You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Home Front: Politix
President (Obama that is) to Renew Muslim Outreach
2011-05-11
Here he goes again -- I do believe, he now thinks he is a SEAL
President Barack Obama is preparing a fresh outreach to the Muslim world in coming days, senior U.S. officials say, one that will ask those in the Middle East and beyond to reject Islamic militancy in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death and embrace a new era of relations with the U.S.
Oh, the Islamic militants and their supporters are going to loooove hearing that from the leader of the Great Satan. Way to make friends and influence people, your presidentship.
Don't they know that only WE are allowed to reach out and whack people?
Mr. Obama is preparing to deliver that message in a wide-ranging speech, perhaps as early as next week, these officials say. The president intends to argue that bin Laden's death, paired with popular uprisings sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, signal that the time has come to an end when al Qaeda could claim to speak for Muslim aspirations.
Instead that will be done by the Muslim Brotherhood and by Iran...
"It's an interesting coincidence of timing--that he is killed at the same time that you have a model emerging in the region of change that is completely the opposite of bin Laden's model," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser at the White House, said in an interview.
Emerging Models:
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood taking over -- check
Lybia: Gaddafi still blowing up everything, and killing folks -- check
Syria: still killing folks -- check
Yemen: still killing folks -- check
Middle East: increase of Muslims rioting, burning and killing of Christians -- check
Yea - right Mr. Rhodes. Rather than "is completely the opposite of bin Laden's model," reads just like bin Laden's model to me.

Algeria: still killing folks -- check
Bahrain: still killing folks -- check
Morocco: still repressing folks -- check
UAE: still repressing folks -- check
Oman: still repressing folks -- check

May we introduce Mr. Rhodes to reality? I don't believe they've yet met.
Bin Laden's death gives Mr. Obama a chance to underscore the belief among many administration officials that the terror leader's relevance had already begun to diminish during the so-called Arab Spring.

Mr. Obama, who has made outreach to the Muslim world a cornerstone of his presidency,
As opposed to fixing his own country...
plans to describe the Islamic world as at a crossroads, said U.S. officials, making the case that bin Laden represented a failed approach of the past while populist movements brewing in the Middle East and North Africa represent the future.
So the Muslim Brotherhood is the future. We kinda knew that...
Mr. Rhodes said timing of the speech remains in flux but Mr. Obama could deliver it before leaving on a five-day trip to Europe on May 23. The White House is already telegraphing the message of the coming speech to the Islamic world by placing American diplomats on Arab television and radio, according to U.S. officials.

The White House is still debating, however, whether Mr. Obama should lay out a concrete plan for revitalizing the stalled Arab-Israeli peace process.
As he hasn't laid out a "concrete" plan on anything so far, why start now? Emboldened by his "victory" I guess
I'm sure the Israelis won't mind contributing to the narrative that the Muslim Brotherhood is going to win everything in Sunni-land...
Many Arab governments have been pressing Mr. Obama to publicly outline his own parameters for the creation of an independent Palestinian state as a way to exert more pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visits Washington next week.
In other words, throw Israel under the bus
These diplomats said the Mideast's democratic surge is raising expectations among their own populations for an end to the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict.
Yep -- as in an end to Israel
These diplomats are lying through their teeth. Their own populations are concentrating on thinking and acting locally -- Israel is only being mentioned in Egypt, now that things are consolidating.
The Muslim Brotherhood has the same need as Mubarak had for an external enemy to focus the rubes...
"We need to sort through these issues as we consider the next steps on a peace process," Mr. Rhodes said. The May 20 Obama-Netanyahu meeting "is a chance for the U.S. and Israel to review the full range of issues, from Iran to the regional change to the peace process."

Arab officials and Mideast peace advocates say there are major risks for the U.S. and Israel in delaying a return to talks.
The existential risk to Israel in returning to talks and being pressured to negotiate away everything they need to survive is, of course, a mere trifle...
There's clearly a lot going on in the region, and there's a case to be made and some are making it,
Who, Mr. Ben-Ami? Name names or shut up.
that now is not the time," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder of J-Street,
George Soros's wholly-owned Jewish, anti-Zionist front group...
Mr. Soros is just doing today what he did in Budapest in 1944...
a U.S. lobbying group that advocates Washington laying out its own peace plan, something Israel's government opposes. "But we do believe that the only way to avoid U.N. action on a Palestinian state in a unilateral kind of way is for either the president or prime minister to put forward" a peace plan.

