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Obama In Ramallah
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Barack Obama roadshow kept up its grueling pace Wednesday. The usual delays and frustrations that typify life in the "Muddled East" were effectively excised for the senator's 36-hour visit to the Holy Land. He kept to a strict timetable with about 100 war-zone-weary journalists in his wake.
Considering that Senator Obama arrived barely nine hours after security personnel shot and killed arogue backhoe driver near the presidential hopeful's hotel in downtown Jerusalem, after the man attacked a bus and several cars with his yellow monster machine -- the second such road rage this month by a construction worker from East Jerusalem -- security was efficient and brisk.
Indeed the heightened security made it even tougher than usual to be "off the bus" and "out of the press bubble," with little chance of access. The mini-welcome rally organized by the local "Israel for Obama" supporters was brief. There was no time to tell if Obama was charismatic, cerebral, or jet-lagged.
From Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem to the traumatized town of Sderot near Gaza, Obama kept on the move. He crossed a checkpoint to the West Bank's de facto capital, Ramallah, to meet for less than an hour with the U.S.-backed moderates, President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad, as part of his charm offensive. As a formal courtesy, this was a notch up from John McCain's phone call in March.
But Obama spent the bulk of his trip reassuring Israelis about his commitment to their security. He talked tough about possible sanctions against Iran, and warned that, if elected, he'd take "no options off the table." (Huh? that's practically a Republican war cry.) A strategy of "big sticks and big carrots" to get Iran to halt its nuclear program seemed purposefully vague.
In Ramallah, armed security troops in camouflage uniforms and berets were lined up every ten yards all along the approach to the Mukata'a, the Palestinian Authority headquarters. Guards at three different entrances barred OffTheBus from the premises. Turns out the phrase "citizen reporter" doesn't quite translate in this tense atmosphere. We offered water to the men, then hit the road.
We drove around in the heat searching for Obama supporters or fans, but even at venues with names in English, such as the Stars & Bucks cafe or Supermarket Baghdad, there were no Gobama banners to be seen. When a local radio newscast announced that the Senator had "confirmed to President Mahmoud Abbas that he will be a constructive partner in the peace process" and would "not waste a minute" if elected, there was little visible reaction in a patio cafe. Most customers just kept sucking their narghila water pipes. Talk is just talk, no matter how it's parsed.
Later, while we were stalled in traffic at an Israeli checkpoint, the candidate and media pack moved on to Sderot. It's a literal boom town -- struck by thousands of rockets and mortars after Israel pulled its settlements out of the adjacent Gaza strip two years ago.
Since Egypt arranged a temporary ceasefire between Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces last month, these crude rockets have nearly stopped falling. Obama inspected a hole blasted through the roof of the Amar family house by a Qassam rocket fired by "Iran-backed terrorists," as the locals phrased it. The owner had rescued his handicapped wife by dragging her wheelchair through blazing rubble, and now the house is uninhabitable. The senator was visibly moved by their plight.
"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, " Obama told reporters at the Sderot police station. He said he "would expect Israel to do the same thing."
Oddly, John McCain had met the very same family back in March. That hole obviously is quite impressive.
Perhaps time does move at a different pace in the Middle East. America's old fairness doctrine, which once demanded equal time be given to the rival political parties, still appears to be practiced by the Amars. If only the same consideration could be be applied to both sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, maybe the peace process could be jump-started after all.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/world-focus-a-quandary-for-any-new-us-president-876808.html
Donald Macintyre of the Independent makes a crucial point:
It's perhaps lucky for Barack Obama that he was safely on his way to Berlin by the time the Israeli daily Maariv reported that the military had approved construction of a new settlement in the Jordan Valley. For had he been asked about it Mr Obama, on a mission to convince Israel of his unequivocal friendship, could hardly have conformed with existing US policy without criticising the plan.
Why does the Dem candidate keep jumping through the usual hoops? Yup, he wants to get elected.
Thank you Jan for covering Obama's trip to Ramallah. I've been looking for media coverage of Obama's visit with Palestinian officials and ironically enough, you have to turn to citizen journalists like yourself to fill the gap. This is why I like Off the Bus so much.
