The Redhunter

Nor is this merely a theoretical proposition. Three times the Palestinians have been offered exactly that formula, 1967 plus swaps -- at Camp David 2000, Taba 2001, and the 2008 Olmert-Abbas negotiations. Every time, the Palestinians said no and walked away.

And that remains their position today: The 1967 lines. Period. Indeed, in September the Palestinians are going to the U.N. to get the world to ratify precisely that: a Palestinian state on the '67 lines. No swaps.

Note how Obama has undermined Israel's negotiating position. He is demanding that Israel go into peace talks having already forfeited its claim to the territory won in the '67 war -- its only bargaining chip. Remember: That '67 line runs right through Jerusalem. Thus the starting point of negotiations would be that the Western Wall and even Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter are Palestinian -- alien territory for which Israel must now bargain.

The very idea that Judaism's holiest shrine is alien or that Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter is rightfully, historically, or demographically Arab is an absurdity. And the idea that, in order to retain them, Israel has to give up parts of itself is a travesty.

Obama also moved the goal posts on the so-called right of return. Flooding Israel with millions of Arabs would destroy the world's only Jewish state while creating a 23rd Arab state and a second Palestinian state -- not exactly what we mean when we speak of a "two-state solution." That's why it has been the policy of the U.S. to adamantly oppose this "right."

Yet in his State Department speech, Obama refused to simply restate this position -- and refused again in a supposedly corrective speech three days later. Instead, he told Israel it must negotiate the right of return with the Palestinians after having given every inch of territory. Bargaining with what, pray tell?

No matter. "The status quo is unsustainable," declared Obama, "and Israel too must act boldly to advance a lasting peace."

Israel too? Exactly what bold steps for peace have the Palestinians taken? Israel made three radically conciliatory offers to establish a Palestinian state, withdrew from Gaza, and has been trying to renew negotiations for more than two years. Meanwhile, the Gaza Palestinians have been firing rockets at Israeli towns and villages. And on the West Bank, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas turned down the Olmert offer, walked out of negotiations with Binyamin Netanyahu, and now defies the United States by seeking not peace talks but instant statehood -- without peace, without recognizing Israel -- at the U.N. And to make unmistakable this spurning of any peace process, Abbas agrees to join the openly genocidal Hamas in a unity government, which even Obama acknowledges makes negotiations impossible.

Obama's response to this relentless Palestinian intransigence? To reward it -- by abandoning the Bush assurances, legitimizing the '67 borders, and refusing to reaffirm America's rejection of the right of return.

The only remaining question is whether this perverse and ultimately self-defeating policy is born of genuine antipathy toward Israel or of the arrogance of a blundering amateur who refuses to see that he is undermining not just peace but the very possibility of negotiations.

-- Charles Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist. © 2011 the Washington Post Writers Group.

Krauthammer asks whether Obama is an amateur, I say he's an idiot. Ten more years of experience wouldn't matter one whit.

Melanie Phillips says he's pro-Palestinian, and I agree:

As I have written over and over again since the moment Obama burst upon the political stage, the evidence from his background, his friends and his mentors showed he shared the profound antipathy to Israel that is the boilerplate prejudice of the hard-left. Since taking office, he has trimmed this hostility for political necessity alone. As Stanley Kurtz puts it in a piece this week which reprises this evidence for those who have either forgotten it or were never aware of it in the first place:

Taken in context, and followed through the years, the evidence strongly suggests that Obama's long-held pro-Palestinian sentiments were sincere, while his post-2004 pro-Israel stance has been dictated by political necessity.

The fact is that Obama's refusal to play along with the UN gambit is merely - and for whatever reason -- a tactical decision. The important thing is that in his recent speeches, Obama has shown that he is not only still refusing to hold Abbas and co to account for their unbroken hostility to the existence of Israel and acts of aggression towards it, but is still intent on rewarding them - while proposing to cut off their prospective victim, Israel, at the knees.

Thanks to Netanyahu, the American people have now been made aware of this. Thank heavens for Congress.

And let's be clear. Given the state of "Palestine," being pro-Palestinian means being anti-Israel. And i don't mean Israeli policies, I mean anti-Israel. Abbas, Hamas, all of them, want to destroy israel plain and simple. As I've documented time and again, Fatah is a radical Jihadist-terror group that at the end of the day has the same objectives as Hamas, and would kill all the Jews if given the chance. That Obama doesn't know or care speaks ill of him.

As for a Palestinian state, Andy McCarthy had a right a few years ago when he said that

The Palestinians are a backward people, indoctrinated toward brutality. They don't rate a sovereign state or anyone's help until they civilize themselves. Sovereignty is a privilege that implies acceptance of civilized norms -- that is why we speak of states like Iran and North Korea as "rogues." Regardless of whether there really are scattered Palestinian moderates, it is a dangerous fantasy to assume the Palestinian people, as a whole, are ready to be anyone's peace partner.