NY Times Reporter: Shame How Netanyahu and Conservatives Ignored Obama's 'Nuances' on Palestinians
Saturday’s lead from New York Times reporter Steven Lee Myers did its best to paint Israel’s conservative, pro-security prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as being disingenuous and stubborn in the face of President Obama’s reasonable offer for Israel to give up land to the Palestinians: "Israeli Leader Rebuffs Obama On ‘67 Borders – Both Denounce Hamas – Meeting at White House Underscores Barriers to Peace Process."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told President Obama on Friday that he shared his vision for a peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and then promptly listed a series of nonnegotiable conditions that have kept the two sides at an impasse for years.
Sitting at Mr. Obama’s side in the Oval Office, leaning toward him and at times looking him directly in the eye, the Israeli leader bluntly rejected compromises of the sort Mr. Obama had outlined the day before in hopes of reviving a moribund peace process. Mr. Obama, who had sought to emphasize Israel’s concerns in his remarks moments earlier, stared back.
Myers accused both Netanyahu and American conservatives of getting Obama’s "nuances" wrong.
Most significant among his public objections, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel would not accept a return to the boundaries that existed before the war in 1967 gave it control of the West Bank and Gaza, calling them indefensible. On Thursday, Mr. Obama said for the first time that those borders should to be the starting point for negotiations to create a Palestinian state, though he emphasized that they would be adjusted to some degree through land swaps to account for Israeli settlements. Mr. Netanyahu simply ignored that nuance -- as did many conservative critics here in Washington -- further exacerbating tensions with the administration.
Myers also made the Times's front page with an anti-war screed in February 2008 which opened: "Mr. Bush never sounds surer of himself than when the subject is Sept. 11, even when his critics argue that he has squandered the country's moral authority, violated American and international law, and led the United States into the foolhardy distraction of Iraq."
- Clay Waters's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Nuances?
Submitted by syvyn11 on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 1:33pm.
What Americans want (along with what Netanyahu wants) is a President that says what he means and means what he says. One who doesn't think "If I shape my opinion this way, I'll get x votes on election day?
Instead the world gets a man who cares more about.... "Nuances".
BO's speeches should have subtitles...
Submitted by bigdaddy on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 1:43pm.
...So those of us who understand plain english can "get" his "nuances"...
just like....
Submitted by notinstl on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 1:47pm.
everyone missed BO's "nuance" that you could keep your own health insurance.
In that part of the world,
Submitted by richflanj on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 2:06pm.
In that part of the world, "nuance" get people killed.
"Nuance" = gerrymander Israel.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 2:12pm.
Here's an excellent example of what this brilliant nuancing might look like.
The green would be the Israelis and the white would be the Allah Akbarbarians..
→ Obama's nuance
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 2:53pm.
Reminds me of that safari scene from Monty Python "I love animals . . . That's why I kill 'em"
Appears Obama's "nuance" went right over our heads and settled into the brains of the Arabs who heard "Whatever you guys want to do is fine with me"
The Arab world*
Submitted by cajun2 on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 3:18pm.
Indeed, the Arab world will agree to anything Obama wants if it is about the Palestinians. In every middle eastern country, there are Palestinian refuge camps. There are 12 in Lebanon alone. and have been opened for almost 60 years. They are not allowed out of the camps to roam about as other citizens because the Arab world hates them. They fight among each other in the camps and the authorities are not allowed to interfere because of an agreement with the UN. The PLO is supposed to provide security.
Can you imagine what life is like for those people? No housing, no schools, no security. Of course the Arab world wants to enlarge Palestine so they can ship those people out of their countries.
Interesting that neither Obama nor the media even included the refugees in this story. Arabs are the most intolerant people shown by their hatred for each other let alone infidels.
These very same NYT liberals...
Submitted by IdahoJim on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 3:33pm.
...were the one's that pronounced Obama's new position as a "subtle" shift in US policy towards Israel.
Subtle my great gray greasy asphalt.
IdahoJim
http://idahoandy.net
Obama's Real Border Wish
Submitted by The Grooter on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 3:43pm.
Why doesn't he tell Netanyahu to just move Isreal's borders back to the 1947 lines and get it over with?
whinny, thin-skinned libtards
Submitted by ohio granny on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 4:11pm.
Whinny and thin-skinned liberals. How dare anyone question or confront the "Won"? They know he is the smartest man in the world.
Please answer this question for me. If he is indeed the smartest man in the world, why does he refuse to release ANY of his grades from public school, college or law school? Seems to me the smartest man in the world would be proud to release them. Or could it be that he really is just average or even below average. How would they ever survive the shock of finding that out?
Nuance?
Submitted by motherbelt on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 4:12pm.
Oh, is that what that was?
Was this "nuance" too?
No country can be expected to negotiate with a terrorist organization sworn to its destruction
and then in the next paragraph
And yet, ....[ ]..... we must acknowledge that a failure to try is not an option.
We can't expect you to negotiate with people who want you dead, but not doing so is not an option.
It's not nuance; it's called trying to have it both ways.
The new term
Submitted by CobraMan on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 4:44pm.
"Nuance," that must be the new term for doublespeak.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Palestinians also didn't get
Submitted by redfish on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 6:48pm.
Palestinians also didn't get his nuances, they think Obama supports their position and condemned Netanyahu for speaking against the 1967 borders.
The Obama staff also told reporters they knew ahead of time that it would be 'controversial'.
Controversial???
Submitted by RESTLESS 1 on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 6:57pm.
If, as the 0 claims, that this has been US policy for, like forever, then why would it be controversial now? I think the 0 is lying again. I can tell. His lips are moving.
Obama treats his speeches and
Submitted by Reaver on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 7:38pm.
Obama treats his speeches and policies the same way he treats his golf game, mulligan!
When you have stood on the
Submitted by Zippy on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 8:35pm.
When you have stood on the borders.
In the dead of night..............
Read this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu
Barry has no room to speak. His bed has always been warm...........
I have a theory on this...
Submitted by MightyMouth on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 11:04pm.
Liberal Journos are counting on the sheer STUPIDITY and APATHY of the average DUMB FICKLE AMERICAN voter. These people are so stupid that they wait to the last day of a political campaign to decide what they belive in. I think they are called INDEPENDANTS or something like that. Anyhow, they shouldn't be allowed to walk around without assistance.. let alone vote!
Ok off topic. sorry...