More on Knesset speech: Bush blasts Obama, Obama cries foul - UPDATE: Video added
There's a part of President Bush's Knesset speech that wasn't in the JPost account that I cited earlier, which has apparently upset the Presidential campaign of Barack Hussein Obama. President Bush launched a sharp but veiled attack Thursday on Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats, suggesting they favor "appeasement" of terrorists in the same way some Western leaders appeased Hitler in the run-up to World War II.I fail to see any difference between Iran and Hamas. Each is a terror supporter, each has its own terror organization and each controls territory. It can be argued that Iran is a state and Hamas is not, but de facto, Hamas in Gaza functions as a state as well. Iran and Hamas are so similar that there is really no difference between talking to one and talking to the other. I would talk to neither. But then my middle name isn't Hussein.
The president did not name Obama or any other Democrat, but White House aides privately acknowledged the remarks were aimed at the presidential candidate and others in his party. Former President Jimmy Carter has called for talks with Hamas.
"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said at Israel's 60th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem.
"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to Israel's parliament, the Knesset. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
The remarks seemed to be a not-so-subtle attempt to continue to raise doubts about Obama with Jewish Americans. Those doubts were earlier stoked by Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2008 presidential election, when he recently charged that Obama is the favored candidate of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, which the U.S. government has listed as a terrorist group.
Obama last week called the Hamas allegation a "smear" and lashed out Thursday at Bush's speech in Israel. [It's definitely not a smear. CiJ]
"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said in a statement released to CNN by his campaign. "It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel…." [You mean 'change' by sucking up to Iran and Hamas and all the other terrorists? That'll accomplish a lot. CiJ]
"George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists [What's Ahmadinejad? CiJ], and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel," Obama's statement said.
Obama favors "tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions," according to his Web site, "and is willing to meet with the leaders of all nations, friend and foe." He does not favor talks with Hamas, which he has called a terrorist organization.
UPDATE 9:02 PM
Let's go to the videotape.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:06 PM
6 Comments:
The difference is simple: Iran doesn't have anything to do with Jewish holy sites.
sarcasm off
I'm pretty sure CNN is spinning this as an anti-Obama thing. Bush said what needed to be said at this time; it's coincidental that there is an election and BHO is the leading Demoncratic contender.
Elsewhere, Bush aides said it was not aimed at Obama.
News Busters contends this story.
- Steven
Here is another follow up Carl.
From the video attached to this post it is clear that CNN has behaved abhorrently and is transparently driving an agenda as opposed to reporting the news (something most people expect reporters to do).
- Steven
Carl - the "good terrorists" of the PA aren't that different from Hamas and Iran. Its a semantic distinction and if Israel lived up to its principles, it would have no truck with Mahmoud Abbas and those around him. Israel's elites are afraid to tell the Americans that the peace rose doesn't have buds but is full of thorns.
Steven,
I happened to look at MSNBC's coverage (with Pat Buchanan and Harold Ford Jr.) and it was much worse than CNN's. The two of them and the anchor sat and nodded at each other for the entire report about how horrible Bush is.
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