They requested a 250-word response as part of a broader piece, asking people around the world similar questions about Obama and then the current election.
Here is it is.
President Barack Obama and the Jewish Communities across the Green Line
Yisrael Medad
The past eight years of the Obama Administration have undoubtedly been one of the most contentious and tension-filled periods since 1967 between the United States and Israel on the issue of Jewish communities across the Green Line. On the positive side, Mr. Obama never referred to our residency as "illegal" (it aren't) but as "illegitimate" beginning on his Cairo Speech, June 4, 2009: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements" (even though the Bush-Sharon 2004 Understanding did do just that) but in the same breath demanded that "it is time for these settlements to stop." To be fair to Obama and precise, he targeted always "continued" Jewish residency activity not the totality of the presence of Jews in areas of their historic homeland.
On the other hand, despite that the 2009-10 moratorium on construction proved that the Palestinian Authority was not interested in negotiations, not to mention its anti-Jewish incitement which resulted in more terror, Obama always placed the onus for a lack of agreement on Israel's government. America's Jerusalem Consulate General effectively cold-shoulders the Jews living in the communities and denies them equal cultural non-consular services Arabs receive which, unfortunately, allows the assumption that the total removal of communities would be tolerated even the new Jerusalem neighborhoods.
But Obama is leaving and a Netanyahu/Likud government continues.If the new administration will be Republican, a whole new panorama of possibilities exist taking into consideration the purposeful ignoring of a two-state solution by the Republican Platform. The Palestinian Authority, already being objects of critical Congressional moves together with the anti-BDS legislation in states' legislatures, will be more pressured. A Democratic win will be expected to further badger Israel while showing a lax attitude toward Palestinian Authority inadequacies.
It never appeared.
Bumped, I presume.
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