There seems to be some confusion over why the Israelis should be so hostile to President Obama’s suggestion that the two-state solution be achieved by returning the Jewish state to its 1967 borders. The President’s supporters argue that since these borders were previously acceptable to Israel, they should be acceptable now. After all, pre-1967 Israel fought to defend those borders and they were on the table in the 2000 peace talks. Can 45 years make that much of a difference?
It is true that 45 years is not so very long in terms of the territorial integrity of the United States. We might even prefer to return to the 1967 context in which our borders were much less challenging than they are today. But what Mr. Obama seems to fail to understand is that 45 years is a very long time for Israel. While the history of the Israeli people stretches back millennia, lsrael itself has only existed for 63 years. What the President is asking is that more than 70% of that history be erased, beginning with the reasons it was deemed necessary to annex the territories in 1967, and continuing on through the failed diplomatic initiatives, UN humiliations and relentless, deadly terrorist attacks of the past decades (including the last one, as Jeff Emanuel discussed yesterday). While some have considered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s terse response to this proposal disrespectful of the President, Mr. Netanyahu might have some very real concerns that once three-quarters of Israel’s past has been eradicated, would it be all that outlandish to go all the way to pre-1948? Especially under the leadership of an American president who is asking the Israelis to make this concession on the dubious grounds that hope will overcome hate?
Mr. Obama justified his pre-1967 proposal yesterday by declaring “[t]he dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation.” While rhetorically it sounded nice and cleverly recalled Martin Luther King’s iconic speech, the choice of the word “dream” to describe a sovereign state was a curious one. Perhaps for our President Israel is still an abstract phantasm that might or might not exist, but for others it has been a reality for the last 63 years. Israel has the right to all of its history, and all of its territory.
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
In certain circles, it's appropriate to use the term "Occupied Palestine".
acat (Diary) Friday, May 20th at 3:08PM EST (link)Perhaps one of those circles includes the Oval Office?
President Obama does not appear to grasp that there are Israelis who remember 1948, who remember 1943, who remember 1967 and 1973… To the people of Israel, the early history of the country is their life story, or the life story of parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins… unlike the history of the U.S., where the last of the WWI soldiers are passing away, and none remember the Civil War.
(doubly problematic for Obama, who doesn’t appear to have had a good grounding in U.S. history prior to becoming a constitutional scholar…)
Mew
——

Caveat Suffragator
Obama continues to get our foreign policy exactly backwards
YnotNOW (Diary) Friday, May 20th at 3:18PM EST (link)when he abandons allies and appeases adversaries.
(OK, a nice little aliteration, but all too true!)
YnotNOW
If not me, who? If not now, when?
Obama
zornorph Friday, May 20th at 11:26PM EST (link)Obama is an Arabist, what do you expect?
Agreed, and that's the Soros line too
Juggernaut (Diary) Monday, May 23rd at 8:24PM EST (link)Obama is George Soros puppet all day long when it comes to Israel.
Hope Obama stands strong too so Jewish Americans will shift the vote, though its not large but very important.
RomneyCare is Right Wing Socialism – please feel free to use is as often as possible…….it will kill his campaign.
Romney “severely conservative”? That’s the opposite of a “compassionate conservative” like George W. Bush? Actually, we know what a severely conservative is. It’s Dick Cheney and Mitt Romney is no Dick Cheney.
To Quote Glen Beck
urherex Friday, May 20th at 3:31PM EST (link)Quoting Benjamin Netanyahu
“If Palestine were to lay down their guns tomorrow,there would be no war.
If Israel were to lay down theirs, there would be no Israel”.
But on the brighter side, The O’s next trick will be to give Texas, Arizona,
and Califorina back to Mexico.
You forgot
edintexas Friday, May 20th at 7:04PM EST (link)You forgot New Mexico, Nevada, all or part of Utah and western Colorado.
