Obama changes from his campaign promise to Israel

Michael Goodwin:

The outlines of an Obama Doctrine are taking shape. Our President's world view can be summarized as "Everybody is a little bit guilty, especially Israel."

His demand in Cairo that Israel make major concessions before Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist was a pander of the rankest sort. What a difference a year and the audience make.

Exactly a year before his Cairo speech, on June 4, 2008, candidate Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee he would "never force Israel to the negotiating table" or to make "concessions."

He cited Iran's vow to eliminate Israel and said, "I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, everything."

In Cairo, he was vague at best and inviting at worst on the nuke issue, saying, "I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons."

Feeling the mad mullah's pain won't mollify them. Nor was it a sign of courage to ignore Anwar Sadat, the brave Egyptian leader who made peace with Israel in 1979 and was later assassinated by Islamic extremists.

To judge from this speech and others, the Obama Doctrine holds that all guilt is morally equal and the solution is to split the difference and call it even.

Take women's rights, where he interchangeably indicted a debate in Europe about women wearing head coverings in school and the Taliban's whipping of women for going to school.

...

Again, Israel proves the point. He was brilliant in saying that denying the Holocaust "is baseless, it is ignorant and it is hateful." Then with a glib "On the other hand," he jumped from the 6 million Jewish dead to the lack of a Palestinian state.

"For more than 60 years they've endured the pain of dislocation," he said. "Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead."

But whose fault is that? Arab states refuse to absorb Palestinians (Egypt blockades Gaza, just as Israel does) and keep them caged up as a weapon against Israel.

Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders fumble every chance for a state, their corruption and violence the biggest obstacles to peace and land.

...

Goodwin is correct in calling this a moral muddle. The Arab states have put no pressure on the Palestinians to reach an accommodation with Israel. The settlement issue is just another excuse not to do a deal.

I have noted before there is no moral equivalency between the holocaust and Palestinian intransigence for 60 years in reaching a deal with Israel. If Obama is going to be honest about the Middle East he needs to be honest about that too.