Obama’s blunder on Israel

Reading in the NY Times about a blunder Obama made on Israel, reminds me of why I remain unconvinced about his experience. In six months time he may occupy the most powerful job on the planet where every statement has serious consequences.

So what did Obama do wrong. He addressed a pro-Israel lobby and said:

“Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”

Now that statement goes beyond the position of George W Bush, hell it even goes beyond the position of Israel itself – it is somewhere to the right of Likud. The status and possible division of Jerusalem is one of the major issues for a peace settlement, and anyone who has done more than Stage One foreign relations would know you can’t rule it out like that.

As one would expect it caused outrage in the Middle East, and the Obama campaign has started to backtrack or clarify his remarks. As he is only a candidate, no harm for now. But if he becomes President he is really really going to need an extremely strong foreign policy team to prevent him saying things like that again, because as President such a statement would have ramifications – it would be read as the US unilaterally deciding the boundaries of Israel.