r/politics • u/Particular_Log_3594 • 6d ago

No Paywall Obama: Israel 'took the land' from Palestinians, 'ceded moral ground' in Gaza

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-911851
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u/theREALbombedrumbum 6d ago

I'm with you on holding people accountable in recognition of them being late to the party, but I worry that messaging like yours will do more closing of doors than opening. When we're trying so hard for more politicians to do the bare minimum why waste energy going after the ones who are starting to take their first steps? If anything we're showing the prominent figures who are on the fence that they'll get criticized for not having done it sooner

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u/PlsNoOlives 5d ago

Accountability is acutely necessary. Obama isnt ignorant or uninitiated, and these little too late concessions are classic and predicted. Liberalism is against every war but the current war, and happy to mourn the victims of their own aggression, but take no steps to prevent their deaths. Israel calls it "shoot and cry" and they explicitly sanction it. Obama led the worst drone campaigns in our history but somehow maintains a legacy as a peaceful president, and he's barely said a peep in 3 years of extermination-stage genocide in Gaza. We need to stop worrying about the optics and the messaging and lock in or all this incremental-ism is just enabling the fascism to keep setting charges. 

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u/sirspacebill 5d ago

I mean, when someone criticizes obama in good faith, drone strikes are top of the list. I was young enough to where I felt safe not having to worry about anything politics when he was president, and even I know about how bad the drone strikes were/are for his legacy. The thing is though that's the only thing anyone really knows about, me included. If he did anything else that bad, id like to know but if he only has one stain on his presidency that's a pretty ok track record, historically speaking

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u/PlsNoOlives 5d ago

But it not like, a fun ranking game for favorite president. It's thousands of human lives extinguished. It's thousands of stains on his presidency, and if you're thinking "well that's true of all our presidents" then that's my point.  Americans just think it's our role on this planet to be a death machine and argue about who should drive it.

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u/-etuskoe- 5d ago

THANK YOU

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u/evilgigglefish I voted 6d ago

if we give them their flowers for taking a position they should have had from the beginning, we're giving them permission to keep being terrible because we'll always forgive them in the end. obama waiting to say this until well after his power and influence is gone means there is zero material affect this could possibly have other than slightly improve his own image.

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u/Immediate_Still5347 6d ago

His power and influence is certainly diminished but it’s not gone, he was president for two terms his actions and words still carry weight with a lot of voters. I agree he shouldn’t be lauded endlessly for this, I view him being comfortable saying this as more of sign that the wider electorate is opening up more to recognizing Israel’s evil and him saying this normalizes these beliefs amongst a wider population that may be more neutral on Israel/Palestine

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u/NaughtyCheffie I voted 6d ago

Guy has 30k comment karma and doesn't exist if you click through. Fake people aren't people.

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u/Penguinase 5d ago

they hide their comments/posts it's an option now for accounts

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u/ObiWanChronobi 6d ago

And they rightfully should be criticized for it. The longer they wait, the worse it is for them and the Palestinian people. So they better get off the fence now before they are tied to it.

These words from Obama are just words. When he had power he said one thing and did another with his power. Saying the same words now, without that power, is meaningless. Without acknowledging that he didn’t do enough, without an ounce of self-reflection, that isn’t accountability or atonement. Is it good that he’s saying this, sure, but it’s not even 1% of what is needed to make amends for his failures while in office.

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u/Half-deaf-mixed-guy 6d ago

Why do you think this statement is supposed to make amends for his failures and why do you only care about the failures after he's gone and not the positives. Its been 10 years since he was in office and Dem had full control for only the first 2 years (09-11) with Republicans preventing a majority of it holding the house for the rest of the term.

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u/ObiWanChronobi 6d ago

I don’t think this statement is meant to make amends for his failures and that’s my point. He doesn’t get laurels for saying similar things that he was saying while in power as he didn’t do anything to actually help them back then either. He’s never acknowledged that he could have done more and he’s had 10 years to own up to his mistakes.

He also didn’t need Congress to block weapons sales and transfers to foreign countries. They never had a veto-proof majority. So he had the power to affect changes his entire term in office.