Let Mexico
swvapatriot (Diary) Friday, May 20th at 11:16PM EST (link)have California.
heck, to enervate American Exceptionalism...
rsklaroff (Diary) Monday, May 23rd at 6:50AM EST (link)…he could sell-back Alaska to Russia and rescind the Louisiana Purchase.
Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D.
r.sklaroff@verizon.net
[the guy with the "RS-diary" dedicated to differentiating trustworthy conservative-pundits from inside-the-beltway-RINO's]
“…fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way!”
How 'bout if the U.S. went back to pre-1967 airline passenger screening protocols?
Steve Maley (Diary) Friday, May 20th at 3:45PM EST (link)As in, none.
In 1967, you could walk right on board an airliner with ticket in hand. No lines, no body imagers, no metal detectors, no TSA scanners or unionized gropers.
It’s a different world. We’re entitled to security from those who would kill us. So is Israel, only they fought for the land, and they live with the threat every day.
The blogger formerly known as ‘Vladimir’.
I'm
Daniel Horowitz (Diary) Friday, May 20th at 5:07PM EST (link)also thinkin pre-’67 budgets and pre ’67 immigration.
Arab muslims lose war, arab muslims lose territory
johnt Friday, May 20th at 4:54PM EST (link)is this difficult? Let me check to see who started that war, sonofagun, arab muslims ! And it seems all the other wars as well, what do you know! By all means, let’s reward these people for starting repeated wars and ignoring the plight of their own people.
Obama really has to be careful in choosing his friends.
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
I have an idea
wilgolden Friday, May 20th at 5:03PM EST (link)Since the 1967 borders are so attractive, how about we go WAAAAaaaaay back. Say 970 B.C., under King David . . .
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/israel_hist_1973.jpg
“Proud Charter Member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Since 1964!”
BiBi disrespectful???
dudette Friday, May 20th at 7:29PM EST (link)Hardly! it is the tyrant in training pants as someone here dubbed O-Hole, who is so disrespectful. last time Bibi was here he didnt even get dinner. and the cowardly O undercuts Bibi w/o notice the night before the PM’s visit. This prez is a rube, completely unclassy and petty. ick. please someone make him head of the UN so we can lose him.
For the proper perspective
Locked and Loaded (Diary) Friday, May 20th at 9:47PM EST (link)in understanding Israel’s premise, we should look at the first 45 years of our nation. These two maps cover the general timeframe.
1775
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/us_terr_1775.jpg
1820
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/us_terr_1820.jpg
It behooves us to give credence to Israel’s appreciation of their portion.
It's leftwing academic garbage
kowalski (Diary) Friday, May 20th at 10:06PM EST (link)The Palestinians don’t want Israel to retreat to the 1967 borders because they’re “occupied” – they want Israel back to the 1967 borders because they want to have new footholds from which to kill the Jews who arrived there as a result of the “catastrophe” in 1948.. All of them. From the River to the Sea. Wiped Clean by the hand of Allah, as it were, getting rid of the Jew besmirchment. Yay! The Jews are now in an even smaller space and surrounded by more people who hate them!
To them it doesn’t matter if it takes 1,000 years. Our President is helping their cause, speeding it up by a factor of 100 or more.
The real problem is that the Jews in the United States themselves don’t know what they want to do with Israel. They don’t know whether they really want to keep it, leave it, get blown up in it, etc. Half of the time they talk, you’d think they want someone to defend Israel. The other half of the time they get all Abrahamic and just disappear into their own private conversations. I don’t know what to think about the future of Israel because I don’t know any Jews who talk plainly about it with me, a Gentile. Maybe it’s time I stopped caring.
Defend Liberty — Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL.
And I really mean that
kowalski (Diary) Friday, May 20th at 10:08PM EST (link)The thing that I’ve found is that the Jews I knew really don’t want to talk about Israel with Gentiles. If they have that attitude and really don’t care, then fine. I don’t care either.
Defend Liberty — Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL.
