Obama: Don't blame it all on Israel

[Fozzledick]

At the end of his two-day visit to Turkey on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama met with Muslim, Christian and Jewish students, and urged Muslims to look at the "two sides" to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"In the Muslim world, the notion that somehow everything is the fault of the Israelis lacks balance because there are two sides to every question," AFP quoted the US president as telling university students in Istanbul.

To the Jewish members of the group Obama said, "I say the same thing to my Jewish friends - you have to see the perspective of the Palestinians. Learning to stand in someone else's shoes, to see through their eyes... this is how peace begins."

"The world will be what you make of it," Obama told the students. "You can choose to make new bridges instead of new walls."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562937508&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Idealism]

1. The title should read: Don't blame it all on anyone

but then again, it is JPost...

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Idealism]

3. By correcting the title of a JPost article to what the article actually says= blaming "the Jews?"

My word you have serious psychological issues.

[oberliner]

4. Here is the Ynet headline for the same story: Obama: See the Palestinian perspective

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3698873,00.html

[Idealism]

5. A better title considering Ynets usual audience, but I still would like both sides blamed

not just focusing on one over the other

[oberliner]

6. But Obama's audience was a group in Turkey

Much more likely that they would put the blame on the Israeli side than the Palestinian side.

I think it would be as hard to get some folks in Turkey to see the Israeli POV as it would to get some folks in the USA to see the Palestinian POV.

[Idealism]

7. Since when are Obama's remarks aimed only to Turkey?

You can argue that Ynet is mostly aimed at Israeli's, whereas Obama's speeches (especially during his trips abroad) are aimed globally.

[oberliner]

9. Just saying he was directing his comments specifically to Turkish university students

I would think that he would present things differently to Israeli university students, for instance.

[Idealism]

18. He would mention them in a different order, but he mentioned both

even though there was not many (if any, presumably) Jewish members of the audience.

[madeline_con]

11. "At the end of his two-day visit to Turkey .."

The audience was a group in Turkey.

[Name removed]

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[bemildred]

8. My God! All this damnable bridge-building has to stop!!

:sarcasm:

[LeftishBrit]

10. Agreed - don't bl;ame it all on either side!

"You can choose to make new bridges instead of new walls."

And let's hope that they do - on both sides.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Except that it is Israel that is occupying Palestinian land

It is Israel who could have ended the Occupation decades ago were it not for greed and religious zealotry.

Otherwise, this is like telling the Vietnamese or Algerians to see it through the eyes of the French colonials.

[oberliner]

14. It's a good idea to try to see through another person's eyes

regardless of how awful their views may seem to you. It helps breed understanding.

If you just see the other side as "evil" or as "the enemy" it is unlikely that any progress will be made.

Horrible as the 9/11 attacks were, for example, it is not unhelpful to try to get a sense of what may have motivated the attackers for doing what they did.

A lot of things could have led to the end of the Occupation. Perhaps if the Palestinian nationalist movement did not use terrorism as a tool they would have been viewed differently by Israel and the West. Or if the movement had not initially insisted on liberating all of Palestine (Israel included).

Or Jordan and Egypt could have created an independent Palestinian state during the time that they were occupying Gaza and the West Bank.

[Name removed]

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[Neo Atheist]

16. Supporters of communism probably shouldn't bitch about imperialism and occupation

Your obvious political ideology has far more blood on its hands than any non-religious one.

Sonofabitch... This was directed at IndianaGreen not the guy I accidentally replied to.

[PCIntern]

17. Delete...SNAFU

[GoesTo11]

19. Speaking to all Muslims, this is still a good message

It is probably too much to expect Palestinians right now to be see both sides of the issue, but speaking in Turkey it's fine. The Muslim world has done much wrong in how it has dealt with Israel - and the Palestinians for that matter.

Obama is a smart cookie. He will have more moral authority in calling on Israel to work for peace if he says things like this, but he will also have more moral authority with Palestinians and other Arabs and Muslim countries for not giving kneejerk approval to everything Israel does. He is trying to defuse the emotions in order to move into real dialogue.

This way of approaching conflicts is exactly why I supported him. These are the skills we need in a president for these times.