Thursday, September 22, 2011

New York magazine declares Obama America's "first Jewish president"

From:
Obama: America's 'first Jewish president'?

After the president's speech to the UN, our senior analyst wonders why US leaders continue to pander to a foreign power.
(Aljazeera) -- by Marwan Bishara --

Obama is the "the first Jewish President". That's the title of New York magazine's lead article, written by John Heilemann and quoting a major Obama fundraiser.

Listening to Obama speak at the United Nations on Wednesday many would nod in agreement, not less in Palestine and the Arab world.

The US President has embraced the rejectionist Israeli position on the question of international recognition of an independent Palestinian state...

But the fact that Obama surpassed his predecessor

George W Bush, the most radical supporter of Israel among all US Presidents, has left everyone in Israel dumbstruck. The latest Zionist US president sounded like Israel's own founding fathers.

Never have they heard a US president read straight from the papers of the Israeli government.

Propaganda passes for history

You would think after six decades of dispossession, four decades of occupation and two decades of peace processes that President Obama would recognise a political and moral discrepancy that needs fixing.

That he would underline, not undermine, his own words uttered in Cairo a year and a half ago about the need for Israel to stop its illegal settlements in Palestine...

Alas, President Obama undermined his entire "change we can believe in" slogan.

His narrative is inspired by the worst of Israel's official propaganda. Indeed, much of it is cut and pasted from their playbook.

He spoke of historical "facts" that have long been repudiated by Israeli historians, and of truths that are nothing more than one sided interpretations of a political situation.

Obama claimed that the Arabs launched wars against Israel. But, in actual fact, Israel is the aggressor, launching or instigating wars in: 1956, 1967, 1982, 2006 and 2008. Only the 1973 war was launched by Arabs, but only to recuperate occupied territories after the US and Israel rejected Anwar Sadat's peace overtures...

As Heilemann illustrates in his article, Obama's career was built on his relationships with generous Jewish contributors in Chicago.

Indeed, the guy who brought the most money to the Democratic Party over the last several decades became Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel. Today, he's the mayor of Chicago.

But it's not only about money. It's also about crucial support in Congress over urgent domestic issues that could make or break the Obama presidency. And the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, can make the president's life miserable over the course of the next year.

Now, I understand all of that. But what I don't understand is why it is accepted as a fait accompli! As the nature of politics! Take it or leave!

If this is the case, then let's at least call a spade a spade; and out the US administration(s) for being what so many seem to say it is: not Jewish or Zionist, rather hypocritical.

It speaks of justice but pursues unfair policies; speaks of repression, but promotes its own interests at any cost. It preaches freedom but supports occupation; speaks of human rights but insists on entrusting the wolf, and only the wolf, with the hen house.

The joke is on everyone

Why should the Palestinians be held victims to US politics while being held hostage to Israeli politics for the last six decades. Why should most Israelis continue to live in a garrison state incapable of normalising relations with their neighbors?

Why should Americans watch as their politicians are held hostage to a foreign power and its influential supporters?

The Pro Israeli Jewish lobby J Street commented on the alarming pandering to Israel not only among Democrats but also Republicans, saying: "There's no limit, it seems, to how far American politicians will go these days in pandering on Israel for political gain."...MORE...LINK
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