[A-List] Good look at "...a true friend of Israel."

[Leighm]

Peoples Weakly?

ROTFLM MF AO!

"As president, I will work to help Israel achieve the goal of two 
states, a Jewish state of Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by 
side in peace and security. And I won't wait until the waning days of my 
presidency." SNIP "Israel's quest for peace with its neighbors has 
stalled, despite the heavy burdens borne by the Israeli people."

How many Presidents have we heard this from over the last 20 years ? 
What "quest for Peace" with its neighbours? Every dog and pony show 
organized by successive occupants of the Whitehouse has been only to 
give the appearance of progress and has always proposed an impossible 
choice for the Palestinians in which they would be the ones to give and 
the Israelis would be the ones to take. Camp David Redux. He goes on to 
recount a visit to Israel on which he took a joyride on an IDF 
helicopter, paid for by U.S. taxpayer "aid" he consistently voted for..

"I saw a narrow and beautiful strip of land nestled against the 
Mediterranean. On the ground, I met a family who saw their house 
destroyed by a Katyusha rocket. I spoke to Israeli troops who faced 
daily threats as they maintained security near the blue line. I talked 
to people who wanted nothing more simple, or elusive, than a secure 
future for their children."

There was no visit to the very unbeautiful, poverty ridden lunar 
landscape that is Gaza.

There was no mention of the thousands of Palestinian families who had 
lost sons, daughters, mothers and fathers to F-16's, Apache attack 
helicopters, Merkava tanks, white phosphorous bombs, nerve gas and M-16 
bullets all delivered through his complicity and his commitment to 
Israel's "security".

There was no mention of the thousands of Palestinian homes bulldozed to 
rubble, the thousands of families these criminal acts made homeless. "


This is the 'Libertarian' position at Eyes Wide Open.
http://www.nolanchart.com/article5749.html

There are links on page, including America's (and apparently Charles 
Brown's)  new 'great WHITE hope' Obama's speech to AIPAC.



It's no small wonder that President Elect Barack Obama is keeping silent 
on the current round of wanton slaughter and destruction in Palestine. 
After all He had already made his position crystal clear when he 
addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, otherwise known 
as "The Israeli Lobby", on June 4th of last year. There had been doubts 
amongst a portion of Jewish voters as to his fealty to Israel but in his 
opening statement he put those fears to rest.

"I want you to know that today I'll be speaking from my heart, and as a 
true friend of Israel. And I know that when I visit with AIPAC, I am 
among friends. Good friends. Friends who share my strong commitment to 
make sure that the bond between the United States and Israel is 
unbreakable today, tomorrow and forever."

The speech, reportedly written by James Steinberg, his newly nominated 
deputy secretary of state and former deputy national security advisor 
under Bill Clinton, was the Nadir of Obama's semblance of integrity. His 
sycophantic, one sided admiration for Israel was as intense as his 
vilification of anyone who dared to criticize its policies. His choice 
of words to express the unity between the U.S. and Israel was probably 
more revealing that he would have liked.

"Our alliance is based on shared interests and shared values. Those who 
threaten Israel threaten us. Israel has always faced these threats on 
the front lines. And I will bring to the White House an unshakeable 
commitment to Israel's security."

If by "shared values" he means that U.S. foreign policy in the Middle 
East has been one of pillage, murder and chaos, then he would be right. 
If by "shared interests" he means the theft of Arab land, he would also 
be correct. The same foreign policy pursued by the Bush-Cheney gang, 
against which he had been railing during his campaign, is acceptable 
when it comes to protecting a nuclear armed apartheid regime such as 
Israel. The obligatory nod to a negotiated Peace was briefly addressed 
in terms that would not have anyone shifting in their seats...

"As president, I will work to help Israel achieve the goal of two 
states, a Jewish state of Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by 
side in peace and security. And I won't wait until the waning days of my 
presidency." SNIP "Israel's quest for peace with its neighbors has 
stalled, despite the heavy burdens borne by the Israeli people."

How many Presidents have we heard this from over the last 20 years ? 
What "quest for Peace" with its neighbours? Every dog and pony show 
organized by successive occupants of the Whitehouse has been only to 
give the appearance of progress and has always proposed an impossible 
choice for the Palestinians in which they would be the ones to give and 
the Israelis would be the ones to take. Camp David Redux. He goes on to 
recount a visit to Israel on which he took a joyride on an IDF 
helicopter, paid for by U.S. taxpayer "aid" he consistently voted for..

