Thursday, June 04, 2009

 

Transparent Untruths--Part 2

Further quotes from the President's speech today in Cairo:

For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America’s founding.
Yeah, the perfect metaphor for the Palestinians--American slaves. Mother of God. Violence didn't end the practice of slavery in the United States? Well if you ignore the .6 Million dead in our Civil War, I guess you can say it was peaceful insistence upon our ideals which ended the practice. But you would have to be an idiot to believe it.

At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

Israel must also live up to its obligations to ensure that Palestinians can live, and work, and develop their society. And just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be part of a road to peace, and Israel must take
concrete steps to enable such progress.

Israel lets Muslims live in Israel as full citizens. The areas where Palestinians live must be Judenrein. So of course there is an equivalence in our President's eyes between the actions of the Muslims and the reactions of the Jews. The only people standing in the way of Palestinian development are the Palestinians, and it is heartbreaking because we know how talented and hard working they are from the success they have had once they have left the West Bank, Gaza and the wretched UN refugee camps which have existed for 6 decades. The only real thing preventing the two state solution is that the Palestinians don't want two states--they want one state with no Jews in it. That's not a two sided problem for anyone with even the slightest knowledge of history since the end of WWII.

No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America’s commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons.
Is our President such a beginner that he can't see the internal contradiction of those two sentences? No nation can say who can have nukes. I say no nation should have nukes. Pitiful. Saddening. It is unicorn and pixie idealism which makes Obama look like a fool.

Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.
Oh yeah, they tolerate the dhimmi.

I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous.
Who thinks a woman in a hijab is less equal? Obama the mighty slayer of hollow straw men? But at last, the blind hog found acorn--we agree on something. As long as the Muslims treat their women as they do, they will be a "a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous, and cruel," to quote Lawrence in the movie.

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Comments:
I presume the point of a presidential speech is not historical exegesis but an expression of his position and purpose on relevant issues and how he might pursue those. He might bring a perpective on historical events to explain why he thinks what he does, point out past failed strategies, and so on. One would therefor judge the effectiveness of the speech not on whether it was accurate in every historical detail, but whether it got the point across. Dissecting a piece line by line for accuracy seems somehow inappropriate.

That said, I don't think the point was to compare Palestinians to American slaves, but to point out that violence is not a good strategy in pursuing legitimate goals. The Civil War was fought (in part) over slavery, but not by slaves - it wasn't a wart of slaves fighting for their freedom. And it didn't bring them "full and equal rights". And I don't think "No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons" is contradicted by "commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons" - there's a difference between that sentiment and "commitment to seeing that no nations hold nuclear weapons". The difference between "you can't have nukes" and "let's all do away with nukes". Utopian perhaps, but not contradictory.

Do all Palestinians want one state with no Jews? Don't some Jews want one state with no Palestinians? Did BO acknowledge that Palenstinian leadership is sorely lacking when he said "The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people. Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist."

I don't know about Islam's tradition of tolerance - not something that seems particularly in evidence these days. But the West's tradition of tolerance is hardly sparkling either!

Is one's blog becoming a smidge Obama-paranoid?
 
Slaves did fight for the South in the last month of the war. Black freemen fought for the North for about two years of the war and did great, especially just south of Richmond. The slaves were granted full rights. See thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. The North quit the occupation too soon and things regressed, with racist northern support, for nearly 100 years.
That Obama is foolishly willing to give up our nukes doesn't make his call for others not to have nukes non-contradictory to his first statement. Who says you shouldn't have nukes? The President of the United States. Good try though.
No, not all the Palestinians want a land with no Jews but it is only a few of them, and a land free of Jews is the avowed purpose of the two ruling parties, elected by fairly wide majorities. Not good ground for peace.
Not Obama-paranoid--Anti-Obama. There's a difference.
Thanks for the comments.
 
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