Brother_Mujahid
8th June 2008, 02:28 AM
Obama Offers all of Jerusalem and $30bn to Israel
Written by Husain Al-Qadi
In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), presidential nominee Barack Obama shocked the world with a promise that surpassed anything even current Israeli leaders would be prepared to say in public.
"Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided," he said in a tone that made it sound so "stating-the-obvious" that it could have come straight out of the Neocon-guide-to-bluster.
And if you are wondering if this was just pre-election rhetoric, be sure to know that he has made a point of dispelling with all such excuses by providing a no-turn-around map towards achieving Israeli supreme dominance in the Arab world.
After making it clear that he was "today speaking from his heart" and the need "to mean what we say", he explained that, "I will bring to the White House an unshakable commitment that will start with ensuring Israel's qualitative advantage." Defence cooperation between the US and Israel "must be deepened" and "we must never force Israel to the negotiating table".
No mention of the credit crunch biting the average American taxpayer nor of the 50 million Americans who do not have access to healthcare.
"As president I will implement a memorandum of understanding that will provide 30 billion dollars of assistance to Israel". This is extraordinary. Coming at a time when there is spiralling global economic uncertainty and no-one really knows when or how the crunch will end, Obama's first definitive financial commitment is to pay 30 billion dollars of US taxpayers' money to Israel.
He also said, "we must export military equipment to our ally Israel under the same guidelines as NATO." In relation to Iraq, the word "withdrawal" which was used regularly in Obama speeches thus far was cleverly replaced with the word "redeployment" - I think we all know why.
Not so long ago, Ralph Nader pointed out that, "the American media makes much of the primitive rockets fired at Israel by Palestinians, while minimizing the use of heavy weaponry and helicopter gun ships by the Israelis in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Over the last year, Palestinian civilian casualties outnumber Israeli civilian casualties nearly 400 to 1."
Last month (07.5.06), ex-president Carter appeared on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" and explained why he thought there is a need to negotiate with Hamas. He noted that since Hamas had prevailed in an internationally-supervised Palestinian election that had been sponsored by America and Israel it is wrong not to consider negotiating with them. He had also pointed out that a recent Ha'aretz poll found that 64% of Israelis favour negotiations with Hamas.
But for Obama's AIPAC speech writers, these facts on the ground meant nothing. Instead, we heard him talking about the Israeli house destroyed by Katusha rockets that he had seen during his visit to Israeli in January 2006, and that there will no negotiations with Hamas.
The Neocon Connection
How did we get here? Well, it's the same old Neocon story. If you believe it is unthinkable that the Neocons can support someone who is calling for a redeployment of troops from Iraq or you feel inclined to think this author sees Neocon conspiracy everywhere, I suggest we remind ourselves of a quote from the famous Patrick Buchanan in his 2004 book, "Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency", where he illustrates the Neocons' ability to morph and adopt new clothes depending on which way the wind is blowing.
Buchanan paints them as "...a cabal that betrayed the good cause of conservatism because, from the very beginning, they never believed in it. They had another agenda all along... the neoconservatives are not really conservatives at all. They are impostors and opportunists. They were Leftists in the 1930s, New Deal and Great Society Democrats through the 1960s, and slid to the right and the Republicans after Nixon and Reagan began rolling up forty-nine state landslides."
Last week, this chameleon-like behaviour emerged again in the person of the archneocon Bill Kristol who, after John McCain's speech, defended Obama to any sceptics in the AIPAC crowd. Kristol told his fellow Zionists:
"There are actually no disputes of that nature...with the exception of Iraq this time. Obama's not for cutting the defence budget; Obama's not for pulling troops back from our forward positions around the world, with the exception of Iraq. Obama and McCain don't actually differ, at least on paper, even on Iran, where they're arguing about whether they would talk to Ahmadinejad or not - and I think that's an important dispute. Still, at the end of the day, Obama doesn't say he would rule out the use of force. McCain certainly is committed as he said this morning to trying to increase economic pressure on Iran, which Obama has also talked about."