A number of lawmakers have cited Hamas's new alliance with Mr. Abbas as reason for the White House to move slowly in restarting the peace process.
Yes, now that the killers in Hamas are about to subvert the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas...
Mr. Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress during his Washington visit as well the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the U.S.'s most powerful pro-Israel lobby.
How does AIPAC's power compare to the most powerful Arab lobby, the most powerful bank lobby, the most powerful union lobby... for some reason no other group is described in this way by reporters.
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, on Tuesday broke with Israel's policy of keeping quiet on the regional turmoil, saying the international community's response to repression of demonstrations in Syria, Lybia and Yemen has been "inconsistent'' and "confusing." In remarks delivered before Mr. Netanyahu's scheduled White House visit, Mr. Lieberman added that the confusion sends a "damaging message to the people of the Middle East, and further erodes the path to peace, security and democracy for our region."

Mr. Obama is also scheduled to meet Jordan's King Abdullah II in Washington next week. The Arab monarch has been at the forefront of Mideast leaders calling for the U.S. to impose its own peace plan on the Israelis and Palestinians. Jordan's population is 60% Palestinian, and the king has faced his own popular protests in recent months.
Even a signed peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians would do nothing to ease the king's internal distress. Pepto Bismol might help, though, applied in large amounts to the distressed area via howitzer.
A signed peace treaty would allow the king to live for some period of time while the 'moderate' Paleos rev up to digest the rest of Israel. Abdullah is a master at staying alive...
Posted by:Sherry

#4  Mr. Rhodes said timing of the speech remains in flux but Mr. Obama could deliver it before leaving on a five-day trip to Europe on May 23.

Timing of the speech is uncertain. Mr. President, is that because you are having difficulty painting our enemy as our new best friends?
Posted by: JohnQC   2011-05-11 18:40  

#3  that he was actually boarding the helicopter when the SEALs convinced him to stay home for the good of the country

I'm sure that is in an upcomming movie script somewhere.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2011-05-11 16:10  

#2  I do believe, he now thinks he is a SEAL

Yeah, we got a guy here with a huge ego and a slippery handle on the facts. You can imagine him ten years from now telling chicks that he was actually boarding the helicopter when the SEALs convinced him to stay home for the good of the country. The story will grow in the telling. (Unless something goes awry, in which case he will promptly turn Holder loose on the SEALs.)
Posted by: Matt   2011-05-11 14:46  

#1  
Mr. Obama, who has made outreach to the Muslim world a cornerstone of his presidency, plans to describe the Islamic world as at a crossroads, said U.S. officials, making the case that bin Laden represented a failed approach of the past while populist movements brewing in the Middle East and North Africa represent the future.


Both Osama and the 'populist movements' want to establish islamofascism in their countries and elsewhere.

An islamofascistic regime that was established by peaceful means or by violence that did not meet the definition of 'terrorism' is no less evil than a similar regime with terroristic origins.

The enemy is islamofascism. Some but not all islamofascists use terroristic means.

If this really was a 'War on Terror' one might defeat 'Terror' by giving in to islamofascistic political demands. Even for bin Laden terror was just a method, Sharia and Caliphate were his objectives.
So let's defeat Terror by surrendering to Sharia!

Nuts!
Many Arab governments have been pressing Mr. Obama to publicly outline his own parameters for the creation of an independent Palestinian state as a way to exert more pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visits Washington next week.

If the Israeli-Arab conflict was miraculously resolved some other grievance would take its place. Kashmir, Ayodhya, Andalus, Nigeria, Sudan, Ground Zero Mosque, Cartoons etc. None of the above are connected to Israel.
Posted by: Cruting Dribble9533   2011-05-11 14:43  

00:00