Tag Archives: Dan Middleton

Dan Middleton on Obama’s Israel moment.

Dear friend, frequent Skyper and astute commentator Dan Middleton has this to say about yesterday’s post on Obama’s recent push for Israel to return to pre-1967 borders:

Hey Jeff…this issue has been much on my mind. I found Netanyahu’s behavior in the Oval Office presumptuous, bullying, and short-sited. He has AIPAC and Congress and opportunistic Republicans willing to go along, but today PBO sternly, respectfully, and clearly reiterated AGAIN to AIPAC today what the media got wrong on Thursday: go back to ’67 borders with land swaps…the media didn’t focus on the “with land swaps part” and created confusion which Netanyahu happily pounced on, much to the delight of Fox news.
Tippi Livni, Ehud Barack, and even Abe Foxman said Netanyahu was wrong.

PBO’s speech to AIPAC was essentially, “look..no one is going to take away US funding and military support, but the world is changing fast, and among the bad actors in the Middle East, there are many more who suddenly see a future without dictatorships, don’t isolate yourselves and let’s figure this out now because the status quo is unsustainable…”

p.s—Obama probably got it as right as he could, but while Bibi is in power, emboldened by Congress and Likud, he is unlikely to stop settlements.

one more Sullivan link in reaction to his piece. A telling response from Israel…a far better response than from me, who has limited understanding of the conflict.
Go Bulls.
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/05/the-bibi-barack-chess-game-ctd.html

Meanwhile, another Barak, this one Israeli Defense Minister Ehud, approved the creation of nearly 300 new settlements in Palestinian territory.

I don’t see this one being resolved soon.

Do you?