Obama's claim we're all 'complicit' in Israel-Hamas war sparks outrage online: 'He is complicit'
F ormer President Obama’s insistence that "all of us are complicit to some degree" in the Israel-Hamas conflict sparked by the Palestinian terrorist group's brutal rampage last month did not go over well on social media.
In an interview with alumni of his administration on Pod Save America, Obama offered his opinion on the ongoing war following the initial attack that killed 1,400 Israelis on Oct. 7. He condemned Hamas’ actions but suggested that additional history is needed to contextualize the situation.
"What Hamas did was horrific, and there is no justification for it. And what is also true is that the occupation, and what’s happening to Palestinians, is unbearable, and what is also true is that there is a history of the Jewish people that may be dismissed unless your grandparents, or your great-great-grandparents, or your uncle or your aunt tell you stories about the madness of antisemitism, and what is true is that there are people right now that are dying who have nothing to do with what Hamas did," he said.
"If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth," Obama said. "And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree."
The assertion that everyone was "complicit" in the attack angered many users on X, formerly known as Twitter, who blasted Obama’s own role in the Israel-Hamas war.
"We've let him down again," The Spectator contributing editor Stephen Miller joked.
RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway insisted, "Yeah, ‘we’ did not send pallets full of cash to Iran so they could enable Hamas. Obama did that."
NewsNation reporter Zaid Jilani noted, "Every time I talked to someone in government who knew how Obama, Clinton, etc felt about this issue in private it was clear they put most of the blame for the conflict on Israel. Politics held them back from saying this publicly. Politics is changing though."
"From Obama to Biden, Dems have a problem: supporting Israel always has an asterisk. They won’t condemn anti-Semitism in their party, in the streets, & on campuses. Obama is dead wrong & he has a legacy of aiding those who support terrorism. The truth is simple: Hamas is evil," South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott wrote.
New York Post columnist John Podhoretz explained, "There is going to be a lot to say about this horrifying quote from a former president of the United States, but this is the simplest: He is complicit. His behavior toward Iran played a role in what happened on October 7."
National Review contributor Pradheep Shanker wrote, "Obama was always useless on Foreign policy. Nothing has changed."
"I don’t know much, but I promise you I’m not complicit in the massacre of babies and kidnapping of Holocaust survivors," The Lafayette Co. president Ellen Carmichael remarked.
At the Obama Foundation's Democracy Forum on Thursday, Obama called for protection for Israel as well as an end to an "occupation" of the Palestinian people.
"All of this is taking place against the backdrop of decades of failure to achieve a durable peace for both Israelis and Palestinians," the former president told the forum audience.
He continued, "One that is based on genuine security for Israel, a recognition of its right to exist, and a peace that is based on an end of the occupation and the creation of a viable state and self-determination for the Palestinian people."
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Obama seems to think the two sides are equal.
At the university, history is taught through a Marxist lens and there is an oppressor and the oppressed. In this case Israel has obviously been characterized as the oppressor.
Where in this month old, not days old, article is that stated?
As to your continuing Marxist bullshit, it is bullshit ... unless it is being taught by famed and self- proclaimed Trotskyist Steve Bannon.
You are right. Wrong piece.
There you go!
Not a problem, I just seeded an article with your fave diatribe 'Marxist" in it:
And I just flagged it as inflammatory.
Maybe you should ratchet down the rhetoric a bit.
Am I understanding you right? You flagged this article as "inflammatory"?
WHAT THE 2024 ELECTION IS REALLY ABOUT FOR TRUMP SUPPORTERS
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It is a mainstream article written by a mainstream reporter for ABC news.
Claiming that all "Trump supporters" want retribution?
[deleted]
I dont know if they all "want it", but Trump has explicitly said it and it hasnt cost him any support.
Donald Trump is a known traitor. What does that make his supporters?
What are your seeds and comments about other than retribution?
Have a nice snack of 'tasty' revenge. My treat!
Then at the very least the article is making a sweeping generalization.
but Trump has explicitly said it and it hasn't cost him any support.
Quote please.
Donald Trump is a known traitor.
"known?" Sounds like something Pravda would print.
What does that make his supporters?
Average Americans that don't want to live under a radical Orwellian regime.
My seeds are all about retribution? That's funny.
You find the truth funny?
It's the former 'president' who is on his Revenge & Retribution 'campaign' and it appears the majority of his supporters/enablers/cult/followers/defendersoftheindefensible
“Average Americans…”
Impossible to define.
In what world do you presume to answer for ’them’ ‘us’ or ‘we’ ?
Interesting, some presume that here 24/7
Do you think that historically various peoples have not been oppressed? and that there are not oppressors?
