Sunday, April 08, 2007

“Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.”

“Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.”

-- Barack Obama

Unfortunately later his spokesman had to backtrack (due to the US media outrage) [link].

How could any sane person disagree with that quote??

Agreeing on shared principles is a way to end the problems in conflicts.

There isn't a hope in hell of resolution when you cannot say something so obvious, true and simple.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, superlatives are always very easy to take apart. One could argue that children dying of AIDS, starvation, diarrhea AND horrible parasites growing out of their legs have it worse. Or that not all Palestinians have it as bad - Hamas has money to buy rockets and explosives somehow, but not food?

But the bone of the meat is that some in the US are strongly supportive of Israel, no matter what they may do. The Palestinians are non-entities to them. This, as you said, is a major barrier to peace.

And on the other side, the entirety of the Muslim world strongly supports Palestine, no matter what they may do. The Israelis (or perhaps, all Jews of any political leaning) are non-entities to them. This, as you may have meant, is also a major barrier to peace.

For the record, I feel that after all these decades, neither side has clean hands. Like a fight between siblings, it doesn't matter who started it or who is ultimately right. They're both in trouble with Mom for continuing it beyond all civility.

Maybe the Israelis are brutal occupiers, maybe the Palestians sabotage every peace process with fresh bombings and attacks. But it's gotten the world so entwined that even when all directly-involved sides are ready to make major concessions and aim for lasting peace, outside parties with their own agenda and preferred 'winner' may not let them.

Unknown said...

"Well, superlatives are always very easy to take apart. One could argue
that children dying of AIDS, starvation, diarrhea AND horrible
parasites growing out of their legs have it worse."

Obviously that quote was made in the context of the Israel / Palestine problems.

Just seems that either side can't agree on the most simple obvious things at the moment.

The Dodo said...

how can he says that 'nobody is suffering more than the palestinian people'?? everybody is being degraded and denied of their basic rights in wars. nobody should make a competition of it.

Unknown said...

Put it this way Denica, i'd much prefer to live in Israel than Gaza or whatnot...

cerebrator said...

Perhaps Obama's statement has trith in it. And I think he meant it in a 'collective' context rather than in 'individual' terms.

Pertaining to what John said,
It's better to be a Jew in Gaza than a Palestinian in Gaza.

In any case, I find Obama's statement rather hypocritical.

I think US foreign policy on Israel will remain the same even if he becomes the next President.

But then again, I may be wrong.