Cohen's revision

Soccer Dad
31 August '10

A few years ago, Richard Cohen wrote an article saying that Israel was a mistake. Though I've read that he didn't mean it the way he wrote it, it was still offensive. Today he writes, Time Stands Still in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which, I believe what he was trying to say in that earlier column.

First Cohen observes that despite the pressure President Obama exerted against Israel ...

For Obama, the figures must be disheartening. They strongly suggest that his attempt to woo the Arab world, to convince it that America can be an honest broker between Israel and the Palestinians, has dismally failed. In fact, the extent of this failure is most stark in Lebanon. There, 100 percent of Shiite respondents -- in other words, Hezbollah and others -- have no faith in Obama and his good intentions. This may be a setback for Obama, but it is paradoxically a success for American values.

What the Arab world seems to appreciate is that America will never agree to what the Arab world most wants -- an Islamic state where a Jewish one now exists. This entirely reasonable conclusion is based on what has long been American policy -- not what the State Department wanted but what the American people supported. America has always liked the idea of Israel. The Arab world, for totally understandable reasons, has always hated it. Nothing has changed.

I wouldn't describe the hatred of the Arab/Muslim world as understandable, but overall this is pretty accurate.

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