The Other McCain

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Obama the Neocon?

Posted on | May 19, 2011 | 27 Comments

Max Boot’s take on the president’s big “Arab spring” speech:

As John [Podhoretz] and Jonathan [Tobin] have already noted, today’s speech at the State Department marks Barack Obama’s emergence as a full-fledged, born-again neocon firmly in the George W. Bush mold. . . .
Obama, like Bush, is a neocon because he has been mugged by events—in his case by the Arab Spring which has exposed the fragility of dictatorships that he once thought, in the fashion of his predecessor’s father, George H.W. Bush, he could make deals with.
Gone now is the apologetic tone of Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo, where he denied that America was “at war with Islam”; proclaimed, in light of Iraq, that “no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other”; and even tried to make amends for the U.S. role in the overthrow of the Mossadeq government in Iran in 1953.
Instead today at the State Department he spoke from a position of moral authority, telling Middle Eastern dictators that the U.S. will no longer tolerate a situation where “in too many countries, power has been concentrated in the hands of the few.” He even specifically repudiated the Realpolitik policy he had once favored, saying that “we have a stake not just in the stability of nations, but in the self-determination of individuals.” From now on, he announced, “it will be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy.”

Hmmm. I suppose people hear what they want to hear. Did Ed Morrissey hear the same speech?

Barack Obama showed up a half-hour late, and once again used the self-promoted White House occasion to say nothing specific, and nothing new.  Even in the most specific part of the speech, regarding the American position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama offered nothing new.  The entire speech could easily have been delivered by George W. Bush in its commendable but hardly inspirational cheering of democratization, which foundered on Obama’s decision to task Bashar Assad with leading democratic reform in Syria.

National Journal has the text of Obama’s speech. Here’s video:

UPDATE:John Tabin at The American Spectator:

President Obama’s speech on the Middle East represents a watershed in his shift from a destructive and delusional approach to the Middle East, marked by indifference to democracy promotion and solicitude toward tyrants, toward embracing a policy that looks a lot like George W. Bush’s Freedom Agenda.

So that’s three commenters who see Obama’s speech as a shift toward Bushism.

UPDATE II: “They told me if I voted for McCain we’d be getting a reluctant clone of Bush’s policies. And they were right!”

UPDATE III: Professor William Jacobson isn’t joining in the general jubilation over the alleged Bush-ification of Obama-ism.

UPDATE IV: Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch didn’t get any leg tingles, either. Now a Memeorandum thread.

UPDATE V: Ace calls the speech “a political document, pure and simple,” and I ask: Who expected anything else? He’s clearly in re-election mode now, and everything he says or does is calculated for political effect.

UPDATE VI: Allahpundit called this the headline of the day:

OBAMA IGNITES MIDDLE EAST POWDER KEG

Who knew the National Enquirer had a foreign-policy desk?

UPDATE VII: David Limbaugh asks, where’s the outrage? But the problem is that, according to various commentators, what Obama said about Israel returning to the 1967 borders is just a reiteration of longstanding U.S. policy. If Max Boot isn’t complaining . . .

UPDATE VIII: Welcome, Instapundit readers! President Obama’s remarks weren’t a big hit with Benjamin Netanyahu.

UPDATE IX: Max Boot’s sanguine initial assessment of Thursday’s speech is now giving way to more skeptical views from his Commentary colleagues, including John Podhoretz (“Did Obama Think He Was Giving a Pro-Israel Speech?“) and Omri Ceren (“Obama Abandons Decades of U.S.-Israeli Diplomacy“).


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Category: Barack Obama, Israel

Comments

  • http://twitter.com/sdo1 Steve in TN

    Another “Miss me yet?” moment.

  • DaveO

    What struck me was the article Drudge posted on the heavy outreach to Jewish financial donors. They’re upset with the POTUS’s stance toward Israel, and may not enthusiastically endorse him. They’ll endorse him, just not enthusiastically.

    Seems to me if one is going to be a friend and ally of Israel, and interested in peace in the region, one shouldn’t need a full court press on campaign donations.

    I’m not seeing the POTUS as either a neo-con or Bush-3. He’s behaving more as one the boutique communists supporting the PLO in a protest march before tucking in to brie and caviar at the salon with mummy and daddy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1385852725 Richard Mcenroe

     Does anyone seriously expect Obama to impose democracy on tyrants he’s bowed to, or simply to look for a better class of tyrant…?

  • Joe

     Many secular Jews (not all but many of them) are far more hostile to Israel and observant Jews than any so call white Christian bigots they love to rail about. And many secular American Jews continue to give a complete pass to Muslims (funny how facing the threat in Israel tends to wake people up).
    So while I hope some American Jews wake up, not having to face the immediate threat like someone getting rockets shot at them from Lebanon or Gaza or having their teenagers blown up outside of Tel Aviv discos, I do not see many of them turning their back on the Democratic party. It is like they are color blind to anti-Semitism from the Democrats. They just can’t see it.

  • Anonymous

    Well, now we get to find out how many nukes Israel actually has or It isn’t as if we didn’t already know that we needed to abolish Palestine, the word, the concept the identity. 

  • Quartermaster

    There is no such thing as a “Secular Jew.”  It’s like calling someone a Hindu Muslim. A Jew is a practitioner of the religion of Judah, and can not be secular.

    The proper term is “Hebrew.”

