Obama Has Learned Since Cairo

Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo in 2009 was perhaps the most embarrassing proof of his inexperience and naïveté. The message he sent was asking for trouble. The U.S.’ unholy alliances in the Arab world and special relationship with Israel were issues he intended to handle with benevolence and rationality. The strongest indicator in his speech was his description of Israel as a technical construction in the aftermath of the Holocaust — a total rejection of the Jewish people’s historic claim to their land.

Four years have passed. Obama has been to Israel and his apology could not have been clearer. His arrival speech was a direct reference to the fiasco in Cairo: “I walk with you on the historic homeland of the Jewish people. More than 3,000 years ago, the Jewish people lived here, tended the land here, prayed to God here ... [T]he founding of the Jewish State of Israel was a rebirth.”

And while Obama has never had the same emotional ties to Israel that his predecessors had, nevertheless, he has never emphasized the moral authority of the Jewish state more strongly than he did during this trip.

So, what happened? And does it matter?

Obama has learned the rules of the game. Instead of stigmatizing new Jewish settlements as insurmountable obstacles, he emphasizes the willingness that exists in Israel to make concessions for the sake of peace. He has learned that the Palestinian public rejects peace, since negotiations would, by definition, mean accepting the existence of Israel, which Palestinians refuse to do. Obama rightfully described President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad as people with good intentions, but who have no mandate to represent the Palestinian people. The message he sent to them was significantly sterner: Get your act together.

Pro-Palestine leftists are likely to claim that Obama has fallen prey to the Jewish lobby. Such an interpretation is well known throughout recent history. But in that case, they’ll have to explain why, after having annoyed Israeli nationalists for four years, Obama absolutely crushed Mitt Romney among Jewish voters. And they’ll have to explain the recent poll showing that the American people know a democracy when they see one: According to a new poll from ABC News and the Washington Post, 55 percent of Americans support Israel, while 9 percent support the Palestinian National Authority.

This has been the case for a long time, but the poll also revealed something new. Popular support for the United States taking an active role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is shrinking. In that, too, Obama seems to be following the will of the people. The pragmatic purpose of his trip centered on how to counter Iran’s nuclear threats against Israel. No concrete peace initiatives were on the agenda.

So, does it matter? Maybe. Obama has shifted his focus from criticizing Israel to pressuring Palestine to form something that could pass for a party for negotiations. Inherent in that change is a message to the world that Israel has the right to defend itself. And this comes from a president who no one can accuse of being a preprogrammed Israelophile with no understanding of the hardships suffered by the Palestinian people.

The game board has been given a shake, paradoxically, because Obama has done nothing.