President Obama's first call to a foreign leader was to Palestinian President Abbas

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

President Obama placed the Middle East at the forefront of his first hours in office today as he sought to make good on his promise of “ushering in a new era of peace”.

In a flurry of telephone calls from the Oval Office, he reached out to leaders in the region and vowed to engage immediately in pursuit of a permanent Arab-Israeli settlement.

The spokesman for President Abbas revealed that Mr Obama had told the Palestinian leader that their conversation was his first with a foreign leader since taking office. The new President had promised to “deploy every possible effort to achieve peace”, the spokesman said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle5563280.ece

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[alienlovechild 75]

President Obama placed the Middle East at the forefront of his first hours in office today as he sought to make good on his promise of “ushering in a new era of peace”.

When Israelis pulls out of Gaza as they surely will. Will Obama get the credit for something that would happen anyway?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

President Obama placed the Middle East at the forefront of his first hours in office today as he sought to make good on his promise of "ushering in a new era of peace".

When Israelis pulls out of Gaza as they surely will. Will Obama get the credit for something that would happen anyway?

How do you know they will for sure? They haven't yet.

[Pooky 3,929]

President Obama placed the Middle East at the forefront of his first hours in office today as he sought to make good on his promise of "ushering in a new era of peace".

When Israelis pulls out of Gaza as they surely will. Will Obama get the credit for something that would happen anyway?

How do you know they will for sure? They haven't yet.

Yes they have http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28765761/

But Mahmoud Abbas can't do anything. Hamas don't respect him, don't like him and won't talk to him. The smuggling of weapons into Gaza is already back in full swing across the Egyptian border and the Israelis are waiting on their border, knowing that Hamas is going to start shooting before Obama gets the chance to do anything.

It makes me sick to think that we will be right back where we were in no time. The flow of weapons into Gaza must be stopped, to force Hamas to adopt an alternative course of action. And once they are out of weapons, the only alternative is talking.

[alienlovechild 75]

How do you know they will for sure? They haven't yet.

Need examples of Israeli policy? Lebanon, West Bank raids, Sinai . . .the IDF will pull out fairly quickly.

Is it really important who gets credit? Are we still in middle school?

Here: When the Israelis pull out of Gaza, it surely will have been due to the actions of George W. Bush and ####### Cheney. Sean Hannity probably had a hand in it too. Well done everyone!

Better?

You're funny as one of the biggest blame assigners around. None of the folks you mentioned will get any credit but they will get some blame to varying degrees. Dust off your poms poms because I expect Obama is going to get the credit for anything positive whether he can rightly claim credit or not.

[SAT 9,609]

President Obama placed the Middle East at the forefront of his first hours in office today as he sought to make good on his promise of “ushering in a new era of peace”.

In a flurry of telephone calls from the Oval Office, he reached out to leaders in the region and vowed to engage immediately in pursuit of a permanent Arab-Israeli settlement.

The spokesman for President Abbas revealed that Mr Obama had told the Palestinian leader that their conversation was his first with a foreign leader since taking office. The new President had promised to “deploy every possible effort to achieve peace”, the spokesman said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle5563280.ece

Obama's first trip as president should be to go to Egypt.....to visit his Mummy....

[Pooky 3,929]

President Obama placed the Middle East at the forefront of his first hours in office today as he sought to make good on his promise of “ushering in a new era of peace”.

In a flurry of telephone calls from the Oval Office, he reached out to leaders in the region and vowed to engage immediately in pursuit of a permanent Arab-Israeli settlement.

The spokesman for President Abbas revealed that Mr Obama had told the Palestinian leader that their conversation was his first with a foreign leader since taking office. The new President had promised to “deploy every possible effort to achieve peace”, the spokesman said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle5563280.ece

Obama's first trip as president should be to go to Egypt.....to visit his Mummy....

Oh, that was BAD

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Obama's first trip as president should be to go to Egypt.....to visit his Mummy....

Fess up, one of your kids heard that one is school.

[SAT 9,609]

Obama's first trip as president should be to go to Egypt.....to visit his Mummy....

Fess up, one of your kids heard that one is school.

yes.......yes it's true......

