It is fair to say that the President's Cairo speech caused some anxiety in Israel, although the majority of Israelis agree with the substance, if not each detail, of what he had to say. The concerns tend to focus in these areas:
- President Obama described the right of Jews to live in their own land as an outgrowth of the Holocaust. In fact, though tragically it took an event of the magnitude and horror of the Holocaust for the world to recognize that right, the Jewish claim to this land is based on our continuous presence here for three millenia. All the fundamentalist mumbo-jumbo about which God promised the land to which people tends to cloud that basic historical fact.
- The President over-identified with the plight of the Palestinians, comparing it to the legitimate struggle for civil rights within the US. In reality, though there are many factors contributing to the Palestinian problem, the most significant by far is nearly a century of intransigence, corruption, manipulation, and hatred on the part of Arab leaders. Indeed, comparing the situation of the Palestinians to that of African Americans is, if anything, an insult to the memory of leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., whose philosophy and praxis were diametrically opposite those of the Palestinians.
- The focus on "settlements" tends to obscure the real issues, which are Muslim fundamentalism, violence, and rejectionism. Half a dozen guys sitting in a trailer on a hilltop do not represent a real obstacle to anybody seriously engaged in making peace. And it is simply unrealistic, and a willful repudiation of earlier understandings, to suppose that the large Jerusalem suburbs are "settlements" that will be part of some future Palestinian state.
These are all fair and important objections, each illustrating a distinct weakness in the Administration's understanding of the historical and political nuances of this region. But the President wasn't talking to us. He wasn't addressing American supporters of Israel, or Israelis, but rather, the Muslim world. We can't underestimate the difficulty an American President faces at this point in history in making himself heard among Muslims, most of whom have no access to a free press and thus view America and Israel through the lens provided them by their self-appointed rulers.
Along those lines, I do, however, think that President Obama missed an opportunity. Standing in Cairo, on the anniversary of the Six-Day War, he had the chance to speak the name of the first Arab leader with the courage to step forward and make peace with Israel: Anwar Sadat. Sadat certainly held no love for the Jewish people or their State; nor, as history would have us believe, was he a Ghandi-like man of peace. He acted, as political leaders ought, in the best interests of his nation and his people when he made his overtures of peace between Egypt and Israel.
Sadat stands today as an example to both sides, for the peace he offered was not without great cost to Israel. I visited the Sinai when much of it was still in Israeli hands -- it is a stunningly beautiful place, featuring coral reefs within clear blue seas as well as vast deserts. More importantly, it provided strategic depth, a buffer zone between Israel's sworn enemy and her population. And, as always, there was a segment of Israeli society, quoting the Torah and demanding that Israel give up not one inch of the peninsula. Furthermore, the leadership in Israel at the time of Sadat's visit was of the same political party as that in power today.
Nonetheless, Israel, risking much, gave up the Sinai, and the peace it got in return, though ice cold and lacking the usual benefits of tourism or commerce, remains intact. This success then empowered another Arab leader, King Hussein of Jordan, who would not have been able to initiate such a process on his own, to follow suit, resulting in a stable peace between Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan.
What stands in the way of peace today, then, is not settlements, nor is it a right-wing Israeli government, nor is it Israeli public opinion. It is, rather, the lack of a Sadat-like figure on the Arab side, a leader with stature who is willing to recognize Israel and its right to exist in peace, and to negotiate with her in good faith.
Standing in the Egyptian capital, President Obama would have done well to ask, "Who amongst you is the next Anwar Sadat? Who will acknowledge the inevitability of the Jewish state in your midst, and say, 'Let us find a way to make peace'?"
For now, if there is such a figure, he is staying quiet.
