No, Obama Did Not Throw Israel “Under the Bus”

President Obama’s speech yesterday confirmed that the main thrust of American foreign policy in the middle east may now fairly be characterised as Obama men and Bush measures. In large part it could have been written by David Frum. Admittedly, as Frum says there’s a difference between broad statements of principle and the actual, more difficult, policy decisions that might put flesh on those bones.

Despite this, the conservative reaction to the speech appears utterly unhinged. As any member of the sanity-based community could appreciate, there was little in the address that significantly departed from long-standing American policy. Indeed, I think Jeffrey Goldberg is right to argue that the speech:

[W]as enthusiastically pro-Israel. I don’t mean pro-Israel merely in the “he’s speaking hard truths the Israelis must hear about the occupation if their country is to survive as a Jewish democracy” sort of way. I mean, it was pro-Israel in a red-meat I-heart-Israel, damn-Hamas, Iran-can-go-to-hell, Israel is the eternal Jewish state sort of way.