I haven't had that experience Kowalski
Michael Dugas (Diary) Friday, May 20th at 10:58PM EST (link)I can say that most Jews will not casually talk about Israel. It is an ingrained defensive measure as that conversation can go very wrong if both sides are on different planes. Now if you have a more than casual relationship with this person you are more likely to get a conversation.
I can say that as far as Israel goes some Jews in America are clueless
as to the reality there and just don’t understand why they all can’t just get along. Then again as far as I am concerned Jews in America don’t have much say as they are not Israelis.
A push against Israel on a large scale is underway. I stand with Israel.
Intro to Federalist Papers; section 5;
paragraph 4.
“…dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the zeal for a firm and efficient government.”
Remember: A Citizen on the dole is a Liberal Vote at the Polls.
END ENTITLEMENTS!
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum !
Israel...
anotherindyfilmguy (Diary) Saturday, May 21st at 2:24AM EST (link)Israel is a canary in the coal mine for the world to note how islam would treat the rest of the world if it could.
Modern Israel from it’s conception, inception and execution is, on the whole, a good thing done for a good reason. It is surrounded by literally pure unadulterated evil that seeks it’s destruction.
In my opinion people who are against Israel’s right to exist fall into one of three categories – ignorant about the topic, willfully blind or willfully evil.
The O has the possibility of falling into all three categories.
Just out of curiosity why has the O not been impeached yet?
Santorum? Well, at least he’s not Romney…
http://www.zazzle.com/enemy_of_the_statist_tshirt-235977043035297478
Forget for a moment how Jews are treated in Palestine. The real issue is how Christians are.
ashland_avenue (Diary) Sunday, May 22nd at 12:29AM EST (link)What do you expect from a President whose middle name is Hussein, who studied in Muslim day school as a child, who spent 20 years listening to Rev Wright calling for God to damn America?
The real issue here is geopolitical: are we in favor of Islam domination of entire Middle East and ultimately of Europe as well?
Forget for a moment how Jews are treated in Palestine. Are we ok with how Christians are treated in Bethlehem, in zGaza, Iraq and Syria?
Aren’t we next?
Finish destabilizing the Mid-East
snowshooze (Diary) Sunday, May 22nd at 3:43PM EST (link)Is that what Obama is trying to do?
How many balls can we keep in the air at once???
Will the proffered Egyptian aid wind up with the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Quada and the Taliban gang? Will Hamas get a share?
What furtherance of Democracy shall be gained by destroying the closest thing to it in Israel? Isn’t that the flag Obama is waiving about in Libya?
Gads.
Nomenclature is revealing...
rsklaroff (Diary) Monday, May 23rd at 6:57AM EST (link)…and when BHO refers to an “occupation,” he telegraphs his support for the Palestinian Arabs.
Amazingly, Scarborough is spittin’-mad @ BHO [on MSNBC], easily fending-off apologists who argue the White House was “shocked, shocked” that there was any rejoinder to be had after the 5/19/2011 debacle.
Regarding some of the above-comments, in the Philadelphia area, we are continuing efforts to “educate” other MOTs ["members of the Tribe"] as to the dangers of a re-elected BHO [recognizing that 47% of D-$$$ is donated by Jews].
Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D.
r.sklaroff@verizon.net
[the guy with the "RS-diary" dedicated to differentiating trustworthy conservative-pundits from inside-the-beltway-RINO's]
“…fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way!”
DEFEND ISRAEL !!!!!!!!!
barrowmrb Monday, May 23rd at 6:59AM EST (link)DOES NOT Netanyahu have the right to DEFEND his country.
If the Jews were all Black,,,,Obama would be sending U.S. troops by the ship load to defend them. Yes I am Right.
Obama has always Pro-Arab, and anti America.
His actions speak much lowder than his words.
WATCH HIS ACTIONS.
sorry you wrong
heroone1 Monday, May 23rd at 9:00AM EST (link)Sorry to tell you, you are wrong, Obama would not send troops to defend if the Jews were black, an there are black Jews. He does not send troops to defend the blacks of Africa that are being killed every day by black Moslems.