No surprise here:
In perhaps the shortest round of peace negotiations in the history of their conflict, talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have ground to a halt and show little sign of resuming.
But this explanation has to make one smile:
Pressure to restart the talks eased after the Arab League said it would wait a month — until Nov. 8 — before ending Abbas’s mandate for negotiations, thus pushing the issue beyond the U.S. midterm elections. But if Republicans score big gains, some Israelis argue, that could limit Obama’s ability to pressure Israel to make concessions.
Because, for all the whining about making Israel a partisan issue, there is no doubt that support for Israel and opposition to Obama’s pitched assault on it are strongest on the Republican side of the aisle.
The extent of the administration’s naivete and incompetence is something to behold (my comments in brackets):
The Obama administration, worried that the impending end of the settlement freeze would leave a potentially dangerous vacuum, rushed forward with talks without a plan for dealing with the end of the moratorium, analysts say. The hope was that sheer momentum would carry the talks forward. [What momentum?]
That decision has come with costs, including some to Obama’s credibility. [Some? It does rather shatter it, no?] The president invested his personal prestige in launching the talks, and even appealed to Israel to extend the freeze during a speech at the U.N. General Assembly. [Because he imagined that the sheer swellness of himself, coupled with threats, could achieve what the Israelis plainly said was unacceptable?]
The Palestinians, taking their cue from previous administration statements, have made a settlement freeze a key requirement for continued talks, so any reversal in that stance would make them appear weak. Netanyahu, concerned about the impact an extension of the freeze would have on his right-leaning coalition, has put new demands on the table, such as upfront Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. [In other words, he screwed up the whole thing.]
Having demonstrated that the U.S. is such a feckless friend of Israel and an unreliable interlocutor for the PA, Obama now faces the prospect that his beloved multilateral institution will try to dismember the Jewish state:
“We are going to go to Washington to recognize a Palestinian state on 1967 borders. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go to the U.N. Security Council and will ask Washington not to veto,” [PA negotiator Muhammad] Shatayeh said. If Washington vetoes, he said, then the Palestinians will appeal to the U.N. General Assembly.
Does the UN General Assembly have such power? Two foreign policy experts tell me that the involvement of the UN General Assembly is not unprecedented in such matters. The General Assembly was responsible for the 1947 partition. More recently, as they gurus explained, “after Kosovo declared its independence, Serbia asked the U.N. General Assembly to intervene and U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution requesting the International Court of Justice to issue an opinion, which it did.”
General Assembly resolutions are not, strictly speaking, binding. But legality is not the issue; this is a thugocracy, after all, which has been empowered and elevated by none other than Barack Obama. It is hard to believe that a single administration in just two years could have made such hash out of Middle East policy.
“Moreover, he’s accomplished about as much as a massive hump of rock.”
I agree, along with the Podhoretzs. And how is WW4 doing?
You’re so right, Abe. This is brilliant and very amusing.
What Obama says he will or won’t do, eloquently of course, is what his followers blindly accept. What Obama has actually done or who he has historically associated with and listened to is entirely different from what he is promising or who he will actually listen to.
This is the essence of the problem of Obama. It’s not that he isn’t a smart person or can appear smooth or calm on camera, he can. But who he really is has not been revealed because the media has chosen him as their leader and just can’t agree to dig for anything that might prove their decision wrong. The country isn’t important enough to risk making the media look bad.
Somewhere Jerzy Kozinski is smiling with bemusement, because Obama’s Chauncey Gardiner writ large. He is what you want him to be: big-government messiah; tax cutter; champion of the line-item veto; the most pro-life pro-choice politician in America. His lack of a record is his ace in the hole. Thank goodness he’ll be able to rely on Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to tell him what to think.
Abe Greenwald:
LOL This is brillant and right on
“On PBS, last night after the final presidential debate, David Brooks was celebrating Barack Obama’s reassuring temperament. He told Charlie Rose that Barack Obama is like a mountain. When you go to bed–he’s there. You wake up–he’s there. You go to bed the next night–he’s there. Wake up–he’s there. It’s true: Obama does bear a striking characterological resemblance to a shapeless heap of non-living matter.”
I surely hope that you have personally contacted Mr. Brooks and told him so. If not please : do so!! Brooks needs a reality check
and some detox program.
Abe Greenwald:
Your whole post is EXCELLENT!! One of the best I have read from you and in general.
I am recommending it to RCP as it deserves widespread reading.
People VOTE it.
Thank you.
