Obama's all-out, guns blazing, no-holds-barred charm offensive on Israel's unsuspecting public

[cali]

The term “charm offensive” was first recorded in an interview given in 1956 by American general Alfred Gruenther, Supreme Commander of U.S. forces Europe, who warned European countries not to relax their vigilance because of the “charm offensive” launched by a post-Stalin Soviet Union. The phrase, now part of the everyday jargon of politicians and public relations, was originally conceived as a weapon for hostile states with ulterior motives.

This negative connotation was probably foremost on the minds of many dedicated Obama detractors, after the U.S. President invaded Israel on Wednesday with an all-out, guns-blazing, thermonuclear charm assault that didn’t miss a trick and included almost every shtick in the book. Israelis are probably lucky that First Lady Michelle Obama didn’t join her husband, because with her naturally likeable personality in tow, the presidential onslaught might have been so overwhelming that even die hard zealots would be begging Obama to cool it.

Obama’s opening move at Ben Gurion was the equivalent of a rhetorical blitzkrieg, a speech so laden with pro-Israeli sentiment and hasbarah talking points as to make even AIPAC maidens blush. From first word to last, from Shalom at the beginning to “Lanetzach” (forever) at the end, it was clear that Obama was coming in straight for the kill.

<snip>

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-eden/obama-s-all-out-guns-blazing-no-holds-barred-charm-offensive-on-israel-s-unsuspecting-public.premium-1.510844

[Scootaloo]

1. Scuse me while I parse a regular poster here...

"ERMAGERD! Y U NO SUPPROT TEH DEMERCRATTIC PARTY DERRRRR OBAMA R ZIONIST U HATE JEWS IF U NO ZIONIST TOO LOL RIGHT RING EXTREMIST!!!"

Guhhhhh that's uncomfortable.

Bad week to be a Palestinian, looks like.

[Scuba]

2. Every week.

[Scootaloo]

3. ...Well, yeah, true enough. ESPECIALLY bad week.

[azurnoir]

5. that all depends on how one views it

nothing has happened that was not fully expected really

[Scootaloo]

6. One can always Hope for a little Change, though.

[azurnoir]

4. and you forgot

YOUR JUST TINY VOCAL MINORITY !!!!!!!!!

PALESTINIANS BURNING EFFIGIES SCREAMING DEATH TO AMERICA WILL RAISE OBAMA"S POPULARITY !!!!!!

[Mosby]

7. stomping on an American flag is probably not a good method of pursuasion

A Palestinian in Gaza City steps on a U.S. flag during a protest against Obama's visit.

(Photo: Reuters)


http://www.politico.com/gallery/2013/03/obama-israel-trip/000888-012547.html

[azurnoir]

8. hmm in Gaza yet odd he did not visit Gaza and it's the only picture of Palestinians

out of 19 but the nerve of those Gazans why just last November the POTUS went to the UNSC and..... the nerve why after all the POTUS has done for those ungrateful Gazans
oddly Politico 'forgot' this one from the West Bank

[Scootaloo]

9. Why bother persuading someone who sees you as subhuman?

Who cheered on the mass bombing of your homes and families. Who denies your right to even have a home? Who is spending his week eating big state dinners with the leaders of a nation that has decided you need to be "put on a diet."

I don't think the president would be particularly receptive to polite attempts at persuasion, Mosby. Nor do I blame anyone in Gaza for not being first in line to offer it.

[cali]

10. that's a fine example of hyperbole.

There's no evidence that President Obama is how you depict him. Views Palestinians as subhuman? Nothing he has ever said or done reflects that. He did not cheer the attack on Gaza. He has not denied that Palestinians have a right to a home.

Posts like yours and others who are vehement on one side or another are why I stopped posting in I/P for quite some time; the demonization of the actors involved whether Palestinian, Israeli or American.

[Scootaloo]

12. Okay. Show me otherwise.

Show me his sympathy for the Gazans being blown to bits last year. I see his acclaim that israel should be free to defend itself, and while I agree with that, i can look at the results and figure there's not much "defense" happening there. Netanyahu referenced that statement today, and he phrased it as a green light for "do whatever it takes."

Show me his belief that Palestinians should have a state that is not defined solely by the US and Israel. Please, this one I'd love to see. he started off on the right track early in his term, calling for discussions to start on the pre-'67 borders, but that pretty quickly turned into him singing another round of "Fuck the Pallies" (you can sing along, it goes along with everyone's favorite N.W.A. song), presumably because the Republicans made his testicles retract with that "Israel under the bus" stuff.

He's forking down food with the same government that beats the shit out of hunger strikers, while engaging in a blockade against Gaza that includes food products (presumably to prevent the use of dreaded potato guns and salami rockets).

In his three day tour, he's alotting about five hours (less, if you subtract travel and prep) to talking with Palestinians.

Does this translate into seeing Palestinian as subhuman? It certainly translates into a whole not of not-giving-a-fuck. WWhich when people are dying and being dispossessed and otherwise suffering, I can't help but translate into a disregard of their basic humanity.

