| Batoul Wehbe | |
 After his 2009 Cairo speech in which he stressed the right of Palestine to exist, US President Barack Obama’s comments at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday underlined a serious change of position. Obama told the UNGA that he opposes the Palestinian bid for recognition of a state; a declaration that was met with joy and appreciation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The PM lauded Obama saying that he was wearing “a badge of honor” by insisting that negotiations are the only way to peace. Decades of negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaderships have yielded no positive results for the Palestinians. PA leader Mahmoud Abbas himself said a year earlier that 18 years of negotiations have hit the wall. At the UN, Obama said that there could be “no shortcuts” to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and that negotiations between the two parties would be the only means to achieving a true and lasting peace. He assured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that a UN action would not achieve a Palestinian state and the United States would veto any Security Council move to recognize Palestinian statehood.  The president of a country that had waged wars on Iraq and Afghanistan where it killed hundreds of thousands civilians, injured and displaced millions others, had all the nerve to talk about “peace” before the UNGA and recount Israel’s tragedy of being the victim of its Arab neighbors who have waged consecutive wars against it and sought to wipe it off the map. 29 years this month Israel oversaw the execution of 3500 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon during the 1982 invasion, waged more wars during the past two decades on Lebanon and occupied Palestinian territories, however, Obama’s dream of another "four year term" has blocked his memory. “Let’s be  honest: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it,” he said.“Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them… Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile, persecution, and the fresh memory of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they were,” Obama said refuting his Cairo speech in which he noted that Israel’s creation had displaced the Palestinians, and that peace required redress for their six decades of suffering.  Netanyahu was very satisfied with Obama’s comments. He praised the US president at a joint press conference prior to a meeting between them on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York. Obama said that it was a pleasure to welcome Netanyahu to the US, opining that Washington's “pursuit of a just and lasting peace” is compatible with Israel's needs and “puts Israel's security at the forefront.” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also praised Obama: "I congratulate President Obama. I am ready to sign on this speech with both hands," hailing the Obama's omission of issues such as settlements and the 1967 borders.  Obama’s excessive love to Israel had surfaced after two years in office marred by a series of failures in foreign and home policies. Without the Israel lobby in the US, Obama’s chances of another term at the White House are slim. In May this year, Netanyahu delivered a speech at the US Congress. The exaggerated reaction by congressmen to every couple of Netanyahu’s sentences, as in applauding and standing up every 2 two minutes, made the event more theatrical than political; just like everything that involves Israel’s interests and security at the expense of the American taxpayers, the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Syrians and all the anti-Israel camp in the region.
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Uprooted Palestinian
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