Perhaps there is more movement from Obama towards the Neocons than the other way around. However, the bottom line is that the Neocons are muscling in on the act and if they succeed then I am afraid we must all brace ourselves for another chapter of disastrous policies that will bring havoc to the world while a select few profit from it. (Please read my article, "World Economic Crisis and Neocon Greed (Part III)" (http://ummahpulse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=373&Itemid=71).)
The Psychological Manipulation Continues
For many years Obama was considered pro-Palestinian by many. During the campaign a year ago when he appeared to empathise with the suffering of the Palestinian people, the Israeli lobby went into action. Emails, which he mentioned in the lecture, claiming that Obama was a secret Muslim, began to circulate in the Jewish community.
These emails were not meant to convince members of the Jewish community - they are all very politically aware - and everyone knows that Obama is a practising Christian. The real aim of the emails was Obama himself. In order for him to dispel this myth, he would need to go further than any other candidate has gone before to prove that he has no sympathy whatsoever with Muslims and indeed, like clockwork, that is exactly what he has done. But that is not the end of it. The psychological manipulation continues even after the speech.
Following the lecture another Neocon chameleon, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut - who insists on remaining a member of the Democratic party but is currently supporting the Republican nominee John McCain - said that, "I appreciate many of the very good intentions to Israel and Israeli security that Senator Obama expressed today," but also accused Obama of "disconnect", saying that, "I thought in the speech there was a disconnect between things Senator Obama said today...and things he has said or done earlier in the campaign."
We should expect to see many more of these cleverly timed prodding "criticisms" during the next four years if Obama becomes president. Whenever a Neocon proposal is opposed, the new president will be forced to exhibit his "I-have-no-sympathy-for-Muslims" credentials by adding to the list of outrageous comments we heard in the AIPAC speech.
Where is the Democracy?
A question that poses itself is where do we locate democracy in all of this? The American Jewish population is around 7 million which makes it less than 2.5 % of the electorate. Jewish votes are statistically insignificant when placed into the wider national context yet presidential candidates are forced into commitments and concessions that they do not make for any other larger racial group.
When fear of the lobby surpasses the concern for votes then democracy becomes meaningless. People say, "why bother to vote if someone will come along and lobby my vote into insignificance?" Blaming the Neocons for the sad state of affairs in American politics, Jonathan Chait wrote:
"American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane. (Stay with me). The scope of their triumph is breathtaking. Over the last three decades, they have moved from the right-wing fringe to the commanding heights of the national agenda.... The result has been a slow motion disaster." (J Chait, The Big Con, The True Story of How Washington got Hijacked by Crackpot Economics, 2007, p. 1-2.)
On the prospects of the Democrats winning the next election he wrote:
"Even if they [Democrats] hold their majorities in Congress and win the White House in 2008, the structural forces in Washington will make it nearly impossible to roll back any significant chunks of the Bush tax cuts [to the rich], let alone take on crises like global warming or the forty five million Americans lacking health insurance." (Chait, 2007, p.3.)
In other words, the voice of the poor in the Neocon lobby culture of Washington has no resonance whatsoever.
If the events of the last few days are anything to go by, the Obama presidency will bring more heartache for Muslims and the rest of the world. As for genuine peace between the West and Muslims, it appears that it will have to wait for the Neocon bluster politics in Washington to usurp yet another generation of wealth and scores of American lives pursuing more phantom enemies and fabricated threats.
http://ummahpulse.com/images/stories/image_bank/religious/al-aqsa%20diagram.jpg
Perhaps Obama is unaware of the position of Jerusalem's Masjid Al-Aqsa in the hearts of 1.5 billion Muslims around the world. Offering the entire city to Israel while claiming to have the security of America at heart is certainly a "disconnect" from the real world if ever there was one. Obama's speech, for Muslims, was a declaration of intent to invade and violate that which was made sacrosanct by Allah and confirmed in His final message to mankind – the Quran:
[I]"Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant [Muhammad] for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to Masjid al-Aqsa, whose precincts We did bless, in order that We might show him of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things)." (Quran 17:1)
http://ummahpulse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=420&Itemid=71
Written by Husain Al-Qadi
In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), presidential nominee Barack Obama shocked the world with a promise that surpassed anything even current Israeli leaders would be prepared to say in public.
"Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided," he said in a tone that made it sound so "stating-the-obvious" that it could have come straight out of the Neocon-guide-to-bluster.
And if you are wondering if this was just pre-election rhetoric, be sure to know that he has made a point of dispelling with all such excuses by providing a no-turn-around map towards achieving Israeli supreme dominance in the Arab world.
After making it clear that he was "today speaking from his heart" and the need "to mean what we say", he explained that, "I will bring to the White House an unshakable commitment that will start with ensuring Israel's qualitative advantage." Defence cooperation between the US and Israel "must be deepened" and "we must never force Israel to the negotiating table".
No mention of the credit crunch biting the average American taxpayer nor of the 50 million Americans who do not have access to healthcare.
"As president I will implement a memorandum of understanding that will provide 30 billion dollars of assistance to Israel". This is extraordinary. Coming at a time when there is spiralling global economic uncertainty and no-one really knows when or how the crunch will end, Obama's first definitive financial commitment is to pay 30 billion dollars of US taxpayers' money to Israel.
He also said, "we must export military equipment to our ally Israel under the same guidelines as NATO." In relation to Iraq, the word "withdrawal" which was used regularly in Obama speeches thus far was cleverly replaced with the word "redeployment" - I think we all know why.
Not so long ago, Ralph Nader pointed out that, "the American media makes much of the primitive rockets fired at Israel by Palestinians, while minimizing the use of heavy weaponry and helicopter gun ships by the Israelis in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Over the last year, Palestinian civilian casualties outnumber Israeli civilian casualties nearly 400 to 1."
Last month (07.5.06), ex-president Carter appeared on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" and explained why he thought there is a need to negotiate with Hamas. He noted that since Hamas had prevailed in an internationally-supervised Palestinian election that had been sponsored by America and Israel it is wrong not to consider negotiating with them. He had also pointed out that a recent Ha'aretz poll found that 64% of Israelis favour negotiations with Hamas.
But for Obama's AIPAC speech writers, these facts on the ground meant nothing. Instead, we heard him talking about the Israeli house destroyed by Katusha rockets that he had seen during his visit to Israeli in January 2006, and that there will no negotiations with Hamas.
The Neocon Connection
How did we get here? Well, it's the same old Neocon story. If you believe it is unthinkable that the Neocons can support someone who is calling for a redeployment of troops from Iraq or you feel inclined to think this author sees Neocon conspiracy everywhere, I suggest we remind ourselves of a quote from the famous Patrick Buchanan in his 2004 book, "Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency", where he illustrates the Neocons' ability to morph and adopt new clothes depending on which way the wind is blowing.
Buchanan paints them as "...a cabal that betrayed the good cause of conservatism because, from the very beginning, they never believed in it. They had another agenda all along... the neoconservatives are not really conservatives at all. They are impostors and opportunists. They were Leftists in the 1930s, New Deal and Great Society Democrats through the 1960s, and slid to the right and the Republicans after Nixon and Reagan began rolling up forty-nine state landslides."
Last week, this chameleon-like behaviour emerged again in the person of the archneocon Bill Kristol who, after John McCain's speech, defended Obama to any sceptics in the AIPAC crowd. Kristol told his fellow Zionists:
"There are actually no disputes of that nature...with the exception of Iraq this time. Obama's not for cutting the defence budget; Obama's not for pulling troops back from our forward positions around the world, with the exception of Iraq. Obama and McCain don't actually differ, at least on paper, even on Iran, where they're arguing about whether they would talk to Ahmadinejad or not - and I think that's an important dispute. Still, at the end of the day, Obama doesn't say he would rule out the use of force. McCain certainly is committed as he said this morning to trying to increase economic pressure on Iran, which Obama has also talked about."
