Obama gives blank cheque to Israel lobby

[Kevin Doyle]

According to the Times his speech has angered Palestinians, which isn't surprising. It's madness that a US Presidential Candidate would come out and state that Jerusalem shouldn't be divided whenIsrael have agreed to that in the past and there isn't a hope of a Palestinian state being formed without that happening. He has managed to piss off and lose the trust of the Palestinians before he has even become President, which is quite an achievement. The Palestinian chief negotiator Erekat called on Obama to ‘stop being more Israeli then the Israelis themselves and leave the Israelis and Palestinians alone to make decisions required for peace.’ It’s another sign of Obama's complete naivety when it comes to foreign affairs.

Well following in the footsteps of Bush even this level of naivety is positively encouraging.

[Rocky]

Deleted

[thebrom]

The sad reality is that without the support of the Israel-lobby, you won't get elected president. As Bush Snr discovered in 1992 when just 10% of Jews voted for him after he threatened to with-hold loans from Israel over settlement activity.

Pro-Israel views are patriotic in America. It's part of their mission to bring democracy and freedom to the world, which Bush has messed up pretty badly. Jewish community are relatively small in number but high in fundraising power and political clout.

[L'Chaim]

Well he seems to have upset this Arab journalist in America
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

[Squire Allworthy]

Look give Obama a break, he is new at this, and he seems to be finding foriegn policy a bit difficult. Now economics is where he is really creative!

[stewiegriffin]

Now economics is where he is really creative!

Wow ! So he really is Irish

[Universal_001]

Well he seems to have upset this Arab journalist in America
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

He pis sed off some muslim supporters the other day, or his volunteers did when they wouldn't let the girls with head scarfs sit behind him when he was on camera, the campaign apologized, the volunters must have thought, what with him being a super secret muslim and all, that they would telepathically link with him and make him say "death to Isreal".

Hes pi ss ed off the Isrealis a few times before, I reckon if you piss every special intrest group off at the same time your doing something right.

That and while I despise US forign policy for the most part, I'd gladly support Isreal over the dozen countries that surround it.
My sympathy for the Palestinians evaporated when Arafat rejected the peace deal in 2000, for fear of being assassinated, he dies a few years later anyway, had he supported it alot of death in the last decade would have been prevented, and the Palestinians would have their own state.

[gendjinn]

My sympathy for the Palestinians evaporated when Arafat rejected the peace deal in 2000, for fear of being assassinated, he dies a few years later anyway, had he supported it alot of death in the last decade would have been prevented, and the Palestinians would have their own state.

Arafat rejected the deal because 90% of Palestinians rejected it. They rejected it because what they were offered was land that was divided into cantons by IDF controlled corridors. Imagine the situation when the British withdrew in 1922 they retained several hundred metre wide corridors along every county border and people could only move between counties at British Army controlled checkpoints. It was a ridiculous offer but surprise, surprise the Western media wasn't going to blame Clinton or Barak so who was left?