WALL STREET JOURNAL
Obama’s Dangerous Mideast Words
Elisha Weisel
October 19, 2026
…In Mr. Obama’s telling, Jews were oppressed in Europe and then arrived somewhere else and took too much. Jewish history in the land disappears. My father drew a line when he wrote in the New York Times in 2001: “To compromise on territory might seem, under certain conditions, imperative. . . . But to compromise on history is impossible.” That is the line Mr. Obama crossed in Belfast. The timing of his remarks matters. This week he will rally in Detroit for Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, who has accused Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid,” called it “bloodthirsty” and a “rogue state,” and, when asked three times on CNN whether Israel has a right to exist, refused to say yes. Mr. Obama is free to campaign for whomever he chooses. But when he, the most trusted voice in the Democratic Party, misrepresents Jewish history and then shares a stage with Mr. El-Sayed, Jewish Americans can be forgiven for hearing one message. Perhaps it is not the one he intends…I hope Mr. Obama reconsiders his words and takes them back. It would be an act worthy of his friendship with my father. READ MORE
ALL ISRAEL NEWS Obama’s ‘stolen land’ claim ignores the legal and historical record Former U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent remarks in Belfast—claiming that Israel “took land off people” during its establishment—are not merely ahistorical; they ignore the documented legal, diplomatic, and historical record. A careful reading of that record, including declassified archives and the foundational documents of international law, shows that the Jewish claim to the land is rooted in law and history, not theft. Obama’s framing presumes a one-sided narrative of expulsion. Yet the historical evidence reveals a far more complex reality. While there were indeed cases of expulsion—such as al-Bassa, Iqrit, Kafr Bir’im, and al-Qubayba—there is also extensive documentation of Arab evacuation orders and advice. In Haifa, a contemporary document from the Arab Emergency Committee dated April 23, 1948, confirms that the transfer of the Arab population was “voluntary and came at our request.”
NEW YORK POST Netanyahu fires back at Obama after he accuses Israel of stealing land, defends Palestinian terror “The Jewish people are not foreign occupiers in the land of our forefathers,” Netanyahu responded in a stern video rebuke posted on X Friday. “The Jewish people are not foreign occupiers in the land of our forefathers,” Netanyahu responded in a stern video rebuke posted on X Friday.
JEWISH INSIDER Obama scrutinizes Israel’s founding, says Palestinians want their ‘land back’ In Northern Ireland, the former president said Israel has ‘ceded moral ground’ in its desire for greater security