Obama Come Lately

Barack Obama, despite his foreign policy pedigree of having "majored in international relations" is a johnny-come-lately on taking a real stand on standing up for Israel. He offered a speech up to the non-partisan group AIPAC in Chicago on Friday.

Sun Times here. He talks of "tough-minded" and "aggressive diplomacy" and touts the UN even while noting that Syria and Iran continue to ignore existing UN resolutions. (Ah, related news on the UN punting on genocide again.) The RNC offers a little background on the Big O's "in depth" foreign policy experience.

Obama also said this in his speech, about Iran:

Their support and shipment of weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas, which threatens the peace and security in the region, must end. These are great challenges that we face. And in moments like these, true allies do not walk away.

A nice sentiment.

Ed Lasky, the American Thinker, RCP, gives him some credit:

Then the Senator took a step forward by recognizing that previous steps Israel had taken on behalf of peace had been met by acts of violence. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon (it had come to occupy parts of Lebanon to protect itself from attacks from PLO terrorists) it became a base for the Iranian-supported Hezb'allah terror group.

Until now, I don't believe that the Senator has ever made this explicit connection; that acts of peace have often brought more war to Israel.

Lasky then goes on to point out a series of Obama's inconsistencies. And Obama ignored terror by Hamas. Read it all.

Here's a little more commentary from the left (intro, text, and revealing comments). The intro describes it approvingly as less than a full court pander, some think he was too tough on Hezbollah, others that he doesn't really believe what he says.

Obama come little, Obama come lately.

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UPDATE: Very engaging speech down in Selma. RCP Blog. Lynn Sweet. Mary Mitchell