Not too much change
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008Barack Obama, now the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, lost no time assuring the Israel lobby that it has his unquestioning support. Pandering to the supporters of Israel is nothing new in American politics, of course, but for a guy who claims to be all about change, Obama is looking an awful lot like reheated Bush.
Like George Bush, he continues to beat the drum of the supposed Iranian threat. Like George Bush, he is willing to threaten military action to stop Iran from exercising its sovereignty by building nuclear weapons. (Of course they shouldn’t build nukes, but they don’t have less right to do so than Israel and the U.S., both of which have recently started wars in the Middle East.) Like George Bush, he supports full funding of military assistance to Israel. Like George Bush, he supports enforcement of U.N. resolutions against Israel’s enemies, while ignoring U.N. resolutions against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Like George Bush, Obama believes in one-sided preconditions for negotiations with Hamas, e.g., Hamas must renounce violence while Israel does not. Obama even says Jerusalem must remain the capital of Israel, going beyond even Republican policy.
With Obama in the White House we can forget about a one-state solution in which Palestinians can exercise their right to return to their homes in Israel. And we can forget about U.S. helping to dismantle the Berlin Wall that Israel is building deep inside Palestinian territory. Justice for the victims of Israeli war crimes? Forget about it. An end of the occupation? Oh please, we’ll be paying to maintain it.
Meet the new boss.
