Obama to the left of Carter?

Last June, Jimmy Carter visited the small town of Neve Daniel, in the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements.

Speaking at the end of a meeting with Shaul Goldstein, the head of the Gush Etzion regional council, Carter said that the settlement bloc would remain under Israeli control.

"This particular settlement area is not one that I can envision ever being abandoned or changed over into Palestinian territory. This is part of settlements close to the 1967 (border) line that I think will be here for ever," he said in the garden of Goldstein's house.

Apparently the current US administration has gone beyond even the most implacably anti-Israel, anti-settlement ex-president, as they call into question not just the large settlement blocs near the Green Line with hundreds of thousands of residents but also organic parts of Jerusalem itself.

Maybe if Obama would deign to visit Israel he could see reality.

Perhaps he doesn't want to. After all, it is easier to make pronouncements and apply pressure from thousands of miles away when you don't know the facts.