Perhaps there is more movement from Obama towards the Neocons than the other way around. However, the bottom line is that the Neocons are muscling in on the act and if they succeed then I am afraid we must all brace ourselves for another chapter of disastrous policies that will bring havoc to the world while a select few profit from it. (Please read my article, "World Economic Crisis and Neocon Greed (Part III)" (http://ummahpulse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=373&Itemid=71).)
The Psychological Manipulation Continues
For many years Obama was considered pro-Palestinian by many. During the campaign a year ago when he appeared to empathise with the suffering of the Palestinian people, the Israeli lobby went into action. Emails, which he mentioned in the lecture, claiming that Obama was a secret Muslim, began to circulate in the Jewish community.
These emails were not meant to convince members of the Jewish community - they are all very politically aware - and everyone knows that Obama is a practising Christian. The real aim of the emails was Obama himself. In order for him to dispel this myth, he would need to go further than any other candidate has gone before to prove that he has no sympathy whatsoever with Muslims and indeed, like clockwork, that is exactly what he has done. But that is not the end of it. The psychological manipulation continues even after the speech.
Following the lecture another Neocon chameleon, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut - who insists on remaining a member of the Democratic party but is currently supporting the Republican nominee John McCain - said that, "I appreciate many of the very good intentions to Israel and Israeli security that Senator Obama expressed today," but also accused Obama of "disconnect", saying that, "I thought in the speech there was a disconnect between things Senator Obama said today...and things he has said or done earlier in the campaign."
We should expect to see many more of these cleverly timed prodding "criticisms" during the next four years if Obama becomes president. Whenever a Neocon proposal is opposed, the new president will be forced to exhibit his "I-have-no-sympathy-for-Muslims" credentials by adding to the list of outrageous comments we heard in the AIPAC speech.
Where is the Democracy?
A question that poses itself is where do we locate democracy in all of this? The American Jewish population is around 7 million which makes it less than 2.5 % of the electorate. Jewish votes are statistically insignificant when placed into the wider national context yet presidential candidates are forced into commitments and concessions that they do not make for any other larger racial group.
When fear of the lobby surpasses the concern for votes then democracy becomes meaningless. People say, "why bother to vote if someone will come along and lobby my vote into insignificance?" Blaming the Neocons for the sad state of affairs in American politics, Jonathan Chait wrote:
"American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane. (Stay with me). The scope of their triumph is breathtaking. Over the last three decades, they have moved from the right-wing fringe to the commanding heights of the national agenda.... The result has been a slow motion disaster." (J Chait, The Big Con, The True Story of How Washington got Hijacked by Crackpot Economics, 2007, p. 1-2.)
On the prospects of the Democrats winning the next election he wrote:
"Even if they [Democrats] hold their majorities in Congress and win the White House in 2008, the structural forces in Washington will make it nearly impossible to roll back any significant chunks of the Bush tax cuts [to the rich], let alone take on crises like global warming or the forty five million Americans lacking health insurance." (Chait, 2007, p.3.)
In other words, the voice of the poor in the Neocon lobby culture of Washington has no resonance whatsoever.
If the events of the last few days are anything to go by, the Obama presidency will bring more heartache for Muslims and the rest of the world. As for genuine peace between the West and Muslims, it appears that it will have to wait for the Neocon bluster politics in Washington to usurp yet another generation of wealth and scores of American lives pursuing more phantom enemies and fabricated threats.
http://ummahpulse.com/images/stories/image_bank/religious/al-aqsa%20diagram.jpg
Perhaps Obama is unaware of the position of Jerusalem's Masjid Al-Aqsa in the hearts of 1.5 billion Muslims around the world. Offering the entire city to Israel while claiming to have the security of America at heart is certainly a "disconnect" from the real world if ever there was one. Obama's speech, for Muslims, was a declaration of intent to invade and violate that which was made sacrosanct by Allah and confirmed in His final message to mankind – the Quran:
[I]"Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant [Muhammad] for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to Masjid al-Aqsa, whose precincts We did bless, in order that We might show him of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things)." (Quran 17:1)
http://ummahpulse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=420&Itemid=71