I think the Marxist version of history is meant to divide and to restructure society.
I heard a story last night that Ted Cruz's mother (I think it was his mother) used to tell him.
In Cuban schools the children in the 1st grade were told to close their eyes and pray to God for candy. When they opened their eyes, naturally there was nothing there.
Then they were told to close their eyes and pray to Fidel Castro for candy. Very quietly candy was placed on their desks before they could open their eyes.
Cruz noted the Marxists always want to get to the children right away.
Yes we should have stopped Fidel Castro from invading and occupying the United States when we had the chance.
The New York Times did all it could to prop him up. We should have protected American interests and not held back like JFK did.
Indeed, Johnny Rocco et al met untimely deaths.
Oh, you can do better than that. How about the Bernie Sanders defense that all Cuban children are at least in school now?
I guess all of "those" on the left forgot that 25% of the Cuban population fled the island. People tend to give a true vote when they vote with their feet.
Communism sucks
America sweet!
The only thing worth knowing about Bernie is that he would have failed miserably running for office in Canada.
They said the same about him here. Yet somehow in the 2020 election we ended up with all his policies.
Gotta lurv that single-payer healthcare system, eh! Should I digress?
We are still choking on the Green New Deal that got slipped into the so called "Anti-Inflation Act."
Something my granddaughter will be thankful for as will her daughters and their daughters.
Why would Canadiens be thankful?
Sometimes, sure.
But not always. And therein lies the issue.
Cuz y'all catchin' up to us.
You aren't there yet. You still have to convince people that an EV, which unlike gas powered cars that merely need to be filled with gas and then go, an EV requires a charge with a long wait time and then you have a very limited driving range.
Keep us posted on how well the people go for it.
In my province:
More than 9,200 public charging stations already in service, including nearly 1,400 DC fast-charging stations, also known as BRCCs in Québec. By March 2022, 39% of all public charging stations in Canada were already located in Québec.Sep 7, 2023
Wow, protecting the Mafia, how cool is that?
LOL. They'd be thankful if they won the Stanley Cup, but they don't have a Jean Beliveau or a Maurice "Rocket" Richard these days.
Just joking around, Vic, because, you see, I'm not a Canadien, I'm a Canadian.
United Fruit and AT&T?
Well done. Got it!
I have to get a kick out of an article that quotes far right figures as "experts" on what Obama means.
There is nothing controversial about anything Obama said, and he is essentially right.
If you are anti-Israeli, it must seem right.
Unlike some of you , I can be both pro Israeli and pro Palestinian rights. I dont call whole ethnic groups of people "animals" like your side does.
I'm sorry, you can't be for a group that won't recognize Israel's right to exist and Israel.
What Hamas did was animalistic.
Unlike you, I can separate some Palestinians from Hamas. Hamas has not been popular in the West Bank, although I suppose if Israel keeps allowing Israeli settlers there to attack Palestinians there that could change.
Unfortunately, I can't. The fucking Palestinians rejected many sweet deals all because they refused to recognize Israel. In the end they voted for Hamas.
They are now irrelevant.
So you ARE a proponent of "bothsidesism"
The majority of Palestinians do recognize Israel's right to exist.
Prove it please
I have heard that alot but have seen no actual proof.
Too fenced in, I'm for allsidesism.
"Fewer people in both Israel and Palestine believed the two states could co-exist peacefully - even before the outbreak of war with Hamas.
Public sentiment among members of the public in both Israel and Palestinian-controlled areas was moving away from the idea of creating a two-state solution for the region, even before Hamas launched terror attacks last weekend.
Public surveys carried out in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank have revealed that only one in three people now see the feasibility of a political resolution to the issue.
People were asked if a way could be found for resolution by forming an independent Palestinian state and whether it could co-exist peacefully with Israel.
According to the Pew Research Center's survey, a growing number of Israelis are beginning to doubt the feasibility of a two-state solution, with only 35% of respondents believing that a peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine can be achieved.
This marks a 15 percentage point decrease from a decade ago, and the lowest figures to date.
Notably, the sentiment against a two-state solution has significantly shifted among the Arab Israelis compared to the Jewish Israelis.
Arab Israelis are now 33% less likely to believe in this approach compared to 2013 . Their Jewish counterparts are 14% less likely to see this possibility in the same time period.
The survey was, however, conducted in April and published in September, before the Israel-Hamas war erupted following an unprecedented attack on October 7."
3 Intifadas and 7 Oct forced even the most peace-loving, progressive Israeli to turn their back on Palestinians. It will be years before the will feel safe again. Both people will have long-term PTSD issues and no way to trust the other side.
That only leaves Obama, Biden and a few clingers to the "two-state" solution.
