July 20, 2009

Israel's Claim to Historical Legitimacy

To the Editor:

Carlin Romano accurately describes President Obama's masterful presentation of a new American public philosophy, one in which the United States is the true cosmopolitan nation caring for and tolerant of others ("Obama, Philosopher in Chief," The Chronicle Review, June 26). But Romano misses the one major slip of the president's remarkable June 4, 2009, speech in Cairo.

In that speech, the president mistold the history of modern Israel, making it appear