DAMAGE CONTROL – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:   President Obama, having blundered badly in handling the visit of the Israeli prime minister, is now in damage-control mode.  Obama blundered, in his usual egotistical way, by inserting into his Thursday speech on the Middle East some language stating that peace between Israeli and the Palestinians should be based on Israel's completely indefensible 1967 borders. 

True, his language was more subtle, and there was much that was favorable to Israel in the speech, but inserting that language was like throwing a bomb into the peace process, for it declared to the Palestinians that they don't have to bother negotiating the huge issue of borders, as their demand for the 1967 lines would just be handed to them on a falafel platter.  The blunder overshadowed Mr. Obama's talks with Netanyahu and wiped out his Thursday speech.

Today the president speaks before AIPAC, the so-called "Israel lobby."  (Have you ever noticed that the mainstream media never discusses the Saudi lobby, with its vast wealth?)  He is expected to give the usual pep talk about U.S.-Israel relations, and maybe he'll explain away the comments that got him in trouble.

More important, Obama gave a tough-talking interview with the BBC, which seemed directed toward an American audience, rather than a British one.

US President Barack Obama on Sunday used language much more accommodating of Israeli concerns, while defending his previous call for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to be based on 1967 lines. In an interview with the BBC aired Sunday, Obama said that the Hamas-Fatah plan to ask for recognition of Palestinian statehood at the UN in September is a "problem."

"I do think it's a problem for two reasons," Obama told the BBC. "Number one, Hamas still hasn't recognized Israel's right to exist and renounce violence, and recognize that negotiations are the right path for solving this problem. And it's very difficult for Israel in a realistic way to say we're going to sit across the table from somebody who denies our right to exist. And so that's an issue that the Palestinians are going to have to resolve."

And...

He noted that leaders in Jerusalem are wary of creating a situation like that in Gaza and southern Lebanon, where rockets rained down on Israel following military withdrawals.

"The basis for negotiations will involve looking at that 1967 border, recognizing that conditions on the ground have changed and there are going to need to be swaps to accommodate the interests of both sides," the US president said in the BBC interview.

"On the other hand," Obama said, "and this was an equally important part of the speech, Israel is going to have to feel confident on its security on the West Bank, and that security element is going to be important to the Israelis."

COMMENT:  The president has done some damage, and should probably reconsider both his speechwriting staff and the wisdom of some of his advisers.  Now he is trying to walk back the problem.  He will be in Britain this week, addressing another somewhat disgruntled ally, disappointed in his leadership, especially on Libya.   

As they used to say in World War II, loose lips sink ships. 

May 22, 2011