With that being said, I only wish Obama would visit more than just Ramallah. How about visiting the "security fence" and addressing how it violates Palestinian human rights or that it's against the ICJ ruling in 2006? Why didn't Obama visit a refugee camp or a home bombed out or bulldozed out by Israeli security forces? That represents the every day life for Palestinians. That what Obama needs to go and do and that's what the media consumers need to see. We in AMerica only get one side of the issue. Everything is about Israeli security. Not saying that's a bad thing but it's upsetting always to see Palestine's needs and Palestine's security pushed to the wayside and not treated as equally as important. If we saw more of that, we'd get a more accurate picture of the Mideast. At least IMO.
I agree that some of his statements regarding this seem stale and more of the same but look at the whole picture. On issues like this there is not much wiggle room for a black guy named Obama (who is accused of being a follower of Islam). Let him win the election first and if his actions don't meet the standard he set then hold his feet to the fire.
This is my first big let down as a four year long zealot devoted to Barack Obama. I wanted him to offer hope to the Palestinians who have been more persecuted by Israel than anyone realizes. They need a secure state that is not prey to the whims of Israel.
I am with you...i started losing my excitement as soon as he started talking about Israel/Palestine/Iran. He sounds trapped in those canned responses. I will vote for him over McCain, but am not motivated to do much more. If he does win, I hope that Jimmy Carter will give him courage to show the world a fresh/progressive perspective.
"The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper " but any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided." - Barack Obama to AIPAC (the day AFTER he clinched the nomination)
No wonder the inhabitants of Ramallah slept thru his visit...
No they slept through his visit because they do not know how to put food on the family's table and they have been disappointed too many times to conclude that American politicians will help them. Palestininian politicians use the status of Jerusalem as an instrument to rile up their constituents but the constituents have more pressing, daily concerns than listening to Obama's latest speech.
How can the Palestinians guarantee that Israel will remain a Jewish state? That's an internal Israeli affair, and depends on what happens when Arab citizens outnumber Jewish ones, which is coming.
As for undivided Jerusalem, I doubt it. It could become an international city, sacred to 3 religions, and both Israel and Palestine could locate their capitals there. But it will probably have to be divided until they can learn to live together. (I've read that even the various Christian groups come to blows over rights to their sacred sites, so don't hold your breath.)
Obama visited 3 walls this week -- the former Berlin wall, the wailing wall, and the wall that carves up the west bank. Bet he had nothing to say about that one coming down, and he didn't pray at it, but probably should have.
Congratulations on your published article, Jan. It was wonderful to see a citizen journalist reach the front page with such an informative story.
"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, " Obama told reporters at the Sderot police station. He said he "would expect Israel to do the same thing."
You're so right Barack... that's exactly what Israel has been doing for almost 60years - to the palestinians.
"If my country was occupied I'd fight back too" - George W Bush.
You're so right George; Palestine is occupied, almost 60years.
Why is the life of a palestinian worth nothing?
I don't live in the U.S anymore but my family do, and they all intend to vote for Barack. I hope from the bottom of my heart that he will finally implement a fear approach to this scourge, that under his leadership this horror will reach a just and fair climax.
Want to know why? Because they've allowed the extremist to dictate how they are viewed. Gandhi, MLK and Mandella all understood that if you want to get people on your side, you can't go around being violent.
Once you are labeled as being violent, then it will be used to put fear in the hearts of folks that are not you. And when they kill you, no one will care because they feel that you deserve it and was asking for it.
Unfortunately, this has gone on so long, that it is probably impossible for the Palestinians to change how they are viewed by the Western world.
Actually, Mandela was the leader of an indigenous military resistance movement against apartheid in South Africa and was jailed for decades. Such resistance, combined with economic sanctions and divestment insistently pushed for by students, progressive organizations, and churches in the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, and Australia/New Zealand (I remember demonstrations in which women went to European supermarkets, picked up products made in South Africa, and left them on the checkout counters in organized resistance to apartheid) is what helped lead to the demise of apartheid eventually. Even when it ended in the early 1990s, it ended on terms conducive to western capitalism. Guess which government pushed for pro-corporate palliatives instead in South Africa? On the issue of what gets "heard" and unheard in the west and why, I recommend a 1984 article in the Journal of Palestine Studies by Edward Said titled "Permission to Narrate." Unfortunately, it's not available for free on-line access, but only through Caliber (the university of california journal database) or JSTOR (through libraries).