[doodlebugg 10]

President Obama placed the Middle East at the forefront of his first hours in office today as he sought to make good on his promise of “ushering in a new era of peace”.

When Israelis pulls out of Gaza as they surely will. Will Obama get the credit for something that would happen anyway?

I give him credit for them pulling out. Maybe I'm alone in this but do you think it's really a coincidence that the ceasefire and subsequent withdrawal of troops (which they said they weren't going to do) right before he took office was a coincidence?

Also, Obama is not stupid. I'd be very shocked if he didn't also talk to Hamas though we'll never hear about that in the papers. Seems idiotic to me when a and b are fighting to just talk to b and some of a's EX friends. Obama isn't THAT dumb.

[alienlovechild 75]

I give him credit for them pulling out. Maybe I'm alone in this but do you think it's really a coincidence that the ceasefire and subsequent withdrawal of troops (which they said they weren't going to do) right before he took office was a coincidence?

Although neither side formally admitted it, it's been taken as a given that the current ceasefire was due very largely to the inauguration. Neither side wants to be the crisis that Obama has to deal with on his first day.

So Obama's inauguration indirectly is responsible for the cease fire but let's not use the word "credit".

Why does credit matter? What I think matters is that people stop dying.

It builds an aura of competence and public approval which in turn leads to greater political power. You really believe mere presence of Obama in the White House on the first day has paid a dividend of saving lives in Gaza. . .but it's not giving "credit"?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I don't think its any coincidence that all this took place during the transition. Likely the thinking was that people's attention would be diverted and there wouldn't be as much pressure from the US Government to end the conflict.

[alienlovechild 75]

You want to give credit to an inanimate noun? Okay. The inauguration gets credit for the ceasefire. Good job inauguration, we knew you could do it.

Ok, let's eliminate the word "inauguration" now. So now we have "Obama gets credit for the ceasefire". I remember somebody claiming that would happen. Oh yeah, that was me.

Why does credit matter? What I think matters is that people stop dying.

It builds an aura of competence and public approval which in turn leads to greater political power.

Not the way you're using it. Without saying it, you implied that Obama was going to get credit for something Bush did. That's not building public approval, that's just divisive politics as usual.

I explained my statement which you denied then quickly embraced within the same thread but I won't claim credit for setting you straight. By contrast, now you insist I asserted Bush is somehow responsible for the ceasefire. I didn't say that- you did, in jest. You need to build up your knowledge of American realpolitik beyond cliches like "divisive politics". Most politics are divisive that's redundant anyway. A president does build political capital to get things done.

You really believe mere presence of Obama in the White House on the first day has paid a dividend of saving lives in Gaza. . .but it's not giving "credit"?

Did you even read my post? Better yet, do you even watch the news or read newspapers? You know, they have them online now, you should check one out. You'll probably run across a story or two that talks about this whole ceasefire thing. Or you can just twist my words to score points with the wingnuts, that's cool too.

If you want to willfully mis-read what I've written and try to shoe-horn it into a zinger, knock yourself out. I can play that game all day. But in the end you're being disingenuous. You know exactly what I mean.

I read and disected your post and gave rationales for my answers. You; on the other hand, want me to look for sources proving Obama should get credit or something for the ceasefire? That's your assertion- you back it up. Lumping me in with your bogeymen "wingnuts" (why have all guys latched onto that phrase now?) doesn't prove jack.

[alienlovechild 75]

Fine alien, you caught me. When I said "why does it matter who gets the credit?" and then I turned around and said "the current ceasefire was due in large part because neither side wants to be Obama's first problem on day 1," what I was really saying was that "Obama gets credit for the ceasefire," and therefore contradicted myself. Clearly I was lying when I said credit doesn't matter, and you, always the quick wit, caught me up in record time. I see that now. I don't know what I was thinking when I tried to sneak such baldfaced contradictions past your vastly superior intellect.

Impressive. Not that you agree with me on this one but it's a rarity that anyone can admit they might wrong on a single issue.

I'll be sure and return the favor by being wrong and owning up when it's clear I talked myself into an indefensible position.