In Northern Ireland, Obama Throws Bombs at Israel

‘Are you just going to be behind walls and wipe out everybody around you?’

Jeannie DeAngelis | October 18, 2026

Fresh off reassuring Michigan senatorial hopeful Abdul El-Sayed that he’d make a campaign appearance, Barack Obama visited Northern Ireland, the country where he and Vladimir Putin once clashed over gym time at the 2013 G8 Summit at the Lough Erne Resort.  Thirteen years later, the former president returned to receive an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University in Belfast, where he sat down with journalist Susan McKay at Belfast’s O2 Arena.

While in Northern Ireland, Obama decided to throw verbal bombs at the Jewish state.

Speaking in his usual imperious tone, Obama criticized Israel, saying that Jews, who fled persecution in Europe, “took land“ that belonged to Palestinians.  He also argued that Israel “ceded moral ground” through its security policies.  The former president argued that Israel’s policy of relying on military strength without offering concessions could produce short-term gains and undermine longer-term prospects for peace.

Obama questioned Israel: “Are you just going to be behind walls and wipe out everybody around you, or are you going to find some just way of defending yourself while still acting in an ethical, moral way?”

These one-sided condemnations are not new.  As far back as 2009, Obama made it clear that, as president, he believed that “the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”  The problem is that although he commiserated with how generations of Jews had been treated in Europe, Obama’s strong condemnation of Israel suggests that he believes that historical territorial claims should be treated differently depending on who conquered the land and when the conquest took place.

In the thick of verbal irony, the former community organizer forgot to mention the ancient Jewish kingdoms, the seventh-century Arab........

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