Obama and Jerusalem: did you really believe him?

This is going to be a short blog entry.

Short, because there's nothing much to say.

Barack Obama had a good speech yesterday at AIPAC. One can even argue: a very good speech. He said all the right things, and then added some more. He also said this:

"Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided".

Some Palestinian leaders have decided to make a big deal out of it. A cynic might suspect that Palestinian anger is not exactly something Obama wanted to avoid, as it will help him get rid of the Hamas-supports-Obama title that John McCain was using against him. Whether it was planned or not - it worked.

It always works with Arab leaders.

And with Jewish leaders too.

Note this: Obama did not say that Jerusalem will only be Israel's capital. He did not say it, because he does not believe this can be the outcome of negotiations, and anyway, does anyone really think that Obama, with no warning, has suddenly decided to prejudge the outcome of an Israeli Palestinian peace process, and rule, decisively, in favor of Israel?

Apparently, some people do - or pretended they do. These include the Palestinian leadership, always ready to ventilate grievances and "Jewish lobby" conspiracy theories - and also some Jewish leaders. Yesterday, the Jewish leaders involved (most notably from the Orthodox Union) were trying to pretend that Obama was promising an undivided Jerusalem to Israel and nothing to the Palestinians. Today they are trying to pretend that they are shocked and amazed to discover that this was not Obama's intention.

Here is the truth (I promised this will be a short entry):

Either they are very stupid, and don't understand Obama at all.

Or they are very smart, and are just playing with Obama's words because they like the imaginary message better than the real one.

Since I know most of them personally I can tell you this: they aren't stupid.

Update: in What To Read you can read why the OU is now happy again with Obama's position