What Obama Said 14 Years Ago
About Israel and what I said.
So while the core issues of the conflict must be negotiated, the basis of those negotiations is clear: a viable Palestine, a secure Israel. The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their full potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.
Barack Obama is screwing up so wonderfully that it's going to be pretty difficult for any future president run so slipshod a policy in the Middle East. His declaration today is so hidebound, so regressive and so arrogantly ignorant that you couldn't invent it. It is a truth stranger than fiction that equates Hamas and the Knesset which is so bold in its self-deception that... well, it's going to take a nice fat little war to show how insane his thinking is.
Here's a toast to the rockets. May the blood of a thousand future civilians mark this day in American foreign policy infamy.
The status of the settlements will be decided only in negotiations. But we must also be honest. So I am saying today something that should be said publicly by anyone serious about peace. In any peace agreement that ends the conflict, some settlements will end up beyond Israel’s borders. The precise delineation of those borders must be negotiated. We will be very generous on the size of a future Palestinian state. But as President Obama said, the border will be different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967. Israel will not return to the indefensible lines of 1967.
What I said on Facebook in defense of my glib dismissal:
I suppose I was a bit too sarcastic in that piece. The point I was trying to make is that sometimes the best way to get rid of a bad idea is to let it proceed towards spectacular failure. That is what I think Obama's Middle East policy is, error after error.
They don't kill enough to be *that* serious. Obama should focus on mashing down on Syria and Iran, specifically Hezbollah. And I think he should, like we all should consider the feasibility of a one state solution.
Hamas and Fatah, having to meet some fairly stringent criteria, should be given the opportunity to exist as parties in the state of Israel, and the international community should pony up all the money that they believe Palestinians deserve for a real-estate IPO in the single state of Israel. Those who don't like it should find homes with other Palestinians in Jordan, Syria, or Lebanon.
What I say now:
Israel is now partners with Saudi Arabia. Recently, it was discovered that
Top leaders of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel aiming to torpedo peace negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to minutes of a high-level meeting in Gaza that Israel’s military said it discovered in a tunnel beneath the enclave.
It doesn’t pay to be cynical, but how much longer are we going to pretend that Hamas are not the bad guys. Perhaps Israel won’t let us pretend any longer. I can imagine that there are still people who want a two state solution. Rather like the Vatican, the West Bank will house the Palestinian Pope. Just change the zoning laws and presto, Singapore, right?
I guess I’m still a bit glib.
From here on out, I’m going to compare the Palestinians to the Bangladeshis. I expect that this Israelis will tire of administering Gaza. Nobody believes the UN or anyone would make it a protectorate again. For some impossibly strange reason, American supporters don’t seem to care much about the 3+ million (Fatah) in the West Bank for the sake of the 1.9 million in Gaza (Hamas). So that sentiment remains backwards.
Even though our current ham handed President has said so in a moment of brilliance, I recant my former Neoconservative support for nation-building. We’re no good at it. We have no colonies outside of whatever NATO is. The empire is internal, which is also not necessarily an excellent development. We could be a lot better at immigration - it’s rather all we need to be outside of defenders of the open seas and custodians of the Constitution.
I guess you missed my suggestion for a solution to the ongoing Gaza problem:
https://theothermccain.com/2025/02/19/the-future-of-gaza-is-neu-schwabenland/
Nation building only works when the enemy prefers peace on our terms, whatever they are, to war on our terms.
We did this with Japan & Germany. We didn't do it with Iraq or Afghanistan. We didn't need to do it to accomplish our aims, which were to remove the Taliban from power because they wouldn't hand over Bin Laden, & to remove Hussein from power & destroy Iraq's NBC programs for good. Both of those were achieved in short order. We should have left at that point.
Anyone who thinks Hamas are the "good guys" is insane. They acted the same way the Nazis did across Europe, & the way the USSR did across Eastern Europe & Germany. They should suffer the same fate the Nazis did & the Soviets should have suffered.