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I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that Barack Obama isn’t taking sides in Israel’s war against Hamas. The man has had jelly for a spine ever since he entered public life. Remember the Syrian „red line“?
But in some ways, Obama can’t help it. He’s been groomed by the liberal establishment to avoid offending people. He was successfully able to couch his radicalism in the language of brotherhood and harmony. It got him elected twice and created a mythos around him and his presidency that continues to this day.
“I look at this, and I think back, ‘What could I have done during my presidency to move this forward, as hard as I tried?’” he said in an interview conducted by his former staffers for their podcast „Pod Save America.“ “But there’s a part of me that’s still saying, ‘Well, was there something else I could have done?’”
Helping Israel destroy Hamas might have been a good start. But that would have been too decisive. Besides, it would have gotten Arab Americans mad at him at the time. That would have blackened his reputation as a „moderate“ peacemaker.
“What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it,” Mr. Obama said. “And what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable.