That kind of thinking will doom Israel to another 75 years of semi-constant violence.
To claim that there is no legitimate "Palestinian" problem is the way the far right in Israel thinks. As Smotrich has said, representing far right/religious right in Israel - the palestinians can leave Israel, accept second class citizenship, or be destroyed . This is essentially the position of the Netanyahu government, and there is no chance it will bring lasting peace.
It is facing reality.
This is true. It is the basis of the whole problem.
How do you know the majority of Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist?
Why did they vote for Hamas?
So your preferred reality for Israel is 75 more years of semi-constant violence.
Did you read post 2.1.10 ?
Your Palestinians can't seem to be accommodated:
A Short History of Palestinian Rejectionism (besacenter.org)
They did a poll and the majority of Palestinians in Gaza just want peace.
Read this article:
I will add this article to the reading list:
Palestinian Politics Timeline: Since the 2006 Election
i read the article and it is somewhat enlightening.
it shows among other things, how unpopular Hamas is (was?) among the Gazan people. According to the article and depending on the demographic group, Hamas popularity is something like 35%. That will likely change though, in the wrong direction , due to the Israeli incursion into Gaza.
On whether Palestinians accept Israel's right to exist, the survey showed that a majority of Gazans favor a two state solution, which is a defacto recognition of Israel's right to exist.
The conservative columnist Peggy Noonan had a column the other day in which she says Israel made a big mistake by rushing into the bombing of Gaza, she says they should have waited and reassessed and taken stock of their options. I generally agree with this although its too late now.
There seems to be wide variance in Palestinian polling:
Would you support or not support a situation in which an independent Palestinian state existed alongside an independent state of Israel?
Support 24%
Not Spt 72%
Pew polling in 2.1.10
"Gazans give Abbas just 33 percent, while 64 percent would vote for Hamas’s Haniyeh. Haniyeh leads more narrowly on the West Bank but still has 50 percent, to 43 percent for Abbas."
They voted for Hamas in 2006 and the main issue in that election was the corruption of Fatah and they were voted out 44.5% to 41.4%. There have been no elections since that time.
Currently, there are thousands of Palestinians in the IDF, with thousands more Bedouins in the IDF. The Bedouins are considered Palestinians but actually quite different.
Both groups are front-line troops and have more than proved their meddle over the decades.
In 1993 Rabin dedicated a monument on a hilltop in Galilee to the Bedouins who fought and died for their country (Bedouins are citizens of Israel) and within that monument is an area called ''Garden of the Broken Heart'' dedicated to those Bedouins whose bodies were never returned to Israel or never found. Most it not all were killed on highly dangerous missions outside of Israel and some date as far back as the Israel War for Independence. They are still classified and are state secrets.
On 10/7 a Bedouin was scheduled to pick up seven young women from the concert in his bus. He started receiving messages about the attack and cries for help, and instead of ignoring them, unarmed he got in his bus and drove to the site where he loaded 31 Israelis in a 16-passenger bus and took off across the desert other cars loaded with Isralis followed him into the desert. All lived thanks to a 48-year-old Bedouin who lost one family member that day and four others who were taken hostage by Hamas.
As with all groups of people, they cannot all be for or against something as proven by these heroes that are Bedouin/Palestinians.
Who did the poll? If it is accurate and not yet another Palestinian fabrication, why doesn't the majority overcome the minority ano CAUSE peace?
But how can that be? How can so many Arabs/Muslims be mayors and other officials in Israeli towns? How can there be (at least before Bibi stacked the government with extremist right-wingers) Arab/Muslim political parties and members in the Israeli government? How can the population of Israel be 20% Arab/Muslim? How can there be Arab/Muslim doctors and nurses in Israeli Orthodox Jewish hospitals (something I saw with my own eyes) who actually take over the hospitals entirely during Jewish High Holidays? How can there be an Arab/Muslim Justice sitting on the Israeli Supreme Court? The protesters and demonstrators and other nations call Israel an Apartheid state, do they not? How can all of that be true if Israel is an Apartheid state?
Nor has there been an Israeli occupation since then. So, I guess Barack is wrong once again.
As for the vote: Hamas had a charter which told everyone what they were about.
As I have said many times "Corruption" can be preferable to an evil ideology.
You know, Perrie, some are actually open minded to a fault.
There was a debate on this issue at Brandeis University in Waltham MA over a decade ago. It was broadcast on a very weak radio station. Former president Carter had written a book on his vision of a "two-state solution." It was called "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid." The book was very critical of Israel and Alan Dershowitz wanted to debate Carter on some of the conclusions in the book. Carter absolutely refused an open debate with anyone and only wanted to take questions on the book from the student body. The faculty decided to let Carter have his day and the following day Dershowitz could critique the book and also take questions.
