A guest post by Philo
I listened to the big speech last week a few hours after it was given, not having heard any spin yet. And I thought the speech was quite favorable towards Israel.
It wasn't really substantive, as no new plans were put forward, it was just a restatement of longstanding US policy. The 1967 borders with land swaps have been the basis for negotiations of several ISRAELI governments already. And the land swaps are intended to be able to keep the settlement blocs. Obama basically approved of that in his speech. Not only that, he spoke of the need for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, spoke of the problem of negotiating with Hamas, spoke VERY strongly of the need for the US to defend Israel's security, criticized the effort of Fatah to unilaterally declare state this coming September, etc, etc. This was the most pro-Israel speech I've ever heard Obama give.
Then I listened to the hysterical spin from the right wing (and some of the mainstream press), as well as Netanyahu's opportunistic fear mongering to bolster his political standing at home.
Basically, I think that nothing Obama can say would satisfy the right wing. They are so entrenched in their thinking about him, that if Obama got up tomorrow and said "Israel should annex the West Bank", the right wing would hysterically condemn him for calling it the West Bank instead of Yehuda & Shomoron, and say that means Obama wants to destroy Israel.
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