Dan Gilgoff at God & Country commends President Obama for framing the cause of peace between Israel and Palestine “as a religious one involving ‘God’s children’ and the three world religious that call Israel the Holy Land.” For what it’s worth, even Bibi seems to have liked the speech, despite withholding comment on Obama’s reiteration of the illegitimacy of West Bank settlements. From Obama’s remarks:
We must remember that the greatest price of this conflict is not paid by us. It is paid by the Israeli girl in Sderot who closes her eyes in fear that a rocket will take her life in the night. It is paid by the Palestinian boy in Gaza who has no clean water and no country to call his own. These are God’s children. And after all of the politics and all of the posturing, this is about the right of every human being to live with dignity and security. That is a lesson embedded in the three great faiths that call one small slice of Earth the Holy Land. And that is why—even though there will be setbacks, and false starts, and tough days—I will not waiver in my pursuit of peace.
Read the prepared text of Obama’s speech in its entirety here.