Michele Bachmann might want to double-check her lingo on foreign policy — at least, according to the rules of politics in this country and the Republican presidential race.
Early Wednesday evening, Bachmann tweeted:
I’m proud to cosponsor HRes 268, coming to the Floor tonight. The resolution supports peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine. #jcot
Technically, Bachmann has fouled up the nomenclature here.
For the most part, pro-Israel hawks in this country are not supposed to allow that “Palestine” exists, but to insist that Israel is made up of the full territories conquered in both 1948 and 1967 (minus the Sinai peninsula, which was ceded back to Egypt in 1982). Furthermore, Republicans do not generally call for Israel to actually cede territory.
Thus, we have the logical foundation behind the denunciations of Obama allegedly calling upon Israel to return to the “pre-1967 borders” — which Obama did not even actually do — when he voiced the longstanding American policy of negotiations using the pre-1967 borders as a starting point for further adjustments.
The resolution text is available here. To be exact, it calls for a continuation of two-state negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians — and is more focused on denouncing three things: A potential unilateral declaration of statehood by the latter; the upcoming effort to seek recognition at the United Nations; and the involvement of Hamas in the Palestinian unity government. The word “Palestine” is only used once, in a reference to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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