The Israel riddle is the Presidential Kobayashi-Maru.

Churchill2004: coma: You'd rather the president have no opinion on Israel?

In his capacity as President? Absolutely.

coma: I guess I'll go track down some info on Bob Barr and keep my fingers crossed for you that he has never said anything about Israel or the situation in the Middle East in general everything in that part of the world obviously has no effect on us whatsoever

I know he wants to cut off all foreign aid to Israel, and broadly supports a non-interventionist policy.

You might as well make a new account and name it Chamberlain2004. Non-interventionist policy is the new appeasement.

GoodasGold:
Have the goyim volunarily leave Manhattan (who would want to stay?). All Israelis go there. It secedes from the US. Write a new bible that says 6000 years ago the Jews were kicked out of the kingdom of New Yawk by the anti-semite indians.

Genius as the were, they built a cruise line that took them to the middle east. Thinking it was Florida, they settled there. Big Mistake. Once again they couldn't get along with the natives. Egytptians, Romans, what have you. Have the new bible (The Really Old Testament) say G-d made a mistake about Israel but not about choosing them (Maybe it was the other way around!).

Let them have territory squables with Jerseyites, who coincidently they can't get along with.

That is thinking outside of the box.

Look at the border between the United States and Mexico. It is 1952 miles long. The area of Israel is 8019 square miles. Give the Jews now in Israel a five mile wide strip (20% more land!) from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, California.

Voila, they build a wall on the border to keep out the riff-raff, and we have peace in the Middle East.

/Now *that* is thinking outside the box.

Gaza and the Golan Heights as united, single Palestinian states. They will be connected by a large-scale tunnel, deep under ground (I'm pretty sure it'd be less then a quarter the length of chunnel, with no similar depth problems), controlled by Palestinians. Room for both cars, freight and passenger trains. They have full access to each other, without having to deal with the israelis. They have full access to each other and can grow economically.

Something like this would be probably too simple to work, but hey, why not suggest it?

all this, AND Fauxbama chews out Lieberman at the Capitol.

having a problem with the Jewish vote, Barry? it's the LEAST of your concerns for november.

Panderbearack Obama strikes again.

In front of AIPAC, he's Mr. Zionist
In front of Arabs, he's Mr. Palestinean State

How about a straight talker like John McCain and not Barack the pandering idiot?

captain_napalm: all this, AND Fauxbama chews out Lieberman at the Capitol.

having a problem with the Jewish vote, Barry? it's the LEAST of your concerns for november.

I wish someone up there had a problem with Israel's vote. Get rid of it.

Um, I don't get it. He clarified his point? Israel has a legitimate claim to the city, but it should be open for all to access the religious sites; and it's really up to the parties involved and not him as (potentially) president anyway. Basically he softened the message without changing its meaning. It's called being diplomatic.

God forbid someone take a nuanced approach to foreign policy.

Douchebag? Duh.

coma: You'd rather the president have no opinion on Israel? I mean, I assume John McCain is confused about the basic facts of the whole situation and is otherwise completely misinformed in general but I think he probably has an opinion as well.

I guess I'll go track down some info on Bob Barr and keep my fingers crossed for you that he has never said anything about Israel or the situation in the Middle East in general everything in that part of the world obviously has no effect on us whatsoever.

You know, if Hillary Clinton comes out and says "fark em, let them take care of themselves. the US is through pissing people off in this part of the country just to lick the boots of a country that's obviously capable of defending itself without us", I will reverse every single adverse opinion I have towards her and start a write-in campaign aimed at defeating Obama.

This stance he has--no, the fact that he even feels he needs to have stance on Israel--is a disappointment. Please, everybody be more ecological and energy conscious so we can get the fark out of that region and no longer have to pander to this little .0001% of our population (when I write that I mean pro Israeli lobbyists, not american jews or jews in general) that somehow grabs a disproportionate amount of attention from our candidates.

For pete's sake, do they even care this much about Mexico? A country they actually share borders with? I don't see any of the candidates kissing the Mexican lobby's arse.

Funk Brothers: If America denies Israel under Obama, the terrorists have won. Where will the Jews go if there's another Israeli diaspora?

Nobody's denying Israel. However, it's more complicated than just giving Israel everything it wants. What are you, 10?

[Obvious]

Lando Lincoln: NOW, if we could get one where the cigarettes are alternating in and out of his head, perhaps with some calliope music in the background.

my production value isn't that good.

not mine, but delivered.

I_Love_Verdi: Funk Brothers: If America denies Israel under Obama, the terrorists have won. Where will the Jews go if there's another Israeli diaspora?

Nobody's denying Israel. However, it's more complicated than just giving Israel everything it wants. What are you, 10?

Actually its not even clear what 'Israel' wants. Most of the settlers are illegally there, even by Israeli law. The Army ignores the courts and provides them protection.

You may remember how shocked everyone was when the local commander obeyed a Supreme Court order and forcibly evicted Israeli settlers from Gaza.

Think about it: Everyone was shocked because the general chose to obey the law. And he did it on his own, ignoring the chain of command.

Israel has serious constitutional problems. America is not helping.

Churchill2004: It says all I need to know about Obama's foreign policy that he thinks the President of the United States should have any say over the matter.

A settled negotiation of the issues is a legitimate interests of the United States, and a subject of a lot of public discussion.

It doesn't seem to me to make sense to tie yourself to one of many imagineable solutions when the situation is so far from resolution.

Please, Obama, stop kissing Israel's ass.

Those assholes will still come by and collect their allowance money. It's not like they'll spy on us less if you pucker up to them.

They'll still be the same shiatty "friend" they've always been.

I think Israel would have much better success in cutting a deal with their neighbors by using someone other than the U.S. as an intermediary -- much as they are using Turkey to talk to Syria.

Using us the middle man just generates more hostility toward us and/or costs us more money. No thanks.

We should be an extra-large version of Switzerland.

Our main problem with the Middle East has been and always will be our support for Israel. Many have tried and many have failed. It would be ignorant to say that a two state solution cannot happen, but it is so much more ignorant to believe that Obama is going to walk in and use diplomacy without compromise (BIG COMPROMISE, like Jerusalem or refugee return) to secure a peace agreement. He knows it. The problem is that his supporters are voting for him based on the belief that he will CHANGE everything (i.e. change you can believe in). That puts in him in the hot seat when he doesn't deliver.

The Palestinians already have a capital city. It's called Amman and its currently located in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.