There are really only two choices of response to President Obama's appearance on Israeli TV. Either he thinks that the Israelis are stupid or he is at the very least an ignorant or arrogant man.
When President Obama is asked by a fawning Israeli News Anchorwoman Yonit Levy the following question (the mistakes in grammar are Yonit Levy's);
“Is a peace agreement, in your opinion, it can be reached in the first term of your presidency? “
Obama responds after having already said the following in answer to a previous question about Israeli skepticism;
"And Israelis, rightly, look at the past and have skepticism about what's possible. They see the enmity of neighbors that surround them in a very tough neighborhood. They see a track record of attempts at peace where, even when concessions were made, a deal could not be consummated. They see rockets fired from Gaza or from areas in Lebanon, and say to themselves that the hatreds or history are so deep-seated that changed is not possible.
Yet Obama's response is one of the "golly gee whiz I think I can" responses;
“I think so. .....On the Palestinian side, moderates like Abu Mazen and Fayyad are, I think, willing to make the concessions and engage in negotiations that can result in peace. But their time frame in power may be limited if they aren't able to deliver for their people. “
But what about his previous statement "even when concessions were made, a deal could not be consummated!"
Then Yonit Levy cautiously asks a question regarding his past mistreatment of Prime Minister Netanyahu (in his valiant effort to court the favor of the Arab oil sheiks) in previous meetings
Obama responds with the classic "but some of my best friends are Jewish" line and then notches it up with a holocaust twist
Says the President “Ironically, I've got a Chief of Staff named Rahm Israel Emmanuel. My top political advisor is somebody who is a descendent of Holocaust survivors.
Then Obama goes back to the tried and true defense. He goes on the offence and wags a finger at the Israelis and the Jews for closet racist sentiment.
Continues the President;
“And so I think what this arises from -- some of it may just be the fact that my middle name is Hussein, and that creates suspicion. “
Then the President resorts to his last line of defense. “Just trust me"
He says ; “Well, it's pretty hard to square with the fact that not only have I in every speech that I've ever given talked about the unbreakable bond to Israel.....So it's hard to, I think, look at that track record and look at my public statements and in any way think that my passions for Israel's survival, its security, and its people are in any way diminished.”
Then he pulls the Iran card and says "And the single most important threat to Israel -- Iran, and its potential possession of a nuclear weapon -- has been my number one foreign policy priority over the course of the last 18 months. Well, what I've said consistently is, is that it is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon, that we're going to do everything we can to prevent that from happening. So we just pursued the toughest sanctions that have ever been applied against the Iranian government. We followed those up with U.S. sanctions that are going to be tough. … We want to continually ratchet up the costs of them pursuing this nuclear program. Now, will that work? We don't know. And we are going to continue to keep the door open for a diplomatic resolution of this challenge. But I assure you that I have not taken options off the table. “
All this echoes statements by Obama's foreign policy decision makers that President-elect Barack Obama intends to offer Israel a "nuclear umbrella" in the event of a nuclear strike by Iran, Under such an agreement, the United States would promise to use nuclear weapons against Iran should Israel be nuclearly attacked.
Obama's secretary of State, Sen. Hillary Clinton, promised a similar "massive response" should Israel come under attack during the Democratic presidential debates.
Don't you feel better now? The United States of America will repond after a nuclear attack on Israel.
As I said, either he thinks that the Israelis are stupid or expendable--at the very least, he is an ignorant or arrogant man.