Obama’s generally composed, aloof demeanor should not lead anyone to conclude that he is a deeply reflective, deliberative person. A review of his conduct and positions should quickly dispel any such supposition. This reassuringly reflective man did a good job of avoiding reflection and deliberation in the Illinois senate when he racked up a handsome record of voting merely “present” on issues he was paid to think through and take a position on. He dithered and got away with it. Equally telling are the positions he has taken when he takes them. Time and again, they are completely predictable leftist Democrat positions, except for when they are exceptionally leftist Democratic positions. How much reflection and deliberation does that indicate? And how much reassuring thought and reflection went into his accepting, for twenty years, the racist, bigoted principles of the Trinity United Church and its ranting pastor? Under contract to write a thoughtful, intellectual book on race relations in the US, deep thinker Obama writes a fictionalized book about himself. As his biography establishes, Obama is a past master of putting on a reassuring front, while being inwardly a very different man than he appears, one for whom nursing resentments does duty for being truly reflective. Yeah, all very reassuring.
Ah, Oakwheel, about that book:
“There is a tide in the affairs of men.” From Sh-ayers-kespeare’s lips to Obama’s ears …
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=77940
Interestingly, a friend of mine said he was watching the Dodgers-Phillies game last night, but flipped to the debate a couple of times with the sound off. What struck him was how irritating Obama’s “smirk” (his word) was to him, without the sound.
Obama comes off more as a guy who has never once had to be accountable for anything he has done. It’s easy to be calm and reassuring when you’ve never made a mistake and had to own up to it, never been blamed for anything, never had to make a decision that affected the futures of your fellow men, or their reasons for hope.
Of course, FDR had the quintessential calm and reassuring demeanor, even after years of doing everything wrong that he possibly could in domestic economic policy. He managed to largely shed blame for it too. What Obama proposes today is pretty much exactly what FDR both promised and did.
This should not reassure us.
Obama is calm, composed and collected.
So was Michael Dukakis.
Are we saying here that people are unable to judge character, or that they don’t want to?
Hmmm, coming out of nowhere to attract the most talented staff and build the best political organization in American history, defeat the political machine of a two-term ex president to take the nomination of your party, then cruise to electoral victory skillfully and gracefully… AS A BLACK MAN… is not much of an accomplishment for you? What do you that’s so amazing?
You’ve failed to make your case because you try to make Obama into something he visibly, and by proof of his accomplishments, is not. The right might have been more successful making its case on the merits… or not, as I can’t discern a coherent case at the moment.
Get your act together!
It’s a sad indictment on the viewing public that being smooth and slippery as a used car salesman now passes as “looking presidential”.
Franglo: How telling that your “proof of his accomplishments” consists solely of POLITICAL achievements. The argument is hilariously circular: he’s qualified to be President because he’s done such a good job running for the Presidency.
Go to RCP
http://readerarticles.realclearpolitics.com/?period=all
and vote for this post. You need to login/register to be able to vote but this is trivial and free.
@12 Franglo — thanks for putting together a partial list … You forgot overcoming questionable associations with controversial pastors. Overcoming the stench and corruption of the Chicago political machine. Avoiding close examination of personal dealings with shady characters like Tony Rezko. Overcoming allegations of rampant voter fraud in organizations with which he has been intimately connected to and funneled money to. Overcoming the temptation to play the race card at the drop of a hat. Overcoming the lack of any appreciable paper trail to document his political career. Overcoming the objections of the average working person to sharing the wealth with the less fortunate. Overcoming questionable relations to proximate causes of the collapse of the worldwide economy. Overcoming the urge to be overconfident due to the media’s relentless efforts on his behalf. Overcoming the inability to admit mistakes concerning success of the surge in Iraq.
You don’t give Obama enough credit –probably any one of these flaws would be political death for a Republican(with the exception of the media one — because that is just plain impossible)
The focus on Obama’s temperament is a safe way of implying that there is something wrong with McCain’s temperament. It’s more subtle than directly saying spewing their usual narrative that McCain is angry – worse, even the people who attend his rallies are angry.
On a tangentially related matter: I’ll be curious to see, now the the secret service debunked a reporter’s claim that someone at a Palin event yelled out “Kill him” when Obama’s name was mentioned, if the MSM will admit that the incident never occurred. Oh, those “angry” McCain supporters, why doesn’t Palin reel them in? Yeah, right.
Abe – excellent post. Most information and entertaining out there.
Obama is a multi-cultural professor, sent from the towers of Academia, to look into our little world and provide his messianic advice, but make no decisions that would represent any of his views. Remember This election is about you, don’t focus on me.
This is just another reason we must prevent global warming. Those majestic glaciers that encase and keep Mount Obama so cool cannot be allowed to melt away. A warm Obama would be no Obama at all!