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  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    Since Israel has nukes, why do we need to abolish Palestine?  Can’t they do it?  

  • http://pumping-irony.livejournal.com/ Wilbur Post

     N, part of the same, long (close to 2  1/2 years now) moment.

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  • David R. Graham

    “I’m not seeing the POTUS as either a neo-con or Bush-3. He’s behaving more as one the boutique communists supporting the PLO in a protest march before tucking in to brie and caviar at the salon with mummy and daddy.”

    “Does anyone seriously expect Obama to impose democracy on tyrants he’s bowed to, or simply to look for a better class of tyrant…?”

    The purpose of the speech was to announce the intent of his admin to subsidize the Moslem Brotherhood and its *current* allies outside Africa: Iran, Hizbollah and Hamas.  This is African Secular Shia Mohammedanism (islam, Wilders calls it to distinguish it from genuine religion, Islam, that is all but extinct) (MB is Sunni) in control of the mechanisms of the US government showing its imperialistic intent, its Caliphatic pretensions.

    Quite the topsy-turvy condition, an enemy of the USA with hands on its levers.  So topsy-turvy (evil) it has to be the Will of God.  His Will be done (reference GSP, Jr.).

    I say let ‘er rip.  The more they show their heads the easier targets they are — and their mole in the White House.

    This is a year of closings.  Big careers are closing, some already, more to come.  Siva walks the land and I for one am happy for it.  I have no idea what is in store.  Nor any ability to predict.  But I trust the Consummator, and live and die, that is enough for me.

    BTW, in Christian theology the correlate of Shiva in the Triune Godhead is Jesus the Christ.  Christianity is a Saivite religion based on the Seers of Buddhism.  Islam, real Islam, which is virtually extinct, is a Vaishnavite religion (was Hebraism/Judaism) based on the Prophets of Christianity.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/N6KW3FJR2ERX2QHDLTECY2MRE4 mark

    i kinda saw it as a wave and a flower toss to the parade going by his presidency…

    given the current, fractious nature of the middle east, there are no real brokers who hold any real/permanent power, especially with the departure of mubarek.

    for that matter, many of the forces which were supported and trained to harry israel, now face a better proposition of supporting their own domestic campaigns.

    i imagine the money is getting thin, as one time donors are suspicious of the the recipients of their cash.  plus, the money is better spent consolidating a ‘local’ concern, relative to the israeli border war. 

    i’m sure the middle east will get back to hating israel, as soon as they sort themselves out.  this might take 10-20 years, but it was nice enough for obama to tell them we’ll be there for them.

     

  • David R. Graham

     Typo:  ” Islam, real Islam, which is virtually extinct, is a Vaishnavite religion (was Hebraism/Judaism) based on the Prophets of Christianity.”

    Should have read:   “Islam, real Islam, which is virtually extinct, is a Vaishnavite religion (as was Hebraism/Judaism), based on the Prophets of Christianity.”

  • David R. Graham

    Concur.

  • mockmook

    Thank goodness Israel has a genius like Obambi to advise them to try to negotiate for peace.

  • JeffS

    “Obama The Neocon” can be found as an example definition in standard dictionaries under “oxymoron”, “nonsense”, and “fantasy”.

  • JeffS

    “Obama The Neocon” can be found as an example definition in standard dictionaries under “oxymoron”, “nonsense”, and “fantasy”.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/N6KW3FJR2ERX2QHDLTECY2MRE4 mark

    the speech was like a comedy sketch…
    jehovah witness knocking on door to methlab. 

    hilarity to ensue.

  • Anonymous

    As spiritually gratifying as nuking the hell out of Islam might be, I’m sure there are some undesirable side effects, having to fight WW3 being one that comes to mind.

    However that isn’t what I meant by abolish Palestine. What I had in mind is completely dropping the use of the term, for instance there are Arabs who used to live in Israel but no Palestinians. The area that used to belong to Jordan west of the Jordan river is Judea and Samaria.
     

  • Anonymous

    “according to various commentators, what Obama said about Israel
    returning to the 1967 borders is just a reiteration of longstanding U.S.
    policy.”

    Bull$#;+. The Res 242 formula is secure and recognized borders. Hussein tossed the 1967 boundaries in as a sop to the Arabs. Bush had promised Israel in writing at the time of the Gaza withdrawal that the US would not pull this kind of stunt.  

    Hussein continues to be a disciple of Rev. Wright and Minister Farrakhan and sides with the Palestinians. He may not be a Muslim, but he continues to be a hard core leftist.

  • Anonymous

    This taken from Prof. Jacobson:

    Rather, in 2004 George W. Bush assured Israel (h/t Jake Tapper) that Israel would not be forced back to the pre-1967 border (emphasis mine):

    As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities.

    http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2011/05/hey-israel-those-territorial-assurances.html

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  • Anonymous

    Obama, like most politicians, has the fatal conceit that he can shape events to his liking. Relying on the collective wisdom of “the Arab Street” may not work out as he “hopes”.

  • Anonymous

    The “new” policy on Israel is all about guilt. Obama is unconsciously guilty and ashamed at having bailed out a bunch of greedy bankers to the tune of billions, and those same bankers have guilty feelings as well. SOMEBODY has to be punished. So the scapegoat turns out to be… Envelope, please…. The poor distant cousins of the greedy bankers all the way over in Israel! Junior is sooo good at picking winners…and losers.

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