It is understood that the president’s remarks may have been made to head off a symbolic recognition of pre-1967-borders Palestine at the U.N. General Assembly and to restart negotiations between the parties. This is indeed commendable, but not at the expense of securing an agreement that is just and workable for both Israel and the Palestinian people. It would be tragic if the emergence of a Palestinian state consigned the Palestinians to Salafi-Wahabi servitude rather than leading to a true freedom for Christians as well as Muslims, women as well as men.
Finally, from a Judeo-Christian point of view, I would have welcomed an acknowledgment from the president of the Biblical basis of the idea, expressed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, that women and men are endowed with certain inalienable rights by their Creator. This is the true basis for any struggle to have human equality affirmed and respected.
This seems an excellent analysis, by an Anglican Christian cleric equipped by his Muslim past to see right through the misleading language of Obama-speak. How clarifying to have someone point out that Obama exhibits some dhimmi-like behavior – it is harder to recognize this when the person is outside a Muslim-majority, caliphate-intent nation or populace, but of course Obama lived in Indonesia as a young person.
I have never heard this President advocate for Christians in the Middle East.