The beginning of this article really pin pointed how much pressure is placed on politicians globally. During Obama's first speech to Cairo during his first year of his presidency, he briefly touched on Israel. While doing this, he happened to make the mistake of saying that the reason for the Mass Aliyah was because of the Holocaust, not because of the historical connection to the land. I interpreted this as Obama trying to appeal to a different country, because at the time, compared to the other countries in the Middle East, Israel was doing fairly well. I also accredit this to Obama also being human. Although he has many people helping him write his speeches, he is still a human that makes mistakes and can accidentally offend groups of people just like everyone else. As an American reading this article, I felt slightly offended. While I do not agree with all of Obama's policies, this article is extremely one sided and felt uncomfortable that this article was specifically targeting Obama.
To state that this article was an understanding of the deep seeded conflict that lies between Netanyahu and Obama is a misconception. This article barley touched on Netanyahu's flaws, particularly, the most recent controversy of Netanyahu's address to congress. In the article that I read earlier in the week interviewing Yair Lapid, he stated that while Netanyahu's speech was very good, the timing of it ruined the whole thing. Because the speech occurred two weeks before the Israeli elections, it seemed as if Netanyahu's intentions were mainly driven by political reasons. While the speech was extremely effective, the way he went about doing it was very wrong and took away from the speech itself. Had Netanyahu waited a few weeks after the elections and asked Obama instead of going behind his back, he would have probably earned a lot more respect and understanding of why this issue is so important not just on a political level but because it potentially threatens the lives of many people. In the coming week, we will see how effective Netanyahu's speech was as it could easily be reflected similarly in the polls. Netanyahu can either be seen as the hero rebel who went against the US president to speak about an issue extremely important to him, or the jerk who does whatever he wants.
To state that this article was an understanding of the deep seeded conflict that lies between Netanyahu and Obama is a misconception. This article barley touched on Netanyahu's flaws, particularly, the most recent controversy of Netanyahu's address to congress. In the article that I read earlier in the week interviewing Yair Lapid, he stated that while Netanyahu's speech was very good, the timing of it ruined the whole thing. Because the speech occurred two weeks before the Israeli elections, it seemed as if Netanyahu's intentions were mainly driven by political reasons. While the speech was extremely effective, the way he went about doing it was very wrong and took away from the speech itself. Had Netanyahu waited a few weeks after the elections and asked Obama instead of going behind his back, he would have probably earned a lot more respect and understanding of why this issue is so important not just on a political level but because it potentially threatens the lives of many people. In the coming week, we will see how effective Netanyahu's speech was as it could easily be reflected similarly in the polls. Netanyahu can either be seen as the hero rebel who went against the US president to speak about an issue extremely important to him, or the jerk who does whatever he wants.
I completely agree with what you said. I think that the article was definitely completely one sided. I think that you are right when you say that Obama or any political leader can offend anyone, obviously because we are all human beings and we make mistakes. I also agree with your ideas on the way Bibi went about his speech to Congress. Overall I think that this was very well written and well thought out. I think that your ideas are very concrete!
ReplyDeleteI think that the politics involving Israel and America has become a huge balagan. I think that the article touched a little on how both leaders have some blame in the matter, but the article definitely pinned most of the blame on Obama which I disagree with. I think that both leaders have screwed up at points and that the speech to Congress was a political move on Bibi's part and not a true slap in the face towards Obama.
ReplyDeleteThe points brought up in this blog post were very accurate. Although Obama may not have been the friendliest with Netanyahu, it is a vast misconception to think he would intentionally offend world Jewry. Obama most likely was ignorant to the nature of his speech. Netanyahu however knew that he would offend Obama by giving his speech yet pressed ahead as he felt his election/israel's security to be more important.
ReplyDelete