Yesterday, I wrote a
column about the growing number of policy shifts undergone by
Barack Obama during this campaign, but his latest may be the most
craven yet.
Attempting to calm fears over his stance toward Israel, Obama
gave a speech to AIPAC on Wednesday, and declared: "Jerusalem will
remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided." I was
in the room, and it was one of the biggest applause lines in his
speech.
But within a day of uttering those words, he has already changed
his tune amid Palestinian pressure.
Reuters reports:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama amended his support for Israel's stance on
Jerusalem on Thursday, saying Palestinians and Israelis had to
negotiate the future of the holy city.
Palestinian leaders reacted with anger and dismay on Wednesday
to Obama saying Jerusalem should be Israel's undivided capital.
"Well, obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to
negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of
those negotiations," Obama told CNN when asked whether Palestinians
had no future claim to the city.
People may disagree over whether or not Jerusalem should be
divided, and about whether it should be an issue in the American
presidential election. But regardless of one's views on the issue,
here we have an example of Obama going before a constituency and
telling them what they wanted to hear, only to reverse himself when
his statements got criticized by another group, in this case,
Hamas.
As I wrote in my column: "given that Obama has such a thin
public record, Americans have no way of evaluating him other than
on the basis of what he is currently saying. If he is so willing to
change his positions and alter his rhetoric on the basis of what is
most politically convenient at the time, then voters have no way of
assessing how he would actually govern."
UPDATE: I just went back and listened to my recording of Obama's
AIPAC speech, and after this new development, the following line
takes on added irony: "I want you to know that today I will be
speaking from my heart."
topics:
Barack Obama, Israel
