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No, you are not. And thanks for posting the missing sections. Here I think is the key:
``*On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people - Muslims and Christians - have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighbouring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations - large and small - that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.*
*For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers - for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel's founding and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.*''
What's going on here in the US is a delusional debate that bares little resemblence to reality. The US right has constantly maintained the echo chamber of the Iarael's propaganda and made it the basis for US foriegn policy for decades. Bush pushed that effort up into sureal crisis proporitions over Iraq. If we all remember the WMD started by Albright et al. and then carried to the absurd under Rumsfeld, Colin Powell et al.
On reflection, I think most of the background for the Iraq war was probably done in with Israel leading the charge behind the scenes. After all even if Iraq had WMD, they were no threat to the US. However, they certainly would pose a threat to Israel. I also think one of the reasons there will be no investigation into the Iraq war is because it would implicate Israel and the US neocons.
Slowly but surely, the constant drum beat for taking on the Iran regime is beginning to unravel at the edges. This was the next target of the US Israeli lobby---if you want to call it that. I don't particularly like the term because it de-couples Israel from core neocnservative US establishment thinking. Unfortunately most of the US establishment still obfusicates the issue by claiming it is in the US interest to have a nuclear free Iran. Okay, but that is a side issue. It is in Israel's interest to have a nuclear free and weakened Iranian state.
Hopefully a few sections of the power elite here, must have realized that if the US continues to do Israel's bidding, it will mean endless crisis and conflict---and that is most certainly not in US interests. I think finally a few people in power must have come to the conclusion that Israel is a real pain in the ass. That stunt in Gaza this winter was pretty much the end of the road. I certainly hope so. From now on I think what Obama's speech indicated was that the heady years of the Bush regime and its joint state ventures in Middle Eastern terrorism with Israel are over.
However there still remains the public face to put on. I sm sure there will be howls of protest from the US right, hopefully of the hysterical sort. Their wild and strident ravings are getting more hollow by the month.
Juan Cole put up the video of the speech here (scroll down):
Although Obama seems quite bland to me, the US public or the media at any rate seem to have no idea how far into delusional realms they have been taken. Even a slight correction course will come as a great shock. So Obama's tour through Arab and Muslim countries will fill the US debates this week..
Fortunately, I won't be following it on tv since I threw my tv out last week over Cheney.
CG