[Peace-discuss] Obama Walks Back Jerusalem Remarks

[C. G. Estabrook]

There's another reading of this:  Obama now has it both ways. He tells AIPAC 
what they want to hear and then takes back with the left hand what he'd given 
with the right.  But it's done cleverly enough that it doesn't appear as a 
contradiction.

His comments to AIPAC were hardly unconsidered or inadvertent.  Here's how the 
BBC reported some of them:

	"In one of his first acts after he secured the Democratic nomination for 
president of the US, Senator Barack Obama told Aipac, America's most powerful 
pro-Israel lobby, that he would do everything in his power to prevent Iran from 
getting a nuclear weapon. *He repeated the word 'everything' several times*. 
Even allowing for the fact that he was also trying to dispel the impression that 
he was soft on Iran, it was strong language..."

Noam Chomsky had what seems to me an accurate take on Obama a few months ago; 
his backtrack is consistent with this view:

	"I think he's basically presenting himself as a blank slate, on which you can 
write your wishes.  Hard to find much to be hopeful about.  He is energizing a 
lot of young people, but I don't see much reason to expect that for that reason 
his presidency would be more responsive to public pressure.  Overwhelmingly, the 
public believes that the government should be responsive to public opinion.  But 
that's such an unpopular elite view that the press won't even report the polls 
showing this.  A more realistic possibility, perhaps, is that those who are 
energized by the candidacy will devote the energy to something constructive 
after the likely disillusionment."  --CGE


Robert Naiman wrote:
> He "quickly backtracked," reports the Washington Post.
> 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/obama-walks-back-jerusale_b_105854.html
> 
> http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/7/165440/8748/58/531843
> 
> 
> 
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