News analysis
The Obama strategy of pressuring Israel and indulging the Palestinians made no progress toward peace. A 2009 10 Israeli settlement freeze was shrugged off. John Kerry shuttled around, banging his head against the wall called the peace process.
Mr. Obama s parting shiv enabling a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned the Jewish state and undermined its claim to Jerusalem did nothing for Palestinians but indulge the fantasy that U.S. pressure on Israel will obviate the need for them to compromise.
If everyone is responsible for this war, as Mr. Obama says, then Hamas becomes only one guilty party among many, and Oct. 7 a mere link in a long causal chain. Blame shifts to Israel. As the U.N. secretary general put it, the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.
But if anyone has been complicit in enabling Hamas atrocities, Barack Obama has.
Elliot Kaufman
WSJ Nov5, 2023