President Barack Obama will attend church On Sunday, undoubtedly feeling a spiritual rejuvenation after his preaching to Israelis from his pulpit-on-high where he showed the true force and the real tragedy of America’s attempt to twist reality into an illusion.
He was brilliant not only as an orator but as a preacher.
President Obama told the Arabs in Ramallah what Israel wanted to hear – that Israel is a Jewish state.
He told his audience in Jerusalem, which was mostly Jewish but included Arabs with an Israeli citizenship, what Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas wanted to hear – that “settlements” are illegal, are counter to peace and are the foundations of disaster for the future of Israel.
Obama said he was looking at the Arab-Israeli conflict through they eyes of Israelis, but he was fooling himself.
An analysis of his speech, by former Jerusalem Post editor David Horovitz, who now holds that position for the Times of Israel, concluded that President Obama sounded like a left-wing Zionist.
But Horovitz is from Britain.
Only an American could understand that Obama sounded like a good American fundamentalist Christian preacher, and however illusory his views of Israel and of the Middle East, they reflect the thinking of every American president since Jimmy Carter.
One of the most often used words in his speech in Jerusalem was “believe.” Obama honestly and passionately believed every word he said.
He honestly believes that he can change 3,500 years of history with a “deal.”
He honestly believes that because people in Cairo, Gaza, Ramallah and Jerusalem want the same things – “to get an education and a good job; to worship God in their own way; to get married and have a family” – all it takes to create peace is to trust each other and the world will be one happy place.
He honestly believes, with the naïveté and ignorance of a good American preacher, that “negotiations will be necessary, but there is little secret about where they must lead – two states for two peoples.”
He has to believe that because it is the cornerstone of the American foreign policy to make the world safe for America. The more Washington tries to do so, the worst things get.
For example Vietnam. For example, Iraq. For example, Egypt. For example, Syria.
The United States transforms lovely illusions into a nightmarish reality.
So it no surprise that President Obama warped the facts in Jerusalem.
He interprets the Arab Spring revolution not as sign of protest against corruption and nepotism by a people who would be no less corrupt and nepostic if given the chance, bur rather as an opportunity.
Now is “the time to respond to the wave of revolution with a resolve for peace,” he said, and Israel, apparently, is the fall-guy.
According to the president, ”Progress with the Palestinians is a powerful way to begin, while sidelining extremists who thrive on conflict and division.”
There is no arguing with a preacher because Pastor Obama honestly believes that.
He honestly believes that the “so many Palestinians – including young people – have rejected violence as a means of achieving their aspirations” are represented by Abbas, whom he insists is a “true partner” for peace.
In the simplistic eyes of President Obama, no different from Carter and Bill Clinton and perhaps even George Bush, the existence of Hamas makes Abbas look clean, and there is no need to admit that Abbas for eight years has methodically won from Israel concession after concession as a means to eliminate Israel as a Jewish state.
Abbas can afford to officially renounce violence, while praising suicide bombers, so long as he can use his mask of diplomacy to engineer the end of a Jewish Israel thorough the immigration of several million foreign Arabs into Israel.
President Obama is not so dumb as to think that Israel can accept that. His statement in Ramallah that Israel is a Jewish state was the death knell for the Arab world’s dream of eliminating Israel without firing a gun.
But President Obama omitted the one issue that still gives the Arab world hope: Jerusalem.
Preacher Obama conveniently left that out of his speech, and for every good reason: He has no answer.