Obama: Military superiority alone will not bring Israel security

Former U.S. President Barack Obama said relying on military and technological superiority will not end the cycle of violence, stressing that Palestinians have suffered injustice through the loss of their land and that both peoples will remain in the region.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama said relying solely on military and technological superiority will not end the cycle of violence in the Middle East, arguing that the stronger side bears greater responsibility for breaking it. He made the remarks in a conversation with writer Susan McKay in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

“Israel is taking land from people, and it is going too far,” Obama said. The logic of “we are the strongest, and our security depends on taking what we want without concessions” may work in the short term, he said, “but when you adopt that stance, you have given up your moral foundation. I would say the current Israeli government has adopted that stance.”

“Palestinians aren’t going anywhere”

Destruction in Gaza’s Beach refugee camp (file photo)

Obama said millions of Palestinians will continue to live in the region and that imposing on them conditions no one would accept for themselves is unsustainable. He asked Israelis how they want their children to live and called for a just way of self-defense that does not abandon ethics.

He also urged the Palestinian side not to pursue a strategy aimed at defeating Israel, citing the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, and noted that not all Israelis support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.