Obama and the Perils of Gaza

It's strange to think that a central hope of Barack Obama's presidency could be dashed before he puts his hand on Lincoln's bible. But as hundreds of thousands of protesters fill the streets from Beirut to Baghdad, from Paris to Athens to Sidney, it's increasingly clear that the perils of the President-elect's lame words on Gaza run deep. If Obama does not say unequivocally that Israel's current folly, with its 85:1 death ratio, is inhumane, unacceptable, and in no one's interest - least of all Israel's own - he will risk squandering his great promise to remake America's image in the world.

Throughout the campaign, one of Obama's biggest appeals was in vanquishing George W. Bush's horrific international legacy: his presidential defense of torture, smug disregard for the rule of law, and lies in pursuit of war. Around the world leaders and ordinary people alike dared to hope that Obama, with roots in Africa, Indonesia and even Hawaii, could bring a worldly wisdom and empathy to peoples sickened by an America-first brutality.

Now Israel's assault on Gaza threatens to smack down all such expectations. For nearly two weeks the Obama team justified its silence on Gaza with its convenient "one president at a time" mantra - one it's been quick to abandon on the economy, or the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Finally, after Israeli mortar shells killed 42 people at a U.N.-run school, Obama allowed that "the loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern." In a conflict whose latest chapter has killed more than 1000 Palestinians, compared with 13 Israelis, this faux even-handedness was as transparent as it was one-sided. Of course we should mourn all the innocent dead, but ignoring the outsized brutality of Israel's offensive, which is as bad for Israel as it is for America, presents huge hazards for the president elect.

Against Obama's near silence rise ghastly mountains of rubble - the latest being the U.N. compound in Gaza City - there for all of the Arab and Muslim worlds to see. Atop one such pile, a schoolgirl's severed forearm; beneath another, an entire family. As these images build fury across the region and beyond, Obama deepens the pain with his tacit message that his American administration, in the end, may not be any different from the others.

Indeed, there may be little reason to think that an Obama administration will bring a more even-handed policy to the Middle East. His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is an Israeli-American whose father was a member of Irgun, an extremist organization that carried out attacks on civilians, including the bombing of Jerusalem's King David hotel, in the years before Israel was established. A leading candidate to be Obama's Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross, has deep ties to pro-Israel lobbying groups, and a record of failure as part of President Clinton's Middle East team. And Obama himself has gone to great lengths to avoid criticizing Israel; indeed, the first speech he made after clinching the Democratic nomination was a fawning address to AIPAC, the hardline pro-Israel lobbying group.

Yet those determined to hang onto their hopes for a more balanced Middle Eastern policy could argue that Obama's team will be well positioned to speak hard truths to an old friend. His aides could point to the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, when, in killing hundreds and uprooting 800,000 Lebanese, Israel not only failed to destroy Hezbollah, but made it stronger. They could invoke 1988, when Israel, trying to weaken PLO leader Yassir Arafat, encouraged the growth of a fledgling Hamas. Or March 1968, when 15,000 Israeli soldiers attacked the Jordanian village of Karama, ultimately strengthening the real target of its attack: Yassir Arafat. Or November 1966, when Israel attacked the West Bank village of Samu, demolishing dozens of house and killing 21 Jordanian soldiers. That attack fueled a deepening anger on the Arab street against Israel and its Western benefactors, weakening pro-U.S. Arab regimes - to safe himself, a badly weakened King Hussein forged an alliance with Egypt's hardline president Nasser - and setting the stage for a war and a 41-year occupation. The echoes of that war, and of the Arab rage that threatened pro-Western leaders, can be heard across the region today.

If Barack Obama had the strength and courage to have such a hard talk with an old friend, he could, by invoking history, help change its course. In the process he would send a message to the rest of the world - that America is ready to be even handed, and to indeed remake its image across the Arab and Muslim Worlds.

Obama promised in his too-brief comments on Gaza that "after January 20th, I'll have plenty to say." Here's hoping he does, and that by the time he opens his mouth, it won't be too late.

Other recent articles by Sandy Tolan on Gaza can be found here and here.

Comments

[SilviaMaria]

I have to say that there has always been little difference between Republican and Democrat Presidents when it comes to US foreign policy. I have been a fan of Obama since 2004 and a volunteer for his campaign, but what worries me is the two unfinished wars (I really think we get out of those countries ASAP - President Eisenhower did not want to continue the Korean war because he knew he could not win the war; there is nothing wrong about that); and the Middle East conflict. When Obama talked on the campaign trail about interest groups, I include the AIPAC one as well. I believe that any foreign lobby group should be banned or not allowed to finance our politicians.

