We write letters

Dear Mr. President,

As an American who has lived in Europe for the past fifteen years I often find myself in the position of having to try to explain or defend either the policy of my government or the statements of its leaders to my friends and colleagues. Your comments yesterday before the Knesset in Israel, in your role as America’s head of state and the country’s chief diplomat, have led to a flurry of communications from those I know well ranging from simple requests for an explanation of your intent to expressions of outrage.

You and I are roughly of the same generation as are many of my European friends and acquaintances. As such they have lived through a period in which Europe was recovering from and rebuilding in the aftermath of the Second World War and therefore they understand, in a way neither of us can, the price paid for appeasement. Even though many of these people speak English as a second (or third or fourth) language they cannot understand your apparent confusion between the concept of negotiation and acts of appeasement.

It is not appeasement to talk to one’s enemies. It only becomes so if one one-sidedly accedes to their demands. If there is no conversation between sides in opposition there is only one means left to resolve their differences; violence and war. Certainly we all agree that in any and all circumstances acts of war must be a final and ultimately regrettable resort and that to engage in war is an expression of our failure as human beings.

In addition to the many concerns and queries of my friends and colleagues, which I find I am unable to adequately address, I find several other aspects of your remarks to be of great concern.

First of all it seems to many of us that your poorly worded statements appear to be a direct attack on Senator Obama, a Democratic candidate for President and the probable nominee of that party. In your remarks to the Knesset on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the state of you were acting in your role as head of state and representing all of the American people. This attack, if it was intended as such, was inappropriate in that role and it was especially unbefitting as your were speaking on foreign soil; soil whose status is in dispute. There can be no adequate explanation for your misuse of such a forum. If you intended these comments to be directed at Senator Obama you must retract them forthwith and apology. If you did not intend the Senator as a target you must explain to whom your statement was directed and why.

Secondly choosing the occasion of a speech on the anniversary of the state of Israel to launch such an attack, whilst inexplicably failing to talk about peace and the painful concessions that will be required of all sides in order to achieve a lasting peace, will allow some parties to the conflict to legitimately dismiss you and your administration as honest brokers in the search for resolution and peace for all of the peoples in Israel and Palestine.

I hope that you have already taken the opportunity to reconsider your remarks. If not, I hope that this missive may prod you to do so. I am certain that you will, given time to reflect, realise that damage has been done by these statements; damage to the peace process between the state of Isreal and the Palestinian people, damage to America’s stature in the world and damage to the American political process. I trust once you recognise this that you will urgently take steps to undo this damage to the extent that it is still possible.

Sincerely,

Yank in London