"I saw a narrow and beautiful strip of land nestled against the 
Mediterranean. On the ground, I met a family who saw their house 
destroyed by a Katyusha rocket. I spoke to Israeli troops who faced 
daily threats as they maintained security near the blue line. I talked 
to people who wanted nothing more simple, or elusive, than a secure 
future for their children."

There was no visit to the very unbeautiful, poverty ridden lunar 
landscape that is Gaza. There was no mention of the thousands of 
Palestinian families who had lost sons, daughters, mothers and fathers 
to F-16's, Apache attack helicopters, Merkava tanks, white phosphorous 
bombs, nerve gas and M-16 bullets all delivered through his complicity 
and his commitment to Israel's "security". There was no mention of the 
thousands of Palestinian homes bulldozed to rubble, the thousands of 
families these criminal acts made homeless. There needs to be 
recognition of the real suffering on both sides of the equation. Israeli 
families are suffering as a consequence of the actions of their own 
government and those of the U.S. which have given rise to the actions of 
a desperate Palestinian people who have been driven to the end of 
hopelessness and despair. An increasing number of Israeli citizens are 
beginning to realise this and opposition to the occupation and the 
enslavement is growing. There are increasing numbers of these same 
Israeli troops that Obama talked to that are refusing to take part in 
the destruction of an entire people.

"Israel can also advance the cause of peace by taking appropriate steps 
- consistent with its security - to ease the freedom of movement for 
Palestinians, improve economic conditions in the West Bank, and to 
refrain from building new settlements - as it agreed to with the Bush 
administration at Annapolis."

Ah, "security" again. Does Obama not realize that these same 
"settlements" represent an abrogation of International Law? Does 
"security" outweigh this same framework of International Law to which 
his own country and Israel are signatories? Is he going to continue to 
add to the very long list of U.S. vetoed resolutions against Israel? The 
only U.N. resolution that he wants to see enforced is 1701 under which 
the "security council calls for an end to hostilities between Hizbollah 
and Israel", never mind that Israel instigated this massacre to try and 
bring Hizbollah to heel only to have to drag their sorry behinds back 
home. The precipitating event was"by way of deception", the motto of 
Mossad, and was quickly sanitized from any media reporting.

Obama will continue the vilification of and bellicosity towards Iran and 
Syria which he insists pose a grave danger to a country that possesses 
hundreds of Nuclear weapons. The following quotes illustrate the 
continuity we can expect with regard to U.S. policy in the Middle East.

"The threats to Israel start close to home, but they don't end there. 
Syria continues its support for terror and meddling in Lebanon. And 
Syria has taken dangerous steps in pursuit of weapons of mass 
destruction, which is why Israeli action was justified to end that 
threat." No matter that the "The International Atomic Energy Agency 
(IAEA) has found no trace of nuclear material in Syria's Al-Kibar so 
far, but it would continue sampling in this area to analyze, said 
Mohammed ElBaradei, IAEA director general, in Vienna Monday" Source. The 
IAEA has not come back to date with any confirmation.

"There is no greater threat to Israel - or to the peace and stability of 
the region - than Iran." SNIP "The Iranian regime supports violent 
extremists and challenges us across the region. It pursues a nuclear 
capability that could spark a dangerous arms race and raise the prospect 
of a transfer of nuclear know-how to terrorists. Its president denies 
the Holocaust and threatens to wipe Israel off the map. The danger from 
Iran is grave, it is real, and my goal will be to eliminate this threat."

It does not seem to register with Obama that the original translation 
from Farsi to English had been later corrected to "I have no doubt that 
the new movement taking place in our dear Palestine is a spiritual 
movement which is spanning the entire Islamic world and which will soon 
remove this stain of disgrace from the Islamic world". The original New 
York Times translation was disingenuous at the very least. With regard 
to Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, the IAEA has yet to find a 
single scrap of evidence to support this claim. They didn't come up with 
any proof with regard to Iraq either but that didn't stop the invasion 
as the U.S. and it's allies demanded Saddam Hussein prove a negative. 
His upcoming ultimatum to Iran to either stop it's unproven nuclear 
weapons program or face the consequences fails to take in to account the 
strong military and trade agreements between Iran, China and Russia. 
Would the future President be willing to drop American boots into China 
and Russia's backyard? Would this increase "the peace and stability of 
the region"? Russian President Vladimir Putin has already laid the 
ground rules for this scenario. Source

Despite his current silence, the echoes of his betrayal of the 
Palestinian people are there for everyone to hear.