Thursday, September 17, 2009

Kinda Annoyed

Here is Obama's Rosh Hashana message:



Here is his Nowruz message:



I just don't appreciate that he uses the same tone to address the (unfortunate) Palestinian problem as the Iranian dictatorship. As if I am not perfectly aware of the suffering that the Palestinians endure. I just don't believe that if only we, the Jewish people, looked back on our cherished heritage* and our outspoken condemnation of oppression that somehow the Palestinian problem would be solved. It takes two to tango. Harumph.

* I think it is possible that the first Jewish intellectual to give the line from Yishaya "or lagoyim" discursive currency was Jesus. See Matt. 5.14 "You are a light unto the world. A city built on a hill." I find it weird when people quote that line as distinctively Jewish.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is neither here nor there, but Obama's Nowruz message was also released with Persian subtitles and a Persian transcript—it was aimed at Iran. The Rosh Hashana video is for American Jews, one of Obama's most reliable constituencies.

Sam

Zev said...

So isn't it odd that the tenor of a foreign directed message and domestic directed message is the same?