As some may or may not know Brandeis is kind of a Jewish Institution, so there were many Jewish American students there, as well as Palestinian students. During the Dershowitz Q&A, which turned into a debate between the Palestinians and Dershowitz, a few of the Palestinians were angry and went over the line and used terms like imperialism, colonialism etc. When there was interaction between the Jewish students and the Palestinian students, the Jews seemed to only be interested in what the Palestinians wanted and how they felt. They were very polite.
Eventually one of the Palestinians finally had to admit that the Jewish students were incredibly open to everything the Palestinians had said. I'll never forget that moment.
I still don't get it. How do you sit down and talk with people who want to kill you?
No, there was not. I didn't mention Barack whether he is right or wrong I simply stated a fact.
I'm sure everyone is aware of that.
Good that you said that many times does it pertain to the ''evil ideology'' of Joe Biden and leftists and their corruption which would include Hunter? Best you take the corruption LOLOLOL.
Have you not watched MSNBC or CNN have democrats on to tell you all about what is going on in the minds of Republicans. Pick a show, any show and you will see it.
I have no idea about CNN but MSNBC shows are chockfull of once upon a history not so long ago republicans.
Almost as moronic as left wingers at The Atlantic or Salon pretending to be authorities on Trump supporters... which itself is less moronic than believing any of the nonsense they write.
That's actually a fair point. Especially as I think his comments pre date the Hamas attacks (correct me if I'm wrong there).
They don't.
OK fair enough. My mistake.
I still think that from a long-term, strategic perspective there isn't a whole lot wrong with what Obama said.
On a short term "is now the right time to say that" and "do we all have culpability in these attacks" perspective, it's definitely not something he should have said.
So how are you complicit in Hamas murdering 1,400 civilians? Does voting for Obama, who gave Iran pallets of cash to finance terrorism, make you complicit in Hamas' butchery? Or did you do something else to make help Hamas?
bullshit.
If that were true, maybe.
Of course he did.
Obama: "Nobody's hands are clean. All of us are complicit."
Author: "Nah, man. Not all of us are complicit. It's just you."
Bush: Hamas = "cold-blooded killers...My view is: One side is guilty. And it's not Israel."
Clinton: "Now is a time for the world to rally against terrorism and support Israeli democracy."
Author: "Maybe we can finally see Obama for what he truly is: The man who set the world on fire."
It's you, because you're the one who gave that stentorian speech about red lines in Syria and then sat by and did nothing as those red lines were crossed and Assad continued to slaughter his own people, allowing the Iranians and the Russians to creep in and fill the vacuum left by your devastating lack of leadership.
It's you, because you're the one who came up with the idea of empowering Iran, the world's premiere exporter of terrorism, Holocaust denial, and chaos, all the while telling the American people you were merely trying to stop Teheran from getting a nuclear bomb. Billions of dollars and thousands of dead later, we can all see how well this idea—which you, with the eloquence only a professor could muster, called "regional integration"—is working.
It's you, because you're the one who delivered a parting gift to the region, ending your final term as president by reversing four decades of American bipartisan support of Israel and abstaining from a U.N. vote condemning Israeli settlements, while funneling $400 million in annual payments to the despotic Palestinian Authority, which then promptly used this money to fund its pay-for-slay program, doling out large cash payments to any Palestinian who murdered Jews...
Which pretty much makes Obama an outlier, the lone voice making very different arguments than those advanced by his Democrat or Republican peers.
It hardly takes a political scientist—or a good therapist—to understand why. Study the 44 th president's record, to say nothing of his extensive writing and speeches, and a clear ideology emerges, the sort of gauzy anti-Imperialist fantasy so trendy in graduate seminar rooms that eschews American power and dreams that the wretched of the earth will rise up to the full measure of their native glory.
Only a mind gripped by the erotic pull of theory would look at the 2009 demonstrations in Iran—the so-called Green Revolution—and decide that America ought to side not with the huddled masses yearning to breathe free but with their jailers, the murderous mullahs who beat women to death for not wearing proper head coverings, execute gays, and kidnap Americans for ransom like common criminals.
Typically, it's the guy whose fault it is who says "it's all of our fault"
... or the one who says 'it's all their fault'. @!@
Biden’s comments to date are designed to keep the Jewish American vote while Obama’s are designed to avoid losing the Muslim American vote.
Oh yes, to keep the Muslim American vote, whose method is to blackmail the government to support the terrorist Hamas and stop supporting Israel or else they won't cast their vote for the Democrats (except maybe they will still vote for Tlaib and Omar). It figures, all those "loyal" American Muslims.