[azurnoir]

14. well why I question the sub-human part does Susan Rice act unilaterally?

she wholeheartedly defended Israel's bombing Gaza even though it was clear that civilians were being killed and that Israel had instigated it

In the dark of night, on 14 November, the United Nations Security Council met to discuss Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. As elections in Israel are on the horizon, the Israeli Defense Force conducted an extra-judicial assassination of Hamas’ Ahmad Jabari, who only hours beforehand had received a draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel (according to Nir Hasson at Haaretz). A barrage of Israeli aircraft and warships followed Jabari’s assassination. A few rockets were fired from Gaza, but these have had a negligible impact. The war on Gaza is not between two armed forces, even matched, each flying the flag of a country; it is a war between a major military power and a people that it has occupied. An occupied people whose means of warfare used to be the suicide bomber and has now devolved to the erratic rockets (propelled by sugar and potassium nitrate, a fertilizer, and made deadly by TNT and urea nitrate, another fertilizer). Most of the rockets fired over the past two days have been intercepted by Israel’s sophisticated Iron Dome system. No such luck for the Palestinians, who have faced US-designed F16 jetfighters and Apache helicopters, and have no defensive systems.

Morocco and Egypt, on behalf of the stateless Palestinians, hastened to the UN Security Council, wanting to stop the violence and condemn Israel for its disproportionate use of force. The Council’s President, India’s Hardeep Singh Puri said, “All the statements that I heard resonated with one message – that the violence has to stop. There has to be de-escalation.”

The United States defended Israel. Susan Rice put the onus on Hamas. “There is no justification for the violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel,” she said. “Israel, like any nation, has the right to defend itself against such vicious attacks.” The sentences sting with contradictions. Israel is not just a nation in this conflict, but an occupying power, who has violated a string of UN resolutions and the Geneva Convention in its treatment of the people it has occupied since 1967. Furthermore, while the United States has listed Hamas as a terrorist organization, this same political party also won relatively free and fair elections in Gaza in 2006 (at which point the Hamas leadership sent US President George W. Bush an unanswered letter with the proposal that they would accept Israel on the 1967 borders). Israel has been obdurate in its reluctance to make peace as long as the United States has backed it, and as long as its settlement policy in the West Bank can change the facts on the ground and its strangulation policy in Gaza can suffocate the population into irrelevance. Rice put her foot down in the Council. It could take no action.

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/8419/the-agonies-of-susan-rice_gaza-and-the-negroponte-

[holdencaufield]

15. This is why it goes on and on ...

Last edited Thu Mar 21, 2013, 04:45 AM - Edit history (1)

Hyperbole and misinformation lead people to bad conclusions ...

"An occupied people whose means of warfare used to be the suicide bomber and has now devolved to the erratic rockets (propelled by sugar and potassium nitrate, a fertilizer, and made deadly by TNT and urea nitrate, another fertilizer). Most of the rockets fired over the past two days have been intercepted by Israel’s sophisticated Iron Dome system. No such luck for the Palestinians, who have faced US-designed F16 jetfighters and Apache helicopters, and have no defensive systems. "



The people using the rockets are Hamas and they aren't using them because they are occupied (they aren't). They ARE using them because (in their own words, not mine) they want to destroy the Jewish State and control all of the territory which is currently part of Israel.

And yes - they are doing it with shitty weapons -- their weapons which have no chance of achieving their objective and which -- frankly -- only piss of the Israelis and anyone else who doesn't secretly like to see explosives dropping on the heads of Israeli civilians.

So -- given that they have an unachievable goal and no means of even actively pursuing it -- what kind of insane person encourages them to do anything but put down the rockets and negotiate a settlement? Encouraging Hamas to keep fighting is like sending Lindsay Lohan a gift certificate to Liquor World or handing Kurt Corbain a shotgun. And, frankly, I would have to question either the sanity or motivation (or both) of anyone who would do so.

Yes -- there are those who will say (allow me to say it first) that Israel will never stop "oppressing" the people of Gaza and I say -- how do you know? Unless you believe in the intractably evil nature of a certain ethnic majority in Israel, and I'm sure some do, you can't say that Hamas has EVER given peace a chance.

I have a bargain for Hamas (and their vocal supporters here on DU) -- stop the fighting, stop the rockets, stop the rhetoric and embrace peace for ONE YEAR (355 days on the Islam calendar) and see if Israel doesn't agree to lift the embargo on Gaza.

What have they got to lose, I know it will be tough to spend an entire year not trying to kill Jews -- but, do they honestly think their current strategy is working? They only need to stop for a year. After the year is up, if Israel hasn't lifted the embargo, go nuts -- shoot all the rockets you like with my blessing.

[King_David]

11. Yes you must be frustrated,

Obama is a clear Zionist,

WOW

[Scootaloo]

13. Naw, just a little saddened, actually.

I wasn't expecting any pro-Palestinian pulpit-pounding at all, but this is just sort of like... wallowing. Might as well appoint Romney as ambassador, if this is the trend set for the second term

Oh well. I guess you were right. Guess I have one more thing I disagree with obama about. Still comes in behind education, the bank bailouts, and drones, but hey.