“Guy de Maupassant was said to take lunch every day at the Eiffel Tower because it was the only spot in Paris from which he didn’t have to look at the Eiffel Tower.”
He was pretty lucky, there’s no way to avoid experiencing Bush’s presence. Bush? – you know, he’s that conservative president that you guys used to (maybe still do) praise to the sky, before the McCain camp decided that he had become a non-person/-president/-entity.
This reputation as “cool” befuddles me. Does anyone else notice – remembering all BO’s debate appearances – whenever an opponent makes a good point he reacts with that smirk, grin or whatever. This expression passes for poise but to me it looks like a little kid caught red handed with his hand in the cookie jar.
I thought it was an annoying smirk too. Obama is looking tooo confident by half. Maybe he thinks that ACORN Corrupt The Vote thing is going to work for him just fine. I would sure like to see more said about that. Washinton State has just sent out ballots to 24000 FELONS.
He’s collectively ubiquitous, and oh my that chiclets smile, the dudes just flat out cool, now ladies and gentlemen who can argue with that.
Does Obama have friends? Who are they? He says that Wright, Phleger, Rezko and Ayers are not his friends because they’re not the Wright, Phleger, Rezko and Ayers that he knew. Fine, then who are his friends. You never hear about close personal/professional relationships of Obama’s like McCain’s with Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman. (Well, you did, see above, but they’re personas non gratas with O now, at least until after the election.) Obama likes to drop Warren Buffet’s name at the drop of a hat, but I don’t think they’re really “friends.” There is that poker buddy who was recently raided by the feds, but apparently he’s not the poker buddy that Obama knew, either. That’s kind of weird, not really having freinds, merely associates. Must be that cool demeanor that turns people off, unless they’re desperate to keep their talking-head jobs with the liberal media.
“Of course, FDR had the quintessential calm and reassuring demeanor, even after years of doing everything wrong that he possibly could in domestic economic policy. He managed to largely shed blame for it too. What Obama proposes today is pretty much exactly what FDR both promised and did.”
J.E., If a President BO manages not to throw away victory in Iraq, charges hard and wins in Afghanistan and manages to keep a nuke away from Iran (or punishes them horrifically for getting one), I’ll give him, for the most part, a pass on his domestic policies (as long as he/Pelosi/Reid don’t manage to turn the USA into France). GHWBush isn’t regarded as a spectacular President, but to me he did a great job. His efforts in kicking Iraq out of Kuwait (and meticulously corraling tepid allies in the process) outweighs all other considertions.
This all being said, I don’t see a Prez BO doing anything of any substance to Iran if they get a nuke. The only chance of a strong response I think is if the political pressure is too great to NOT attack. But with a hawk-free Democratic Congress, there is greater chance of non-action.
#5: “Brooks needs a reality check and some detox program.”
First he needs to wipe the stain from his nose.
Oakwheel: I agree. I’ve yet to detect evidence (books, public statements, known decisions) of an intelligence possessed by Obama beyond the most superficial. I do realize that in the world of the elite credentials are quite often mistaken for accomplishment, but in my world they are not.
#25: So, in short, so long as Obama bombs Iran and Afghanistan is “won” it’s O.K. if America goes to hell in a handbasket. Interesting perspective, that….
The pundits who have pronounced themselves impressed with Obama’s temperament–would be conserative “elites”–are really saying they like Obama because he is a smooth talker. They are both impressed by that and afraid to admit it
Amazing.
Everyone here so hates BO that they’re simply unable to say anything acknowledging that his right moves are same ones that McC might have benefited from making. Like addressing what matters to undecided, middle of the road voters as opposed to the base, acting like a president we can trust in a crisis, showing a knowledge of issues as opposed to contempt.
You’re like Red Sox fans who get so unhinged at the mere mention of the Yankees that all higher brain function ceases.
Let’s face it. Since the beginning of September, McC has done nothing right. Not only has he caught none of the breaks — credit crunch/market meltdown/$700b bailout — but he’s consistently misplayed his cards.
To the point that it is a legitimate question whether he has what it takes to be president. And by selecting Palin, he gave the American people the one-finger salute. Whatever my unease about Obama-Biden, it’s nothing compared to Palin in the White House. She so detracts from the ticket that he no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt.
God, what a shabby campaign he’s run.
13
Alex Says:
“It’s a sad indictment on the viewing public that being smooth and slippery as a used car salesman now passes as ‘looking presidential’.”
Or a “sad indictment” of our politicians and how severely their lack of quality has diminished public expectations…
Obama appears calm and collected when challenged and then send out his troops to destroy you any way he can. Lies about “shoot him”, lies about Palin’s kids and ACORN’s assault on the integrity of the electoral process. That’s real “cool”…until they come for you