Responding to BO

Obama's image in Israel is a far cry from what it is in the States. His Cairo speech only confirmed the general perception, as reflected in his unofficial portraits that are cropping up all over the region--as fast as someone tries to remove them, someone else reinstalls them with stronger adhesive.

It is with this image in mind that Israelis were waiting for Bibi's reply to Obama's Fractured Fairie Tales version of Middle Eastern History from Cairo. Even though Bibi repeatedly used the term "de-militarized" (which will be immediately forgotten), many listeners were satisfied that his corrections to Obama's historical inaccuracies.

It remains to be seen how Bibi will use his new direction or how it will sit in the Knesset--clearly there is an expected lag between the speech, behind the scenes wrangling over support, and the public reaction in the government corridors. Governments have fallen over this issue. Unlike Israel's neighbors, Israel is a democracy, not a juanta, and it is the electorate who have the final say. Imagine that!

However, the part of the Prime Minister's speech that was most pointedly addressed to Barach Obama was clearly the section devoted to setting the record straight about WHY Jews are specifically living in THIS part of the world (as opposed to Uganda or the Matta Grasso in Brazil).

But let me first say that the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has lasted for more than 3500 years. Judea and Samaria, the places where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David and Solomon, and Isaiah and Jeremiah lived, are not alien to us. This is the land of our forefathers.

The right of the Jewish people to a state in the land of Israel does not derive from the catastrophes that have plagued our people. True, for 2000 years the Jewish people suffered expulsions, pogroms, blood libels, and massacres which culminated in a Holocaust - a suffering which has no parallel in human history.

There are those who say that if the Holocaust had not occurred, the state of Israel would never have been established. But I say that if the state of Israel would have been established earlier, the Holocaust would not have occurred.

This tragic history of powerlessness explains why the Jewish people need a sovereign power of self-defense.

But our right to build our sovereign state here, in the land of Israel, arises from one simple fact: this is the homeland of the Jewish people, this is where our identity was forged.

As Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence: “The Jewish people arose in the land of Israel and it was here that its spiritual, religious and political character was shaped. Here they attained their sovereignty, and here they bequeathed to the world their national and cultural treasures, and the most eternal of books.”

The official English translation of the Prime Minister's speech can be downloaded here: http://www.pmo.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/97944E18-09B4-4D38-9E95-F87DB81D40E1/0/barilanENG140609.doc

What Israelis are concerned over, and it will surely determine the fate of the current government coalition in the Knesset, is how Obama and his faction will use Bibi's speech. If there is a perception that Obama will ignore everything else but the two of the three words "De-militarized Palestinian State", Bibi will fall. Israelis are still waiting for their payback from Papa Bush for taking all those SCUDS from Iraq in 1991. They will not tolerate anything from Iran in 2010. Obama's continued wooing of Israel's enemies is not a concilation.

Friends in the North have begun to long for the days of Jimmy Carter. One old timer suggested after Obama's assertion that the US is now one of the largest Muslim nations, "since green is the color of Islam--why doesn't BO simply designate the Green Card the Muslim Card and give the Palestinians full entry to the US. That way, he could increase the US Muslim population by close to 20%, drop Israel's ranking to the bottom of the list, and solve the Middle East problem all at once."