Obama Has His "Both Sides" Moment

The President attempts to equivocate Jewish and Palestinian guilt and suffering, while washing over his policies that helped to lead us here.

Former President Obama made waves this weekend, weighing in on the Israel/Hamas conflict on a Podcast called “Pod Save America” with his former aides Dan Pfeiffer and Jon Favreau (this is the best, unedited version I could find that I could embed here, from National Review on Youtube):

Let’s take a look at the statement in more detail, with commentary (all block quotes going forward are Obama’s words from the clip):

If there is any chance of us being able to act constructively to do so, it will require an admission of complexity and maintaining on the surface what may seem contradictory ideas that what Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it. And what is also true is that the occupation, and what’s happening to Palestinians, is unbearable.

On one level, the former President is correct. The issue is complex with a lot of history including war, death and destruction between the parties for at least 100 years, since the Ottoman Empire (the Turkish empire ruling over current day Israel/Palestine at the time) lost World War I and ceded the land to Great Britain by treaty in 1918.

Notice too that the President blamed Hamas by name, but did not name Israel regarding “the occupation, and what’s happening in Palestine.” Words matter, especially to the lawyerly Obama, and I interpret this to mean he agrees that Hamas, the terrorist organization which took over Gaza in a Civil War in 2007 and states in its charter it plans to exterminate the Jews, creating an Arab-only Palestine, is the main oppressor of Palestinians, goading Israel to escalate the conflicts in response to their terrorism.

The President also used the word “occupation,” which has a loaded meaning for many. I would invite him to clarify this statement, as it typically means (from a Hamas perspective) that Jews are occupying Israel - meaning they have no right to the land. There’s a long history of the British and the UN approving a Jewish state in Israel, and Israel has defended this territory by force in multiple wars since 1947. They defeated the Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians and Iraqis in various wars to maintain Israel, and thus their existence. It is my sincere hope that President Obama means something different, perhaps the settlements in the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the blockade of Gaza, which would all likely be ceded in any 2 state solution. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

And what is also true is that there is a history of the Jewish people that may be dismissed unless your grandparents or your great-grandparents or your uncle or your aunt tell you stories about the madness of antisemitism. And what is true is that there are people right now who are dying, who have nothing to do with what Hamas did. And what is true -- we could go on for a while.

He is again vague. Is he discussing the Diaspora - multiple occasions upon which a conquering Army forced Jews to relocate out of Israel over the past 3000 years? The millennium of antisemitism throughout Europe and elsewhere, festering over the entire post-Roman and medieval period? The antisemitism in Europe that began in the 1880s with the new nationalism movement that forged the Zionist movement and caused another mass-migration of Jews to America, and to Palestine?(Zionist movement: After 3000 years of abuse, Jews in Europe decided they could only be safe and free if they were to create their own state). It is difficult to understand what he means, and if he is attempting to gloss over some parts of this disastrous history to make his, “both sides,” argument.

Certainly he is correct that there are people dying right now who “have nothing to do with what Hamas did.” This has been true in every war since the first one. For example, the 2 million German civilians that were killed in Allied bombing in 1944-45 had as much to do with Hitler as Palestinians do Hamas. But that bombing also finally ended World War II in Europe - would the President have had the temerity to win that war? The Palestinians elected Hamas to the Palestinian Parliament, and the terrorist organization took it from there. There has been no real attempt to overthrow Hamas in Gaza since they took power in 2007; Palestinians that wish to be free must fight for it, and they should throw off their oppressors, Hamas. They’d have plenty of international support. At the very least, they likely would have avoided the current ground war if they had released the innocent hostages. They did not.

In addition, Israel has made a Herculean effort - much more than America did in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere - to limit civilian casualties. These actions include calling for Palestinians to clear the area, delaying the ground offensive for three weeks, and working behind the scenes during the delay to attempt to get their 240 hostages back through diplomacy.

The problem with the social media, TikTok activism and trying to debate this on that is you can’t speak the truth. You can pretend to speak the truth, you can speak one side of the truth, and in some cases you can try to maintain your moral innocence, but that won’t solve the problem. And so, if you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody's hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree.

“All of us are complicit to some degree.” Mr. President, J’accuse. The Obama Administration policies towards Iran and Arab terrorism were a complete disaster and have led directly to this crisis. President Obama aided and abetted Hamas through his support of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, diplomatic recognition of Hamas and his support of President Erdogan in Turkey, who funded Hamas in 2011.

The Obama Administration legitimized the brutal regime in Iran, delivering undeserved respectability by signing an agreement with Iran and making the disastrous “Nuclear Arms Deal,” which sent at least $50B in previously withheld sanction money to Iran without addressing Iran’s support of terrorism around the world. The President and this deal thus legitimized the mullahs and their dastardly international attacks, did not in fact stop their nuclear program and did not address terrorism at all, in effect condoning its continuation. The deal further allowed Iran to abolish 6 UN resolutions against it (for the first time in history) and lifted many sanctions that had kept Iran in check.

Further, the Obama Administration also re-started US foreign aid to Palestinians, which only funds Hamas in Gaza. The Trump Administration reversed course, leaving the nuclear deal (though Europe and the UN stayed in), reinstating sanctions on Iran, stopping Palestinian aid to Hamas and assassinating the second most powerful man in Iran - Qasem Soleimani was the head of the Quds Force in Iran, a terrorist organization that helps to plot, and execute attacks in the region and around the world. These policies were effective, blunting Iran’s growing influence and ability to act during Trump’s term of office. The Biden administration, when it came to office, quickly reinstated the Obama era policies. They re-started aid to Hamas, restarted nuclear talks and waived sanctions with Iran in 2022 and made the disastrous $6B hostage deal, all of which emboldened Iran to plan and approve the Hamas attack on October 7th.

So, in effect, Obama’s “both sides” or perhaps “all sides” argument is an attempt to wash over his own administration’s and the BIden’s administration’s deep failings in Iran and the Middle East.

I look at this and I think back to what could I have done during my presidency to move this forward as hard as I tried, I've got the scars to prove it. But there is a part of me that is still saying, "Well, was there something else I could have done?" That's the conversation we should be having, not just looking backwards, but forward. And that can't happen if we are confining ourselves to our outrage. I would rather see you out there talking to people, including people you disagree with. If you genuinely want to change this, then you have to figure out how to speak to somebody on the other side and listen to them and understand what they are talking about and not dismiss it. Because you can't save that child without their help.

The President almost says here he made mistakes. But he did not in fact say that. Instead, his carefully chosen words insist he has “scars.” His intent is to state that he has been injured, but he does not take responsibility for the injury. It is surely self-inflicted.

And the last bit about talk and change belies the fact that Israel has attempted over decades to seek peace and reconciliation. Israel (and its allies in the US, UK and UN) has offered land for peace, a two-state solution and many other diplomatic concessions that the Palestinian “leaders” invariably have rejected every time because the deal would involve recognizing Israel as a Jewish state in Palestine.

Even in today’s protests, many of the “Free Palestine” letters, signs and flags being raised by supporters of Hamas say “Free Palestine” in English, but in Arabic, read, “Palestine is Arab.” You can draw your own conclusions.