Bush and Obama's Cross Continent Food Fight

President Bush is in Israel today marking that country's sixtieth birthday. In his speech, he made this not so subtle reference to Barack Obama...

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said at Israel's 60th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to Israel's
parliament, the Knesset. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history...

It didn't take Obama long to respond...

It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said in the statement his aides distributed. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.

It will of course be up to the voters to decide how they feel about Obama's. policy. I am no fan of talking with state sponsors of terror myself. I do believe that is an appeasement policy and it is disingenuous of Obama to say that he is a stalwart ally of Israel. Unconditional negotiations between Obama and Ahmadinejad is NOT something that anyone in Israel would welcome.

Barack Obama is NOT the Prime Minister of Israel. He wants to be President of the United States. Thus, his policies should reflect what he believes are in the best interest of this nation not Israel. If he believes face to face meetings with Ahmadinejad are beneficial to the geopolitical position of this nation, then he needs to make that case. He shouldn't then also pretend that he is also a stalwart ally of Israel. No stalwart ally of Israel would ever dream of sitting down with Ahmadinejad. It is not a pre requisite for being President of the U.S. to be a stalwart ally of Israel, but miscontruing your position is neither a show of leadership or Presidential.