[jollyelle]

Israel is a failure. The hatred between the cultures on both sides is so deep, it will take generations for it to heal. If Obama does elevate the status of the UN to actually stand for something, a UN governing team should be put in place to run Israel for the next 50 years. Jerusalem would be headquarter city for international peace. A true democracy, with true separation of church/mos­que/temple and state, illegal settlements restructured and right of return honored or compensated. Respect for all people, no superiority, chosen people, god spoke to us,etc.......... Jews as victims has run its' course, time for all people to remain proud of their heritage with respect for others and stop the meaningless guilt.
Put an end to the dependence on weapons $$$$$.

[papapj]

Oh! so true joyelle...hear, hear!

[cherry33]

Joyelle-

Great idea. The thought about all 3 major religions having equal claim to Jerusalem has been in my mind as well.

[abdallac]

You know - that is actually a GREAT idea. I also think Jerusalem should be neutral territory and the idea for the UN to oversee it is faaaaaahhhhhbulous. But the UN cannot be kept impotent by the US veto power - that must change.

[WorkingClass]

Will the American/Israeli alliance continue to dominate the Middle East? Or will the oil wars finally be won by rival powers Iran, Russia and China? I think the answer hinges on what ultimately becomes of the U.S. economy and the dollar. Imperial adventures on distant shores are expensive. There may come a time (this year?) when the empire falls in upon itself. What would that mean for Israel? What would it mean for Obama and/or the American people?

[terry52]

America is no different from any other empire, it has had its time....and now it will be whether we like it or not be passed on to another empire...most likely china. Empires in itself is disasterous. America has used its power to rape resources from poor foreign countries, gone to war with huge military armys only to defeat a dictator who was hardly in a position to fight back...this has gone on throughout americas history..south america, Africa and Middle East has been its playgroung and the people have been their toys and since most of those countries don't have demacracys their people cannot speak out,In the eyes of americans even today its Isreal that is favoured a huge militay power that has weapons better than usa, and sponspered by them, and since palestineans are seen as subhuman AMerica and Isreal will keep on waging war on innocent all in the name of God..wonder just who the extremists are/

[piul05]

Thank you! My thoughts (and worries) exactly.

But, given the facts you stated above, plus his selective "there's only one President at a time" line, that didn't prevent him from talking about the Mumbai bombings or the financial crisis before inauguartion, and his less-the-p­residentia­l comment about his own family being hypothetically under a rocket attack, that's one US policy that, unfortunately, I'm not expecting to see change in.

[driven989]

FANTASTIC ARTICLE!

However, I am worried that Obama, especially with those he has already surrounded himself with, will be no different than any other U.S. administration on the question of Palestine.

[yappnmutt]

congresspeople who do not create peace in the me before 2010 will find their jobs in jeopardy. obama will find his job in jeopardy in 2012 if he continues the same course. enough is enough.

i've run out of soap to wash the blood from my hands. enough is enough.

[terry52]

I agree completly and if he carrys same course as Bush the world will vastly turn against him and so will americans

[ChiGuy]

So far, several of Obama's decisions have raised the hackles of many of his supporters who apparently thought that the only thing meant by "change", was sticking it to Republicans.
I've been warning my fellow liberals for some time that Obama's intent is much more far-reaching and complex than a silly Democratic takeover of the U.S. government.

I anticipate many decisions in the future by Obama that will grate on the nerves of both Republicans AND Democrats, And I hope with all my might that he will shock them all with a radical decision on this as well.

So much strife would be put to rest with the decades-promised creation of a Palestinian homeland.

[justice2all]

Obama will not differ fundamentally on this issue from Bush

[xxnounxx]

NOT IF HE FEELS THIS WAY
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qWXx2VYoqbU&feature=channel_page

[hindy]

I don't mind legitimate criticism of Israel. As a liberal myself I am certainly engaging in some. What I do object to is this expose of "fundamentalist liberal intransigence" that refuses to see both sides of the picture. Instead what's being shown is liberalism's one-sided condemnation of Israel while allowing Hamas - an organization bent on the destruction of Israel - to get off scott free. One of the facts that's either being ignored or that no one on these blogs is aware of, is that because of the longer range of Hamas missiles, in addition to endangering civilians in their path, they will shortly be able to reach the flight paths of international flights arriving at Lod airport. The results of which is the endangerment of all incoming and outgoing air traffic. Any country would do something about that. All that's being shown on these blogs is a closed-minded parrotting of the same recycled shallow narrow-mindedness of what's passing for liberalism today. There's nothing liberal about closed minds.

