Obama’s Third Face

It’s well known that every president of the United States has three faces, not just one.

The “first face” is the one he shows to the voters during his election campaign, though it does not last long after he wins the election. After winning, he carelessly violates his pledges and promises. The “second face” appears after he assumes office, and the “first face” is soon forgotten once it does. This face lasts until the end of his term, whether it is four years or eight.

The “third face” is the one he wears after the his term has ended, in which the former American president tries to justify and often apologize for his conduct and most of the decisions he made during the period of the “second face.”

For example; former American president Jimmy Carter, using his “third face,” supports the legal rights of the Palestinian people, including establishing an independent Palestinian state. During his term as president, though, he only supported the Palestinians’ right to autonomy while he was sponsoring, following and executing the Camp David Accords.

A few days ago I read former American president Richard Nixon’s book “Victory without War,” published in 1988. Nixon, as a reminder, is the one who saved Israel in 1973 during the October War (also known as the Yom Kippur or Ramadan War), when he opened the American army’s arsenal and sent it by air to Israel.

He says in his book, written after the long Watergate scandal made him resign, that the principle step towards peace in the Middle East should focus on the future of the West Bank and Gaza.

It might be helpful, Nixon maintains, to build the American policy on these words from the founder of Israel David Ben-Gurion: “When the Israeli extremists call for the annexation of the occupied Arab territories, they prevent Israel from performing its mission. If they succeed, Israel will be neither Jewish nor democratic because the number of Arabs will exceed the number of Jews. In order to subject this majority to our control, we have to take repressive measures.”

Ben-Gurion has since died and now the Arab majority in that area is balanced by the Jewish emigrants from Russia and other countries. The “repressive measures” against Palestinians have become commonplace in Israel.

But that won’t prevent us from remembering that the policy Nixon supports in his book, written in his “third face” period, is not the same one he followed while wearing his “second face” during his presidency.

Now we’re all waiting for Obama’s “third face.”