Some Jews Say Obama's 'Muslim Speech' Undersold Israel's History

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Some Jewish criticism of Obama's speech to the Muslim world has centered on a grievance that's gotten little notice outside of Israel: that Obama wrongly rooted Israel's right to exist in Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, ignoring the Jews millennia-long struggle to control what they consider their biblical homeland.

For many backers of Israel, this is no small quibble. Tying Israel's existence to the Holocaust, they say, is a concession to enemies like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Judea Pearl—father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl—explains in today's Wall Street Journal:

...Mr. Obama's rationale for Israel's legitimacy began with the Holocaust, not with the birthplace of Jewish history. "The aspiration for a Jewish homeland," he said, "is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied." Who else defines Israel's legitimacy that way? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does. Iran sees Israel as a foreign entity to the region, hastily created to sooth European guilt over the Holocaust. Israelis consider this distortion of history to be an assault on the core of their identity as a nation.

An affirmation of "Israel's historical right to exist," based on a 2,000-year continuous quest to rebuild a national homeland, is what the region needs to hear from Mr. Obama. The magic words "historical right" have the capacity to change the entire equation in the Middle East. They convey a genuine commitment to permanence, and can therefore invigorate the peace process with the openness and goodwill that it has been lacking thus far.

The Jerusalem Post made the case even more forcefully in an editorial this week:

....Mr. President, long before Christianity and Islam appeared on the world stage, the covenant between the people of Israel and the Land of Israel was entrenched and unwavering. Every day we prayed in our ancient tongue for our return to Zion. Every day, Mr. President. For 2,000 years.

At every Jewish wedding down through the centuries, the bridegroom has crushed a glass beneath his foot while declaring: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem!"

Perhaps it's because Palestine was never sovereign under the Arabs that even moderate Palestinians cannot find it in their hearts to acknowledge the depth of the Jews' connection to Zion. Instead, they insist we are interlopers.

When Obama implies that Jewish rights are essentially predicated on the Holocaust—not once asserting they are far, far deeper and more ancient—he is dooming the prospects for peace.

For why should the Arabs reconcile themselves to the presence of a Jewish state, organic to the region, when the US president keeps insinuating that Israel was established to atone for Europe's crimes?

The Jewish Forward has a helpful explainer on the import of Israel's founding narrative in light of Obama's speech. I'll be watching to see if the president tweaks his narrative about the Jewish state's origins as he intensifies engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

• Follow Dan Gilgoff on Twitter.
• Read more about religion.