Obama again threatens possibility of allowing UN vote on Palestinian statehood, more - Christi Parsons and Michael A. Memoli -
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0615/obama_threatens_again.php3 President Barack Obama took a step toward a tougher line with Israel in an interview released Tuesday, raising the possibility that the U.S. will allow a United Nations vote on issues related to the Palestinians if the two sides make no meaningful movement toward peace.
In an interview with an Israeli television station, Obama noted that his administration has "up until this point" quashed such efforts at the U.N. while insisting that the Israelis and Palestinians must negotiate a resolution. But he said it is a challenge for the U.S. to keep demanding that the Palestinians negotiate in good faith if no one believes the Israelis are doing the same.
"How do we move off what appears right now to be a hopeless situation and move it back towards a hopeful situation?" Obama asked in the interview. "That will require more than just words. That will require some actions. And that's going to be hard work, though, because right now I think there's not a lot of confidence in the process."
The comment was the latest sign that Obama has concluded that the U.S. must rethink its stance on the Mideast peace process if it is to maintain credibility in the world.
His thinking on the matter was clearly spurred this spring by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stand against Palestinian statehood during his election campaign. Even though Netanyahu has since publicly reversed his position, Obama said in the interview that Israel "as a whole loses credibility" on the point.
"If, in fact, there's no prospect of an actual peace process, if nobody believes there's a peace process, then it becomes more difficult to argue with those who are concerned about settlement construction, those who are concerned about the current situation," Obama said. "It's more difficult for me to say to them, 'Be patient and wait because we have a process here' - because all they need to do is to point to the statements that have been made saying there is no process."
Obama's critical tone toward Netanyahu, describing him as someone who is "predisposed" to "think perhaps that peace is naive," appeared to return to the tough language that marked administration statements earlier this spring, around the time of the Israeli election. More recently, the White House had seemed to be trying to mend fences.
The apparent shift in tone seems "hard to understand," said a Democratic strategist with close ties to the White House. Previous White House criticisms of the prime minister clearly strengthened Netanyahu electorally, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating White House officials. "These kind of attacks don't really hurt him. They help him."
Obama's veiled threat about Palestinian statehood lands hard at a time when the U.S. and other world powers are in high-stakes negotiations with Iranian officials to limit their country's nuclear program. Israel deeply opposes the deal on the grounds that it will bolster Iran's nuclear efforts and its economy and boost its aggression in the Middle East; some of Iran's leaders have said Israel does not have the right to exist. The deadline for a deal, a major foreign-policy priority for Obama, is at the end of the month, and the president is already gearing up for the difficult sales job ahead of him if an agreement is reached. Congress has demanded a chance to review the deal, a point Obama has ceded, but the deep opposition from Israel could complicate his attempts to gain approval from U.S. lawmakers who ardently support Israel.
In advance of that prospect, Obama recently visited a prominent Washington synagogue to talk about his deep love of Israel. Close advisers and friends have tried to underscore the point, with former senior advisor David Axelrod telling Israeli Channel 2 that Obama feels a deep personal affinity for the Jewish people.
And in an interview with the Atlantic magazine last week, Obama also talked about his personal commitment to the security of Israel, and idea he mirrored in the new interview with Channel 2's Ilana Dayan.
Obama told Dayan that the U.S. assistance to Israel on security, intelligence and military matters "doesn't go away" because it is part of a "solemn commitment that I've made with respect to Israel's security."
But there may be a "practical consequence" if there are new resolutions introduced in the U.N., he said.
The peace process could become a bigger problem for Obama in his complicated ties with Israel, but analysts say he has been trying to simplify that relationship lately by explaining himself directly to the Israeli public.
As he prepares to talk about a possible resolution with Iran over its nuclear deal, said one, Obama's primary message is about his intent.
"He has to persuade the Israeli audience that he is preoccupied with the security of Israel," said Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Did wearing a kippa and speaking in a prominent synagogue do the trick? It certainly reinforced a sense of affinity and reassured some people of the nature of his ties to Israel."
As he spoke with Dayan, Obama drew his own parallels between the African-American experience and the Jewish one.
"In my mind, there is a direct line between the Jewish experience, the African-American experience, and as a consequence, we have, I hope, a special empathy and a special regard for those who are being mistreated because of the color of their skin or the nature of their faith," Obama said.
USA Freedom Act Gestapo-like shell game - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com
It is a very rare thing these days when the "president," the House, and the Senate agree on something. They did so on revising and extending the Patriot Act with another misnamed "spy on all US citizens" bill called the USA Freedom Act. Americans have become accustomed to major laws that are named the exact opposite of what they do--Patriot Act, Affordable Care Act, No Child Left Behind Act, Clean Air Act and so on. When this "president" and this Congress agree on anything, it should raise your suspicion. The USA Freedom Act is a shell game being played on all Americans. It is another opportunity to continue spying on every American citizen, shifting accountability to a secret court.
Now all the federal government has to do is get approval to gather your phone records from an unconstitutional secret court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The National Journal reports that "the Freedom Act calls for a transition within 6 months to a system where phone companies provide records to government spies on an as-needed, more-targeted basis after judicial approval is obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court." The government's spying on US citizens was exposed and after much outrage, it was reinstated under a different procedure, hoping that Americans would be content that they won a victory for privacy. But your privacy ends "as needed."
In June 2013, the UK Guardian released an investigative story on how the White House used the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to bypass the Patriot Act. The Guardian published documents submitted to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, signed by Attorney General Eric Holder July 29, 2009. The documents show that the White House used this court to back door "authority" to collect information on American citizens. The Guardian reported that the broad scope of the court orders and nature of the procedures established in the documents appeared "to clash" with assurances from the White House that our telephone and email information could not be accessed without warrants.
The White House knows how to use this secret court to spy on all Americans. The USA Freedom Act is just appeasement to make people think the government has corrected something. In reality, Congress and the White House have just back-doored their ability to oppress your freedom. As written in Jeremiah 6:14, "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." In John 3:20, Jesus said, "For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." We need to continue to expose these deeds and demand accountability, otherwise your freedom of religion and of speech will be crushed in darkness.
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