Bush: Bringing People Together for 7 Years

As we've entered the period of the US primaries for presidential candidates, many of us have excitingly watched the rise of a political superstar in Barack Obama. Included in his stump speech is a central pillar of his campaign - the need for opposing groups in Washington to work together - he likes to say "there are no blue states and no red states, but just the United States." That's all good and well, but has he lived up this? Are his attacks on President Bush for polarizing our country really justified?

Well, after Bush's visit to Israel this week, I don't know what to think of Mr. Obama's accusations. For all his talk about Bush being a divider and splitting the nation into polarized sections, I witnessed the ability of our President to bring about a real merging of opinions by two groups who are generally in staunch, sometimes violent, disagreement. Walking around the city of Jerusalem during Bush's visit we came across a number of gatherings and demonstrations.



First we happened upon a group of far left, mostly Arab, protesters, calling for America to stop its support of the Israeli occupation. A few blocks away, another small group had gathered. A group of right wing activists donning kaffiyehs and sporting toy Kalashnikov rifles posed for a Hamas style photo op while their leader expounded upon the terrorist state that will undoubtedly result from the negotiations being led by the US.



Yet despite the vast differences of opinions these groups both had a similar message on their signs and slogans - they all called for Bush to leave. They all hate him and want him out of the Middle East. Their loathing for our commander in chief because of his unabashed support of the Israeli occupation and his desire to create a terror state in the midst of the holy land, respectively, has transcended all divisions and brought together these groups and shown them that while we may disagree on certain small details, there are certain things we can all agree on.