Why wouldn't you be on the side of the Palestinians because freedom from occupation is a universal right? Why must the Palestinians present a Gandhi to get your support? How do you know that have not jailed a hundred Palestinian Gandhis (a la Mandela as Progwoc mentions)? So you are saying that if the Palestinians do not present the world with an MLK, then it is OK if Israel presents the world with one Mussolini after another?
you think so? I would not believe his campaign promises....count how many still stand
Its a two-way situation there. Both sides, israel and Palestine, bear responsibility. My mom and sister were in Israel a few weeks ago when the first bulldozer incident occurred. If my family members were hurt, would the Palestinian who did it have been justified in randomly killing them. If somebody from Mexico was lobbing rockets into Brownsville, TX, would you expect our government to retaliate or just let it persist?
And 60 years? Israel did not control the West Bank (or Gaza) pre-1967. They got it after 4 countries attacked them simultaneously.
chef - To blame the Palestinians is to blame the American Indians.
If Mexico were occupied by the US, they'd be damn right to lob rockets into Brownsville. And both the West Bank and Gaza are still certifiably occupied by Israel - as per the UN, no less.
60 years ago (actually more) the Jews began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Israel was admitted to the UN under the condition that it permit the refugees to return to their very homes. So SOME might say it is indeed a 60 year occupation.
And Israel invaded and occupied the WB&G in 1967 as an act of aggression for the purpose of a BIGGER ISRAEL. Israel was NOT attacked by anyone - let alone 4 countries simultaneously. Your lie blows your whole argument. Why bother posting here if you are just going to perpetrate fraud?
Considering that Israel kills five Palestinians to ever Israeli killed, I have difficulty seeing their side in this. They have a right to exist peacefully within their original borders. They do not have a right to the occupied lands nor is there a justification for the oppression of the Palestinians.
beautifully said Lanos Iceland.
Palestinians have the right to be wary. they have been screwed time and again. like obama said he can't snap his fingers and fix it. the israelis have to uphold their side of the bargain and palestinians have to do better at stopping a few rogue suicide bombers from breaking truces. it's a hard situation.
"Palestinians have the right to be wary. they have been screwed time and again"
"When Arafat returned to Gaza in 1993, per capita income for Palestinians was running at about $3000, dwarfing that of their neighbours in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The figure now stands at $934, with foreign aid making up well over half of that amount.
The collapse of the economy coincided with Israel"s decision to shut the door to Palestinians entering Israel in an attempt to stop the suicide-bombers killing its citizens. The immediate cost for the Palestinians was 100,000 jobs¦."
In light of this, is it not more accurate to say that it is the terror intifada that has been the greatest cause of poverty amongst the Palestinians, and not the Israeli presence? To claim the Israeli presence has caused the Palestinians to be poor is demonstrably untrue. Surely it is understandable that Israel closes its border to potential suicide bombers when suffering an onslaught of attacks.
It's even more complicated than that. Whenever peace threatens to break out or at least make a little progress, extremists blow something up again. We all assume that when the target is Israelis, the perpetrators are Palestinian, and vice versa, but it could be done by extremists on both sides to their own people, to stop concessions from being made. But one thing I do know -- this whole area is a minefield for any American to wander into.
What did you expect??? Obama just said that Jerusalem will be Israeli and he will defend Israel at all costs. The Palestinians know full well where his allegiances are...why should they kid themselves? What exactly would he do for them...nothing!
Senator Obama looks very tired in that photo.
I hope he is able to get some sleep soon.
And I hope the Berlin speech goes well for him.
Obama '08
p.s. McCain could have never gone to as many places and met with as many leaders that Obama has in such a short time. Obama is much more qualified to be our next president than McCain. McCain is too old!
Amen.
I meant McGirk, not you Texan. I completely agree with you. This man has endured much during the past year, with attacks from all sides, including the corporate media and "citizen journalists".
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Posted July 23, 2008 | 08:26 PM (EST)