Obama “Clarifies” Jerusalem Remarks

Posted by Enrique on 06.06.2008

One man’s clarification is another man’s phony baloney

Apparently I spoke too soon in my post yesterday when I obliquely congratulated Barack Obama for putting himself on Hamas' craplist. In his AIPAC speech, Obama said that Jerusalem must be Israel's undivided capital. What a difference a couple of days make:

Facing criticism from Palestinians, Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged today that the status of Jerusalem will need to be negotiated in future peace talks, amending a statement earlier in the week that Jerusalem "must remain undivided."

…Obama quickly backtracked [Thursday] in an interview with CNN.

"Well, obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations," Obama said when asked whether Palestinians had no future claim to the city.

Well, obviously. Obama has faced criticism over his perceived commitment to Israel, and apparently he went a little overboard at AIPAC. Even the ultra-Zionist Bush administration doesn't (explicitly) take the position that Jerusalem must remain undivided. In an effort to compensate for his naïveté on foreign policy, Obama made a speech in which he thoroughly demonstrated his naïveté on foreign policy. Cowboy.

Thankfully, this convenient reversal allows Obama skeptics to go back to portraying him as soft on jihadists. Thankfully for me, anyway.