Reader Jibril comments on our post “Obama on Israel”
Bob Morris @ Jun 5th 2008 14:30 - Category: Unfiled Tags: Israel, Palestine
Let me give my perspective on this. I am a Palestinian, born in the Galilee in “Israel,” forced with my family to leave the farm we had owned for five centuries (since we came to Palestine as refugees from the loss of Al-Andaus to Castilian Spain), and declared absentees who had no right to live there (this happened in 1965, when I was eight).
I totally support Obama for president, even though I also believe he means what he says and will be as blindly pro-Zionist as he sounds. That is because it is an iron law of American politics that to be elected, your position on Palestine has to be awful. There is no one that can be taken seriously in American politics who is not awful on Palestine. Even the post-presidential, well-meaning Jimmy Carter, who does not need to worry about elections anymore, is only tolerable.
I want an American president who does well on all the other topics he or she must deal with– and I pray only that he or she will shut up and get out of the way and let the rest of the world work out Palestine, since it is political suicide for an American politician to do the right thing. We don’t need “honest broker†America. That is not possible. Ideally, the American government would develop amnesia about the Middle East and just do nothing at all there– for or against anyone. Just shut up and get out of the way.
Presumably Obama will not be as overtly bellicose (and incompetent) as Bush. That would be a first step in the right direction.
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8 Responses to “Reader Jibril comments on our post “Obama on Israel””
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EGrise on 05 Jun 2008 at 3:26 pm #
“Just shut up and get out of the way.”
I think that will be the global mantra towards the US for the 21st century. And not just about Palestine.
Which is a shame, but we brought it on ourselves.
Ten Bears on 05 Jun 2008 at 6:54 pm #
It would be a breath of fresh air if a candidate were to demonstrate a loyalty to THE UNITED STATES over and above their loyalty to Israel - a Terrorist State, the mother of all terrorist states, an utterly foreign occupier perpetrating and American endorsed and funded genocide upon an indigenous people. Israel, is The Enemy.
Bob Morris on 05 Jun 2008 at 8:15 pm #
Hmmm, the Israeli tail does not wag the US dog.
Steven E. Streight aka Vaspers aka Pluperfecter on 05 Jun 2008 at 11:29 pm #
You did an @ to me on Twitter, and that’s how I discovered you and am now Following you.
We have much in common. You may have noticed I have an Israel flag in my Twitter avatar.
I’m a Christian Anarchist Pacifist. I support Israel’s right to exist as a nation, but I have great compassion for all Muslims, Palestinians included. I do not support all Israeli policies or actions.
I am extreme in my anti-war protest, and experience much persecution for it. I recently discovered Leo Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God is Within You” book, considered one of the most radical anti-authoritarian anti-war books ever published.
I want to learn from you, so I will be reading your blog and Twitter tweets with great interest.
Peace, dear friend!
Bob Morris on 06 Jun 2008 at 12:38 am #
Wow! Thank you and welcome. You made my day. Will get Tolstoy’s book. Peace to you too. (And one day hopefully, to the Middle East too..)
Steve is vaspersthegrate on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/vaspersthegrate.
and blogs here
http://www.pluperfecter.blogspot.com/
John Couzin on 06 Jun 2008 at 2:52 am #
“Hmmm, the Israeli tail does not wag the US dog.”
If not, what other explanation is there for America’s unconditional support of what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people? Israel is utterly and totally dependent of the US aid and therefore could be made to act in a completely different manner, it doesn’t happen, why not?
Bob Morris on 06 Jun 2008 at 8:59 am #
The interests of both countries coincide, hegemony in the Middle East as the goal. But I definitely see Israel as the junior partner here, they do not call the shots.
John Couzin on 06 Jun 2008 at 9:10 am #
That brands the US with complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people. It has the power to stop it but doesn’t.