POSTED COMMENT TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
“Obama Firm.”
Well, let's hope so. The only way we will ever see peace and an end to the abomination of Israel's occupation is if the U.S. is firm.
Indeed, America needs to be firm about a lot more than freezing settlements on freshly-grabbed land.
Obama does have the best chance of doing something meaningful here of any president since Israel's founding, both because he is so popular and because everyone in the world – other than the ceaseless apologists for Israel’s bloody excesses - recognizes the status quo is a disaster.
And it is not a disaster waiting to happen. It has happened.
The single greatest cause of all the ugly business summed up under the title War on Terror is Israel’s behavior towards its neighbors and America’s toleration of it.
Yet, despite Obama’s exceptional opportunity, I am not hopeful. If you read the saga of Truman’s recognition decision at Israel’s emergence as a state, you realize just what serious pressure is.
And look at Hillary Clinton. She went to Palestine once and made sympathetic statements. Then, when she wanted to be Senator, she took almost a one hundred and eighty degree turn in her language. Pressure indeed.
