Tuesday, February 12, 2013
"What exactly was Obama thinking when it came to Israel anyway?" he asked as if the irony of expecting an honest answer were ironically lost on him and he found that amusing without caring why. "Now, understand" he continued, "I know as a liberal you're challenged veracity-wise by your politics... but I figure a lie is sometimes the most revealing truth of all... so feel free to keep to your dishonest inclinations and just tell me what it is you think you think." The queried quarry smiled wryly but in a cringing sort of way that made him look like a man who thought he looked like a man who absolutely knew something he certainly didn't and felt there was a kind of strength in that, and accordingly said nothing. Silence held each a moment, and then: "Ok, let me tell you how I saw it... it was my impression that Obama, newly adorned with the shimmering mantle of global celebrity and having ascended a throne-like stage of obsequious renown, was of a mind to imagine that the sheer wonderfulness of his persona could sway, draw inexorably the Israeli electorate to his cause and force Netanyahu to bend to his wishes. The rough outlines of the equation upon which the miscalculation would be strung seemed to be: reach out to the Muslims by apologizing for the egregious Americaness of Bush, say some nice things about the Caliphate of Cordoba to remind the hesitant that no history is so dark that it can't shed a little light occasionally, talk tough to the Israeli hardliners so as to convince the now remarkably pliant Muslims that hope and change were more than just words if repeated often enough by someone as astonishingly wonderful as he, and then turn to moderate Israelis, seduced into wistful longing by the charms of his charm, and hold up to their cozened hearts the now sharply delineated choice: the light of peace and universal fellowship through Obama, the darkness of war and unending division through Netanyahu." The man shifted uncomfortably, his smile pinched into a vague grimace. "That's the way I saw it. Explain to me how I was wrong..."
