Why do Israelis dislike Barack Obama? (Bradley Burston)

[Violet_Crumble]

There are many people, gifted with rare intelligence and tolerance for humankind, who, when addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, run off the rails.

This week, it was the turn of former American Jewish Congress national director Henry Siegman. Noting opinion polls showing that a bare six to eight percent of the Israeli public supports Barack Obama, Siegman concludes that the dislike for Obama is a reflection not of the president's policies, but of something essential - and fundamentally defective - in the Israeli people itself:

"The Israeli reaction to serious peacemaking efforts is nothing less than pathological," Siegman writes, calling it "the consequence of an inability to adjust to the Jewish people's reentry into history with a state of their own following 2,000 years of powerlessness and victimhood."

He concedes that polls show that a clear majority of Israelis favor a two-state solution, and thus, Palestinian statehood. But he argues that, while they insist that they much prefer peace, if put to the test, Israelis will prove to be liars, and opt for occupation. "Israel's public never tires of proclaiming to pollsters its aspiration for peace and its support of a two-state solution." Nonetheless, "the reason for this unprecedented Israeli hostility toward an American president is a fear that President Obama is serious about ending Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza."

Siegman's thesis makes no room for the possibility that the administration may have made more major mistakes in handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, than it has made in an other primary policy sphere.

There is no allowance for the sense that when Barack Obama made an early priority of his presidency a high profile visit to Cairo, its centerpiece an extended address to the Muslim world, a subsequent personal appeal to Israelis might have helped him advance his peacemaking goals.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1125324.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Because Obama is pragmatic, not dogmatic.

He won't rubberstamp everything like * did.

[CTyankee]

2. My stepdaughter is a rabbinical student who just returned from Israel from a year of

study. I asked her the same question. She said that Israelis liked Bush because Bush let them alone to do what they wanted to do. They don't feel Obama will.

I wonder, though, if we underestimate the diversity of opinion in Israel. They are an opinionated people and love to argue politics, from what my Jewish friends and relatives have told me.

[theoldman]

3. Bush did not make any attempt to stop the Jews from taking more land from the Palestinians.

Obama has said that this shit has got to stop. There are a lot of Jews who agree with Obama. Maybe even more than those who agreed with Bush.

[aquart]

4. Obama believes the Palestinians are human, too.

Many in Israel don't, therefore a conflict. But it's no more (or just as) pathological than the virulent insane hatred between Obama and Hillary supporters during the primaries or between supporters of opposing soccer teams. It's what humans do. Doing it with firepower doesn't make it different or crazier, just deadlier.

[pelsar]

5. thats right israelis believe the Palestinians are aliens....

after all many in israel believe the Palestinians are not human...so what does that leave...aliens dressed up as humans...damn their good, its hard to tell the difference. But its the blood...theirs is green.

[madrchsod]

6. Abraham`s children need to grown up.

their little feud is growing tiresome

[Crunchy Frog]

7. Other than the power differential involved.

[damntexdem]

8. How long can Isreal remain a viable nation?

This is not the 16th-19th Centuries, when stealing great swaths of another's land was accepted practice. If Israel cannot pull back from post-67 settlements, there is no basis for accepting it's continued status as a sovereign nation.

[pelsar]

9. is this just an israel thing...or shall i list the countries today

that have stolen anothers land...its going to be a long list.....

[Behind the Aegis]

10. And what of those countries occupying other nations...China, Turkey...

I guess they will all have to be removed from the list of soverign nations.

[xc8mip]

11. Well ,actually they applying hard science for conquest

Leaders of Israel consider it's their time for "crusades".
Yet they do not believe in compromise as solution to problems , just forcing

[Sezu]

12. So you are pulling for Israel's demise?

WOW!