At 6:38 AM Eastern Standard Time, President Obama’s speech hit what the Wall Street Journal’s live bloggers called a “sensitive passage.” This one:
America’s strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.
“Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed — more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, it is ignorant, and it is hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction — or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews — is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.”
By my count, the President received applause on forty-two separate occasions during his speech. The passage above wasn’t one of them.
“By my count, the President received applause on forty-two separate occasions during his speech. The passage above wasn’t one of them.”
And that is a truly a shame — the ugly fruit born of the decades-long effort by Muslim leaders to whip their populations into an anti-semitic frenzy, either out of their own hatefulness or to deflect attention away from their own failures.
Also… Did President Obama draw a parallel between African American slavery and Palestinian life under occupation? I hope not.
Overall however, I was very impressed by this speech. I was not expecting him to address democracy, religious freedom, or women’s rights. But he did and did so eloquently. Sure, he was clearly balancing these issues against Muslim sensitivities. But he spoke out about them quite honestly.
Still, I find it irritating that he continues to call Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran to ensure the Mullahs that regime change is completely off the table.
I think he wasn’t so much comparing slavery with the Palestinians, rather pointing out that violence did not achieve the end of slavery, nor could it.
Obama is making the point that violence for political purposes doesn’t work, and certainly won’t work in the long run in the Middle East.
That’s what I suspect he was getting at.
Modernity Blog[ger],
I’m willing to accept your interpretation. And like I said, I think this was a powerful speech.
Obama’s speech was a galvanising initiative between the Muslim world and America after 8 years highly strained relation during Bush period. However, the most contentious issue is to solve the Palestinian problem. Uprooted & slaughtered in Europe and as such, Jewish people have right to uproot and slaughter the Palestinians in the name of safeguarding the existence of Israel is only aggravating the danager and weakening the logic to the existence of Israel. If Obama’s appeal prevails and Israeli leadership leaves the path of anti-human activities, it would better for Israel itself.