"Obama with Drama: Translating his comments on Israel’s Netanyahu from the Vulcan" --Juan Cole

[KoKo]

(Who knew Professor Cole could do humor like this?...a great read)

Obama with Drama: Translating his comments on Israel’s Netanyahu from the Vulcan
by Juan Cole

Now that Leonard Nimoy is most unfortunately no longer with us, Barack Obama is the primary exemplar in American popular culture of the maddeningly calm, excruciatingly logical way of speaking that Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry forever associated with the alien race, the Vulcans and the character Mr. Spock. Mr. Spock’s opposite was the plain-spoken, irascible Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (played by DeForest Kelley). Obama needs a little Bones-speak sometimes.

In an interview with The Huffington Post on Saturday, Obama reacted to the Israeli election campaign, the victory of far right wing Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, and his electoral rhetoric pledging no Palestinian state. What exactly he said, however, is a little obscured by Vulcan-speak, and here I offer a translation into plain, blunt English:

The Vulcan: “Well, I had a chance to speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday, congratulated his party on his victory. I did indicate to him that we continue to believe that a two-state solution is the only way for the long-term security of Israel, if it wants to stay both a Jewish state and democratic. And I indicated to him that given his statements prior to the election, it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible.”

English translation: “For appearances sake I had to call that son of a bitch and pretend to congratulate him. But I let him know that his outrageous torpedoing of any Palestinian state has two consequences:

1. Israel isn’t a democracy any more– you don’t get to call yourself that if you plan to rule 4 million Occupied people with martial law forever.

2. The Palestinians and the Americans are not falling ever again for this two-faced lying bastard’s charade of “peace talks” that actually just provide a fig leaf to massive and expanding Israeli theft of Palestinian land. (And I’d just like to apologize to George Mitchell and John Kerry for putting them on that Judas Cradle, which we can now rename “Netanyahu Cradle.”

MUCH MORE:

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/03/22/obama-drama-translating-his-comments-israels-netanyahu-vulcan

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Thanks for this one, KoKo.

Obama came in right on the money in this one. As Cole points out, it was an elegantly framed and understated message, but (at least in this case) I don't see its origins in Obama Vulcan-Speak so much as in standard diplomatic dialect.

And damn. Now I'll be forever listening for the Vulcan-speak when Obama talks.

[KoKo]

2. Yes..I thought it was a fun thing we don't often see......

that Juan Cole did with it. What Obama was "REALLY WANTING TO SAY!"

[66 dmhlt]

3. Pres. Obama comes by this ability quite naturally ...

[The Stranger]

4. WHAT??????

Uhura was a Vulcan???