op White House press briefing with him and Bibi, it was obvious that Netanyahu had Obama on the verge of tears. It was an embarrassment for Obama, the President who first entered the White House under the aura of a cult of personality that was unprecedented in American politics, to be literally scolded by a foreign head of a dependent allied nation, right in the White House, all covered on live media.
So how could Obama overstep his bounds to such an extent? Did he honestly think killing Osama Bin Laden bought him that much political currency? Or is he just an incompetent fool.
The answer is, both reasons are true, but it goes beyond that and strikes at the core of the Progressive's, and liberal Democrats, views of the nation of Israel.
Remember, Israel is first and foremost a democracy, but it is also by definition a Jewish state. According to leftist definition, it is therefore by virtue of its Jewish character, a racist state. But it goes beyond that. By occupying land that it took in the 1967 war, it is also by definition, according to progressive ideology, an apartheid state.
That is the real sticking point, and further goes a long way towards explaining the unfathomable degree of support the Democratic Party yet commands among the American Jewish population, most of whom are progressives.
So when you hear a progressive like Obama, Kerry, or Clinton talk about protecting Israel, guaranteeing its security, and defending its right to exist, they aren't so much lying as they are blinded to and by their own ideological hang-ups.
Ask any non-politician progressive how they feel about the issue and they will tell you straight up, they should return to the pre-1967 borders, but even more importantly, the Israelis should agree to the "Right of Return", meaning the right of the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of Palestinians exiles from the current state of Israel, to return to the nation they hold was unfairly taken from them.
Only then, they argue, can there be peace. They know of course that this would be a demographic time bomb, but far from being a problem, they see this as the solution. Remember, to them Israel is a racist state. By engendering a majority Arab population at some point in the future, the twin problems of racist policy and especially apartheid will come to an end, and with them, any need for further agitation.
Once this is all settled, then the soon to be minority Jewish population will, they are sure, live in peace with their Arab majority overlords.
It's called magical thinking, which is about the best way you can describe leftist ideology. Perhaps a more accurate term for it would be insanity manifest in the form of mental rot and moral equivalency. The Palestinians, you see, are murderous only because they have had this position thrust upon them. Give them what they, and progressives, feel is their just compensation for years of what they insist is a grave, multi-generational imposed injustice, and they will no longer feel the need to act out in savage, murderous fashion.
In other words, its an extension of the same kind of failed, progressive hug-a-thug policies that encourage you to think that criminals only commit crimes due to negative societal influences, and that with a few years of enforced, intense therapy, most of them can be totally reformed, and go on to lead normal, well-adjusted lives as good citizens and contributors to society. They just need a second chance, although admittedly in some extreme cases, they might need a third or a fourth chance. But we need to help them because, by golly, its just the right thing to do.
Progressives, liberal Democrats, and all of their ideological brethren, just don't want to admit, at least not openly, that there are some people that are just beyond reform or redemption. There are a great many, unfortunately, with whom you can and should only deal with in the harshest possible terms. When you find yourself put in that position, then you have no legitimate choice other than to act with firmness and sometimes without mercy. You must do so for the sake of you, your family,friends, and community. Sometimes it becomes necessary even for the overall well-being of any civilized society, to destroy them utterly.