[trubluelefty]

zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzz

[justice2all]

No actually,,,it's pretty easy to see the picture when we look past the israeli sound bites like this.

[zaz33]

It's not unusual for a liberal to also be an israel firster.

[kerpin]

Any loss of life is unfortunate, but this was a predictable event for those who actually know anything about Middle Eastern politics.
Unfortunately, most posters here live in some pollyannish world where everything is solved by love and peace. Sometimes force does work - notice Israel hasn't had any attacks from Hizballah in 2 years, and they didn't intervene this time either.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/opinion/14goldberg-1.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

Money quote:
"I once asked Abdel Aziz Rantisi where he learned what he called “the truth” of the Holocaust — that it didn’t happen — and he referred me to books published by Hezbollah. Hamas and Hezbollah also share the view that the solution for Palestine lies in Europe. A spokesman for Hezbollah, Hassan Izzedine, once told me that the Jews who survive the Muslim “liberation” of Palestine “can go back to Germany, or wherever they came from.” He went on to argue that the Jews are a “curse to anyone who lives near them.”

[hindy]

Interesting but not surprising that you haven't had any response from the rabidly single minded liberals that generally parrot the same anti-Israel rhetoric without any knowledge about what these monsters Hamas stand for. I, as a liberal, always thought that my fellow liberals are able to see both sides of issues. Obviously that only implies to "broad minded, intelligent" liberals. That's something that's sorely lacking on these and so many other blogs.

[justice2all]

Oh, Please...stop flattering yourself.

[terry52]

Hamas was born out of Fatah,,, as a resistance to fatahs corruption and isreals killing of innocent palestineans everyday..most likely if americans were being raped and killed everyday by mexicas I can tell you there would be many resisters, and right or wrongly they would feel justified...but the only way to peace between those to people is by diplomacy which is what they hopefully get when obam takes office

[SiberianRat]

Sandy, you need to send this into change.gov. We all need to make our voices hear on this topic.

[aussiebrat]

obama has an israeli citizen in his cabnet so how do you think this will workout for israel, let them keep fighting someone has to win or it will go on forever

[SiberianRat]

Or even better, Israel could comply with international law and UN resolutions and end the illegal occupation and blockade of Palestine.

[hindy]

How horrible!!! Obama has a former senator in his Cabinet who was born in Israel! Yikes!!! What has America come to with all of this diversity?????? Whooooaaaa! I guess we'll have to balance his cabinet with someone who was born in Gaza and might still be a member of Hamas!!!!! Lets read between the lines here! A Jew born in Israel in the American Government! Gotta put a stop to that. Diversity is only diverse if its represented by nationalities these bloggers approve of!

[ApolloSpeaks]

Tolan writes:

"Yet those determined to hang onto their hopes for a more balanced Middle Eastern policy could argue that Obama's team will be well positioned to speak hard truths to an old friend. His aides could point to the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, when, in killing hundreds and uprooting 800,000 Lebanese, Israel not only failed to destroy Hezbollah, but made it stronger."

ApolloSpeaks

In retrospect the 34 Days War was well worth fighting. If it han't been fought Hezbollah by now would have openned a second front in the current war and you have have seen destruction and bloodshed on an even greater scale consuming Lebanon and Gaza. Nazralla is restraining himslef out of fear of Israel. His victory two summer's ago was Pyrrhic and he doesn't want to repeat it. His losses were considerable and the destruction to Lebanon immense. 30 days after the cease fire Nazralla publicly regretted attacking Israel saying if he could turn back the clock he wouldn't have done it.

[yappnmutt]

more delusion. nasrallah has not attacked israel because israel is doing a fine job of destroying itself all by itself.

