[WCUSP] Fw: [ccds_midwest] Ali Abunimah: What Obama Missed in the Middle East

[Libby or Mort Frank]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: stansfield smith 
To: ccds_midwest at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 12:06 AM
Subject: [ccds_midwest] Ali Abunimah: What Obama Missed in the Middle East


What Obama Missed in the Middle East

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 24 July 2008 


When I and other Palestinian-Americans first knew Barack Obama in Chicago in 
the 1990s, he grasped the oppression faced by Palestinians under Israeli 
occupation. He understood that an honest broker cannot simultaneously be the 
main cheerleader, financier and arms supplier for one side in a conflict. He 
often attended Palestinian-American community events and heard about the 
Palestinian experience from perspectives stifled in mainstream discussion.

In recent months, Obama has sought to allay persistent concerns from 
pro-Israel groups by recasting himself as a stalwart backer of Israel and tacking 
ever closer to positions espoused by the powerful, hard-line pro-Israel lobby 
AIPAC. He distanced himself from mainstream advisers because pro-Israel groups 
objected to their calls for even-handedness.

Like his Republican rival, Senator John McCain, Obama gave staunch backing 
to Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon, which killed over 1,200 people, mostly 
civilians, and the blockade and bombardment of the Gaza Strip, calling them 
"self defense."

Every aspect of Obama's visit to Palestine-Israel this week has seemed 
designed to further appease pro-Israel groups. Typically for an American aspirant 
to high office, he visited the Israeli Holocaust memorial and the Western 
Wall. He met the full spectrum of Israeli Jewish (though not Israeli Arab) 
political leaders. He traveled to the Israeli Jewish town of Sderot, which until 
last month's ceasefire, frequently experienced rockets from the Gaza Strip. At 
every step, Obama warmly professed his support for Israel and condemned 
Palestinian violence.

Other than a cursory 45-minute visit to occupied Ramallah to meet with 
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinians got little. According 
to an Abbas aide, Obama provided assurances that he would be "a constructive 
partner in the peace process." Some observers took comfort in his promise 
that he would get engaged "starting from the minute I'm sworn into office." 
Obama remained silent on the issue of Jerusalem, after boldly promising the 
"undivided" city to Israel as its capital in a speech to AIPAC last month, and 
then appearing to backtrack amid a wave of outrage across the Arab world.

But Obama missed the opportunity to visit Palestinian refugee camps, schools 
and even shopping malls to witness first-hand the devastation caused by the 
Israeli army and settlers, or to see how Palestinians cope under what many 
call "apartheid." This year alone, almost 500 Palestinians, including over 70 
children, have been killed by the Israeli army -- exceeding the total for 2007 
and dwarfing the two-dozen Israelis killed in conflict-related violence.

Obama said nothing about Israel's relentless expansion of colonies on 
occupied land. Nor did he follow the courageous lead of former President Jimmy 
Carter and meet with the democratically elected Hamas leaders, even though Israel 
negotiated a ceasefire with them. That such steps are inconceivable shows 
how off-balance is the US debate on Palestine.

Many people I talk to are resigned to the conventional wisdom that aspiring 
national politicians cannot afford to be seen as sympathetic to the concerns 
of Palestinians, Arabs or Muslims. They still hope that, if elected, Obama 
would display an even-handedness absent in the campaign.

Without entirely foreclosing the possibility of change in US policy, the 
reality is that the political pressures evident in a campaign do not magically 
disappear once the campaign is over. Nor is all change necessarily for the 
better.

One risk is that a President Obama or President McCain would just bring back 
the Clinton-era approach where the United States effectively acted as 
"Israel's lawyer," as Aaron David Miller, a 25-year veteran of the US State 
Department's Middle East peace efforts, memorably put it. This led to a doubling of 
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, an upsurge in violence and the failed 
2000 Camp David summit where Clinton tried to pressure Arafat into accepting a 
bantustan. A depressing feature of Obama's visit was the prominent advisory 
role for Dennis Ross, the official in charge of the peace process under 
Clinton, and the founder of an AIPAC-sponsored pro-Israel think-tank.

Whoever is elected will face a rapidly changing situation in 
Palestine-Israel. A number of shifts are taking place simultaneously. First, the consensus 
supporting the two-state solution is disintegrating as Israeli colonies have 
rendered it unachievable. Second, the traditional Palestinian national 
leadership is being eclipsed by new movements including Hamas. And, as western and 
Arab governments become more craven in the face of Israeli human rights 
violations, a Palestinian-led campaign modeled on the anti-apartheid strategy of 
boycott, divestment and sanctions is building global civil society support. 
Finally, the demographic shift in Palestine-Israel toward an absolute 
Palestinian majority in all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be complete in 
the next three to five years.

Making peace in this new reality will take leaders ready to listen and talk 
to all sides in the conflict and to consider alternatives to the moribund 
two-state solution, such as power-sharing, confederation or a single democratic 
state. It will require, above all, the courage, imagination and political 
will to challenge the status quo of Israeli domination and Palestinian 
dispossession that has led to ever more violence with each passing year.

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of _One 
Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli- Palestinian Impasse_ 
(http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/store/548.shtml) (Metropolitan Books, 2006). This 
essay originally appeared in The Guardian's "Comment is Free" and is republished 
with the author's permission.

_http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9708.shtml_ 
(http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9708.shtml) 


__._,_.___ 
Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic 
Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | Calendar 
 
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) 
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional 
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Visit Your Group 
Yahoo! News
Fashion News

What's the word on

fashion and style?

Women of Curves
on Yahoo! Groups

A positive group

to discuss Curves.

Learn to live
a full life with these

healthy living

groups on Yahoo!
. 
__,_._,___ 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wilpf.org/pipermail/wcusp_wilpf.org/attachments/20080725/60d6e546/attachment-0001.html