07/24/08
Obama, Israel and Palestine
Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem
Barack Obama has finally made his long-awaited pilgrimage to Israel, a
rite of passage that no
aspiring American politician, let alone a presidential candidate, can
afford to miss or ignore.
There (or rather here), Obama uttered all the politically-correct words
that Israeli leaders
and especially Israel-firsters back home would want to hear.
He called the creation of Israel in Palestine in 1948 a “miracle,” utterly
ignoring the near
obliteration of Palestine and expulsion to the four corners of the world
of the vast bulk of
its indigenous Christian and Muslim inhabitants.
The presidential hopeful told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that “I
have come to
communicate to you my fervent sup****t for Israel.”
In Sd*****, in southern Israel, Obama was quoted as saying the following:
“If somebody was
sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I
would do everything in
my power to stop that, and would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”
Of course, he mentioned absolutely nothing about the Israeli campaign of
murder and terror
against Gaza, particularly the year-long harsh blockade of the coastal
enclave’s estimated 1.5
million inhabitants, which has killed and maimed thousands of innocent
men, women and children
whose only “crime” is that they had dared elect a government the Bush
administration and Israel
didn’t like.
Predictably, Obama lashed out at Iran, saying that “a situation in which
Iran was capable of
making nuclear weapons would be “game-changing” and would have
repercussions across the world.
Again, he utterly and totally ignored Israel’s estimated 300 nuclear
warheads, as if even
alluding to this well-known fact was an earth-shaking taboo.
Obama is not ignorant of the facts in the Middle East. He is well-aware of
the evil nature of
the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the equally criminal treatment
meted out to the
Palestinian people.
He also knows well that true and just peace with the Palestinians is the
last item on Israel’s
agenda as evidenced from the unmitigated Jewish settlement expansion in
the West Bank,
especially in occupied Arab East Jerusalem.
Non the less, Obama is also meticulously conscious of the whoring theatre
of American politics
where political correctness always exceeds and overrides moral rightness.
He knows that the nearly complete Jewish domination of the “media
discourse” in America leaves
him with only two choices: Either he be conscientious, in which case he
would most probably
lose; or play the political prostitution game quite skillfully, and have a
fair chance of
winning. Obama has obviously opted to adopt the later choice.
It is of course true that the sole reason behind Obama’s visit to Israel,
a country that got
the US involved in two wars in the Middle East and is now hell-bent trying
to get the Bush
Administration to wage a third war, this time on Iran, has more to do with
his efforts to
impress American Jewish voters, especially American Zionist leaders, than
with showing
solidarity with “Sd*****” or underscoring his commitment to peace in the
Middle East.
But this is only partially true. There are far more Hispanic voters in the
US than Jewish
voters, but Obama has made no pilgrimage to Mexico as he has to Israel.
Similarly, there are probably at least as many American Muslim voters as
there are Jewish
voters, who unlike the Jews are expected to overwhelmingly vote for Obama,
given their
conspicuously nightmarish experience with the Bush administration,
especially its witch-hunting
campaign against American Muslims.
Yet we have seen Obama display a virtually phobic reaction toward
everything and anything
Islamic, from refusing to be photographed with two hejab-wearing
sup****ters recently to him
completely disavowing his childhood Islamic heritage as if the religion of
Islam, which gave
the world so much in terms of civilization and culture, were something to
be ashamed of.
This probably explains why Obama has carefully avoided visiting the Haram
al Sharif esplanade
in East Jerusalem, one of the world’s most splendid sites, lest he be
caught inadvertently
showing signs of respect to the holy place or shaking hands with a Muslim
scholar.
Then his political opponents back home would rather enthusiastically seize
“the golden
op****tunity” of having finally found the ultimate “proof” that Obama is in
fact a
“crypto-follower of Osama bin Laden.” After all, Obama’s last name and
Osama’s first have 80%
similarity.!!!
Well, anything could work in a country that can be so easily mesmerized by
spin doctors and
misled to the abyss by organized mendacity.
Yes, it is the spin doctors, the professional liars, that Obama is worried
about, I would say
much more than he is about Jewish voters. This is why he probably doesn’t
want to give them any
chances, even at the expense of whatever moral credentials he might have.
I know that the hardcore Jewish leader****p in America doesn’t really like
or trust Obama,
mainly because in the tone of his voice they detect a propensity to refuse
total submission to
Jewish power. This is the reason that their sup****t of the black candidate
is shrouded with
more than a thin façade of hypocrisy and disingenuousness.
But why would the “omnipotent lobby” not unmask its doubts and lack of
certitude about Obama
and switch sup****t to Senator McCain, who is with Israel, heart and soul?
Well, because they are worried that in case Obama won the race, they lobby
would probably fall
out of favor with the next master of the White House. And that would be
very bad for Israel.
Hence, their uttered slogan is “we must not allow this Negro to outsmart
or outmaneuver us.”
Surely, American Zionism and its powerful lobby, which effectively
controls American politics
and policies, is fond of Obama’s tongue. But they are not so sure about
Obama’s mind and heart.
So, far Obama has done a remarkable job hiding whatever discrepancy there
might be between his
tongue and his conscience. This is what irks Israel’s firsters most.
Well, let us hope that Obama will be the next President of the United
States. At least if he
can’t stand up to Israel , whose former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was
rumored to have said
“We, the Jews, control America and the Americans know it,” he, at the very
least, would be the
lesser of the two evils, since a McCain’s presidency would mean another
four years of George W.
Bush’s policies.
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