Obama's Oxymoron-Building Measures In The Middle East

Does anyone else think this sounds odd--

U.S. President Barack Obama has told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he is determined to keep the pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace talks and implement confidence-building measures. Obama made his comments despite potential political damage at home ahead of the mid-term congressional elections in November.

If these measures are forced and not done willingly, just how are they "confidence building"

Maybe Obama meant concessions: but then again, we already know that it is only Israel--and not Abbas--which makes concessions.

Or maybe he did mean confidence-building measures: to build confidence in the Palestinian Arabs that Obama can and will extract more concessions out of Israel.

Any way you slice it, it's not good.

Then there is this:

However, Obama said he was skeptical about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ability and willingness to advance the peace process. The source said the U.S. president was disappointed that Netanyahu was unwilling to distance himself from his right-wing governing coalition. 

Considering how hard Netanyahu had to work to put together his governing coalition, just why would he want to distance himself from it? Just to satisfy Obama, weaken his own coalition and create a situation where Kadima would come in?

Nice touch though--calling a coalition with Labor: "right-wing."

Is that the latest jab from the socialist Obama administration?
(Oops.)

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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