[ApolloSpeaks]

OBAMA, MCCAIN AND THE GAZA WAR

Let's cut to the chase: if John McCain were President-elect he would be standing firmly behind Israel in the Gaza War. Obama's silence isn't golden, if he stood behind Israel he would say so. The Clintonization of his administration with Hillary as his secratary of state tells us what Obama plans to do; it tells us he plans to return to the failed appeasement polices of the Clinton era on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

If the Gaza War is still raging when Obama takes office he will surely pressure Israel into accepting a cease fire and like Clinton play the ridiculous role of honest broker in the conflict; the role that turned Clinton into the ass of the world when the murdering, Jew hating Yassir Arafat-an evil twisted toxic leopard who never changed his spots-predictably kicked him in the groin, rejected his peace plan and started the second intefada which relentlessly continues today in the missile strikes from Gaza.

Obama's silence foreshadows the errant policies of a profoundly naive and foolish man who is about to attempt an impossible peace and bring shame upon himself and his country by reliving the disasters of the past.

[maddogbitesback]

Apollo

Lets cut to the chase. The Zionists intended to take over Palestine long before theGermans ever gave a thought to Hitler. The Zionists somehow believe they have a godgiven right to the land and have no compunctions about how they get it. The illegality of Israel will not make Moslems lie down and roll over. Hezbollah was a shock to Israel. Gaza did not submit. The attack on Gaza has awakened the non moslem world to the history of atrocities committed by Zionists and the absolute idiocy of a theocratic state. Terrorizing has become a refined art of the zionists but memories are long and the US needs money. AIPAC may very well sink into the sunset since Obama has promised to examine every line in the US spending. !00 billion spent to create a rogue snation was not smart.

[ApolloSpeaks]

When the Zionist movement began in 1897 Palestine was a province in the Ottoman Empire. Unless the Zionists were completely nuts how could they have rested control of Palestine from the vastly more powerful Turks? Moreover, Zionism was mostly a secular movement lead by atheists like Ben Gurion and Jabotinski. They didn't believe in the existence of a God let alone that Jews had a divine right to anything.

[ramsar]

Move on folks , there's no change here.

[KingLudd]

"Obama's message? You can have regional economic development as part of the global human effort to save the world from ecological catastrophe or you can waste time and life in trying to eradicate Israel."

It's very likely that ecological problems and economic problems will resolve this entire situation, but GreenDrDan, conception is a blessing but not as you may conceive.

The US won't be able to rely on oil forever. It's going to have to find alternative fuel sources especially once the hidden cost for the world becomes apparent and various small countries, ruined by global warming, begin to sue the US. In the short term the economic downturn threatens funding for israel because the US won't be able to give it billions of dollars in aid anymore. In the medium term the need to find some alternative to oil threatens Israel, since it's strategic value to the US depends on it's location in an unstable region full of oil.

There will come a point when the cost of extraction and the true cost and consequences of the use of oil make it uneconomic. That point is coming relatively soon. Then it'll be Israel surrounded by a pack of ravening wolves and no good shepherd to protect it.

It gives me no pleasure to say it: but if you look up the word 'unsustainable' in the dictionary you'll find a photo of Israel.

[kerpin]

US policy towards Israel is based on many other things more important than oil. Educate yourself before you expose your ignorance.
Also, Israel survived just fine for years without US aid (see War of Independence, 1967 war, etc. etc.).

[GreenDrDan]

The counter-terrorism policy of Israel is not folly. It is necessary action to stop the deployment of new longer-range missiles in Gaza. American image is not what Obama needs to protect. We wait for words of wisdom to reframe the problem, not placate the so-called Arab street. The Islamic military, political, and propaganda campaign to eradicate Israel has failed. Attacking Israel leads to suffering and death in Gaza. The two-state solution is dead and cannot be imposed from the outside. The reality on the ground is that Israel exists and the 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza lack the requisites to become a nation-state. No Arab state joins the fight against Israel. The bluster of Iran turns out to be empty words. There is a regional solution. Saudia Arabia, Syria, Iran - accept Israel as it is. It is 60 years too late. Stop sending missiles to Gaza and Lebanon. Will Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt contribute land for a Palestinian state? Unlikely. Forget about territorial concessions from Israel. Obama's message? You can have regional economic development as part of the global human effort to save the world from ecological catastrophe or you can waste time and life in trying to eradicate Israel.

Israel can't solve the problems of Gaza. But Saudi Arabia can. Iran can. Syria can, Recognize Israel as it is. Move on together to the important work that faces us.

[maddogbitesback]

GreenDrDan

Israel can quickly and easily solve the problem by obeying the international law which says the Palestinians have a right to return.

[kerpin]

Return to where? Israel is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.
Besides, that would be the end of the Jewish state, the only Jewish state in the world.