Obama: Hezbollah and Hamas Have “Legitimate Claims”

Barack Hussein Obama will be a foreign policy lightweight as president.

Everyone knows it. Sensible Democrats realize this fact, and gloss over his lack of gravitas while emphasizing their man’s purported domestic policy skills garnered from his years as a community organizer in Chicago.

So don’t expect pearls of wisdom from the O-man concerning matters of international import.

However, even with such lowered expectations, this quote drew my attention. It’s old news, but it deserves a repeat exposure now that the campaign has entered the home stretch.

This is from a David Brooks column in the NYT last May, and it describes Mr. Obama’s prescriptions for American foreign policy as it concerns Lebanon and “Palestine”:

The U.S. needs a foreign policy that “looks at the root causes of problems and dangers.” Obama compared Hezbollah to Hamas. Both need to be compelled to understand that “they’re going down a blind alley with violence that weakens their legitimate claims.” He knows these movements aren’t going away anytime soon (“Those missiles aren’t going to dissolve”), but “if they decide to shift, we’re going to recognize that. That’s an evolution that should be recognized.” [emphasis added]

Their legitimate claims.

Is Mr. Obama perhaps using a shortened version of the stock phrase “the legitimate claims (or grievances) of the Palestinian people”?
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This is a standard mantra uttered by spokesmen for Fatah, Hamas, Saudi Arabia, the OIC, and any other Muslim group that claims to speak on behalf of the oppressed people of “Palestine”.

I’d like to hear some examples of those “legitimate claims”, Mr. Obama.

Do they perhaps include the withdrawal of Israel to the pre-1967 borders of the Jewish State?

Are you thinking of the “right of return” of all former Arab residents and their descendants to what is now the state of Israel?

Or were you perhaps referring to the oft-repeated insistence by both Fatah and Hamas that Israel itself has no right to exist?

Do you consider a reversal of the naqba to be a “legitimate claim” for the Arabs of the region?

A little elucidation is in order, sir.


Hat tip: JD.