Israel Goes Under The Bus

Looks like Obama is going to urge that Jerusalem be divided- and that Israel retreat to pre-1967 borders. This latter fantasy- that there will be peace if only Israel adopt the borders it had before 1967 is oft-repeated. Funny how those borders never brought Israel any peace before 1967. Does Obama know what happened in '67? Has he heard of a little thing called the Six-Day War? How does he posit the fantasy of '67-borders peace with this statement from a time when Israel did, in fact, occupy those borders-

"We have nothing for Israel except war - comprehensive war... marching against its gangs, destroying and putting an end to the whole Zionist existence... every one of the 100 million Arabs has been living for the past 19 years on one hope - to live to die on the day that Israel is liquidated."

Here's what Obama has in mind for the besieged state of Israel-

Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, according to sources close to America’s president-elect.

Obama intends to throw his support behind a 2002 Saudi peace initiative endorsed by the Arab League and backed by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister and leader of the ruling Kadima party.

The proposal gives Israel an effective veto on the return of Arab refugees expelled in 1948 while requiring it to restore the Golan Heights to Syria and allow the Palestinians to establish a state capital in east Jerusalem.

On a visit to the Middle East last July, the president-elect said privately it would be “crazy” for Israel to refuse a deal that could “give them peace with the Muslim world”, according to a senior Obama adviser.

Obama has yet to explain how the example of Gaza and Hamas will work in this context- handing Gaza over to Palestinian control succeeded only in providing them with a location to launch rocket attacks deeper into Israel- and Hamas is still committed to seeing that all of Israel is annihilated. 1967 borders will not change that mindset one iota.

So much for an undivided Jerusalem- oh wait, foreign policy expert Obama had no idea this this was a controversial thing to say. But he does know how peace can be achieved there.

According to a Washington source Obama told Abbas: “The Israelis would be crazy not to accept this initiative. It would give them peace with the Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco.”

Wow- this breathtaking ignorance of the Muslim world's hostility merely to the existence of Israel is staggering.

UPDATE - Robert Spencer makes a pertinent point about the Islamic notion of what a treaty entails.

Amid all the enthusiasm for this plan, as noted in the article below, no one seems to have considered anything about the Islamic legal doctrine regarding treaties, which allows Muslims to conclude only temporary truces with the infidels, in order to allow the Muslims time to gather their strength and fight again more effecively sometime in the future.