The words of President George W. Bush were not new, but the visceral (and comical) reaction by the Obama campaign was. In a speech to the Israeli Knesset to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state Bush told the Israeli lawmakers what he has been saying for years. Simply put: talking to terrorists and the leaders of states intent on the destruction of both the West and Israel is and will always be a futile measure.

Senator Barack Obama is the likely nominee for the Democratic ticket to face John McCain (and hopefully someone more like a Republican) in November and in an amazing moment of grandeur Obama believed that the words to Israel were meant specifically for him. They could and should have been, but the White House denies any such intention.

So what terrible thing did Bush say about Obama without naming him? Did he mention that Obama sat in the pews at a church run by an anti-Semite for 20 years? Did he take issue with the fact that the Obama campaign falsely denied for more than a month that it had direct contact with people responsible for the death of Israelis (Hamas) and who continue to fire rockets in order to kill them?

Did he say that Obama’s own anti-Semitic, anti-white, everything is about me and other blacks is a danger to America or that many believe that he is a “sleeper cell” styled Manchurian candidate who is waiting to get to the White House in order to sell out our nation to Islamic fanatics? Not even close and no to all of the above.

All Bush said is that talking to terrorists and the leaders of rogue states is not only a futile effort, but would legitimize their position in the world. Something that Obama is very openly touting as his vision of American foreign policy under his leadership.

As Knesset members sat transfixed to a message of hope for the only nation on the planet that is the target of madmen and nuclear seeking despots – the biggest applause line came after Bush told them something that all of them already know (well, maybe not the few Arabs who help govern a state that Arabs don't even like to admit exists):

“Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

That is the Obama vision of the future! Bush did not mention his name; he did not have to, because so many people on the left believe that just talking to people will solve problems.

Tell that to FDR (WWII was not avoided when the British sent Neville Chamberlain to Hitler’s office and returned with a pledge for no attack). JFK, another Democrat, faced down evil and it was done with ships and planes – not polite diplomatic teas between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Believing their position to be so secure the Obama camp and his surrogates even trotted out Ronald Reagan as an example of a “talker not a fighter.” Unfortunately they bastardized his message and acts and while Reagan did talk to the Soviets that talk did not come quick. It took a huge expansion of American military power in order to bankrupt the Soviets into coming to the table.

So how did Obama respond to the painfully obvious? A press release that not only talked about how wonderful Israel is (a great change from what his preacher taught him), but words (as usual) that took what Bush said out of context and applied it to himself (as if the world revolved around his every word). Nobody in Israel cares about Barack Obama (well except Arabs and those who’d like to see her pushed into the sea – yes there are Israeli equivalents of Cindy Sheehan even there) – the majority fear his coming to the White House. It is not because he is black (don’t start the race card thing) it is because he is endorsed by terrorists and to a nation like Israel having an anti-Semite in the White House would be bad enough, but an anti-Semite that terrorists like would be even worse!

Said Obama’s release, “It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack.” He fails to point out anything false about what he considered an attack on his campaign. There was nothing new in what Bush told the world in Jerusalem – the only new kid on the block in Obama and his foreign policy expertise is going to school in the Far East and taking a couple trips to Hawaii (I guess it is foreign since he went to the best school there and it has a palace).

Obama said in October that he would engage in direct talks without preconditions with some of the worst leaders on our planet. Iran is responsible for a significant number of US military deaths in Iraq – yet Obama said if he was President of the United States that he would have tea with a man who wants Israel wiped from the map and who leads a nation killing our troops. Maybe they will have a discussion on anti-Semitism and the commonality they share about whether or not Israel should or should not exist, but one thing is certain, even if Bush was talking about Obama, nothing he said was untrue.

The best the Obama campaign could do is point out their love of Israel and how bad it is that Bush took to the stage in Israel to rally Jewish leaders and to reinforce our national commitment as an ally of the Jewish state. America was, after all, the first country on earth to recognize her and there are still countries that deny her right to exist (including people that are invited to the White House for cupcakes if Obama is elected). Obama cannot point to a single false statement in the speech given by Bush to the Knesset, but he re-affirms his position almost daily that in order to win against an enemy we have to chat with them first.

Tell that to FDR, JFK or Reagan. Did Obama learn nothing from his Ivy League education or does he take everything that Jeremiah Wright said during his weekly visits to the anti-Semitic, anti-White and anti-American church as gospel truth? It seems the latter (or it could be both since the Ivy Leagues are not what they used to be).

Obama believes that everything said in any forum to any group and with any intention is about him. It is not strange that someone who has the ego to run for leader of the free world would think that every word against his “policy” is an attack on him – what is strange is that he would run from his positions. Instead of a press release calling Bush’s words false he should have issued a release that said everything Bush said was bunk.

If Barack Obama cannot stand up to President Bush when all Bush is doing is saying the policy being advocated by Obama will not work then how will Obama stand up to leaders in the world who will not be moved by the empty rhetoric of an inexperienced Senator who got lucky in the world of politics? The only reason Obama is where he is today is because the people in the early voting primary states did not know him – they only knew what they heard. Ask the people of Pennsylvania or West Virginia; Kentucky or Ohio what they think of Barack Obama today and the answer is much different than before.

Today the people of West Virginia know who Barack Obama is and the media, albeit by force from talk shows and blogs, are covering what Obama actually believes. What he believes is that you can talk a killer out of killing or a terrorist out of terror. He is wrong. It has never worked in the past and will not work in the future.

Bush should have stepped up to the plate and said, “Yeah, I’m talking about Obama. He and his dangerous policies of appeasement will get us all killed. They’d make September 11, 2001 look like a fender bender.” Unfortunately that is not proper protocol for a sitting President. Maybe when President Bush is former President Bush he can go abroad and do what former Presidents Carter and Clinton do today and bash America and our leaders by pointing out that the leftist ideas for foreign policy will be to our detriment.

Until then Obama can just pretend that the world revolves around him and that every word uttered by any person opposed to what he believes is meant as a campaign endorsement for another equally undesirable candidate, but one who would at least think about America first - John McCain. I may dislike McCain's policies on everything from taxes to the environment, but at least I know that he will not watch Israel pushed into the sea and that the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House will never host a terrorist like the leader of Hamas or Hezbollah.

Of course there is a Democratic precedent for hosting terrorists at the White House. Not so long ago the most frequent guest in the White House was good old Yasser “kill the Jews” Arafat. Oh wait, we talked to terrorists then and where did that get us? That’s right – the Intifada and dancing in the streets when 3,000 Americans were killed by al Qaeda terrorists on 9-11. 

Great strategy on the left for dealing with terror folks and you want that repeated? I don’t.

Steve Yuhas is a radio talk show host on AM 600 KOGO in southern California and may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com