Barack Obama, speaking in Belfast, claimed that Jews “took land off people” and “were excessive.” First, it’s disgusting how casually he presents Jewish history, as if Jews randomly showed up in Israel in 1948, out of nowhere, and started taking land from others. As if Jews hadn’t lived there continuously for thousands of years. As if the Jewish presence in Israel began with the establishment of the modern state. Second, I’m fascinated by this obsession with who came first. I’m not aware of another country where the question of who arrived first is so central to determining who supposedly has the right to live there. At its core, that argument is xenophobic. What exactly are you implying when you say, “I was here first”? That you have a greater right to live somewhere than someone who arrived later? That immigrants and their descendants must remain perpetual outsiders? Everywhere else in the world, people migrate, settle, build communities, and eventually become part of the country they moved to. Yet somehow, when Jews immigrate to Israel, they’re permanently labeled settlers, invaders, and occupiers, even generations later. And Obama goes right along with this framing. Third, since when is the history of land changing hands unique to Israel? Didn’t Jewish families lose enormous amounts of property in Poland during and after World War II? Didn’t European borders shift, with entire populations displaced? Hasn’t Russia seized Ukrainian territory? The history of virtually every country involves conquest, migration, displacement, and territorial disputes. Yet somehow, when discussing Israel, these historical events become an argument against the legitimacy of an entire people’s presence. And finally, perhaps the most absurd part of all this is the setting. You’re standing in Belfast, a place with its own complicated history of territorial conflict, division, and competing national identities, and of all the issues you could discuss, you choose to lecture Jews about land, history, and belonging? Shameful.