President Obama’s opportunity to speak truth to power – Rahm Emanuel does it for him
13. Nov, 2009
Print This Article!
0 Comments
By Alan Hart
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
November 13, 2009
When I wrote and posted Part 1 of this article, I was, of course, aware that there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of President Obama speaking truth to the power of Jewish America as it was represented at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America. The words I put into his mouth could only have been spoken by him if he was going to be true to his statement to Netanyahu and Abbas – “We must all take risks for peace”.
As it happened, Obama cancelled his scheduled contribution to the proceedings in order to address the memorial service for the 13 who were killed in the shooting on the U.S. Army base at Fort Hood in Texas. (At the risk of giving offense where none is intended, I have to say that I think the conference agenda could easily have been re-arranged to provide the President with an alternative podium slot if he had wanted it. He did, in fact, put in an appearance at a reception for Jewish leaders attending the conference, but he didn’t talk about foreign policy. Instead he delivered a 20-minute homily on Jewish values of charity and the importance of health care reform).
Obama’s place as the main speaker was taken by his chief of staff (and Zionism’s number one minder in the White House) Rahm Emanuel. Reviewing his address to conference as a whole, I saw no reason to disagree with what Paul Craig Roberts wrote. Emanuel “surrendered for his boss”.
It would seem that a very similar thought was in the mind of Uriel Heilman who wrote an analysis piece for the JTA (Jewish Telegraph Agency). Under the headline Obama shifts to Israel’s corner, but tries not to show it, Heilman noted that “when the chief of staff took to the podium… he sounded almost exactly like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day earlier”.
It’s true that Emanuel did say that “Israel must halt settlement construction on the West Bank” (not the occupied West Bank, just the West Bank); but in the context of his whole speech, that was mere lip-service to a presidential call that had been rejected by Netanyahu and served only to confirm that it’s Zionism’s stooges in Congress who call the policy shots on Israel/Palestine, not the White House.
According to Emanuel, Israel seeks a lasting peace. The truth telling of that day was left to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. He said, in Paris, “Israel’s desire for peace seems to have completely vanished.” (That, of course, is not completely true. Israel does want peace, but not on terms virtually all Palestinians and most other Arabs and Muslims everywhere could accept).
Emanuel went on: “Make no mistake, the path toward peace is not one that Israel should be asked to walk alone” (my emphasis added). That, it seemed to me, was the chief of staff’s coded way of saying, “The Arabs are to blame for the fact the President’s efforts to kick-start a peace process are going nowhere”.
At the time of writing there are signs that the growing despair of the occupied and oppressed Palestinians will trigger a third intifada at a not too distant point in a foreseeable future.
In terms of realpolitik, there’s a case or saying that could be a good thing to the extent that Israel’s brutal suppression of it would probably inspire more global sympathy and support for the Palestinian claim for an acceptable amount of justice. But there’s a much stronger case for saying that it could be catastrophic for the Palestinians. A third intifada could give Zionism’s in-Israel mad men the pretext they will one day invent if they are not presented with it on a plate to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
The price of President Obama’s refusal to tell truth to Jewish power might well be blood and destruction on a scale not yet seen in Israel/Palestine and far beyond.
Alan Hart
Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle East.
He blogs on www.alanhart.net and tweets on www.twitter.com/alanauthor
See also:
President Obama’s opportunity to speak truth to power: Part 1
Open Letter to President Obama: Change the Rules of the Game
An Appeal to the American People
|
|
|
|
|
 |
If you liked this article, please consider making a donation to Intifada Palestine by clicking on the following PayPal link. Thank you!
I agree, Mr. Alan Hart, with what you have written. I was distressed to read this article because I sensed that what you have written is close to the truth, and it also makes sense. The picture you have painted is not a pretty one.
The next time a war breaks out in the Middle East it might involve not just the Hamas and the Hazbulla, but Syria and Iran also. This will be a big war, and should Israel decide to bring out its unacknowledged nuclear weapons and use them, it would result in a calamity from which that entire region might never recover. It turns out that President Obama is a stronger supporter of Israel than even George Bush was, and he might decide to go along with Israel’s use of its nuclear weapons just as he has decided to go along with Israel’s grand plan to cover the occupied West Bank with sprawling illegal settlements.
I am terribly disheartened about President Obama. It seems that he did not really mean to keep the promises he made before the elections, and neither did he mean what he said in the grand speech he delivered at the Cairo University in Egypt; he certainly is not what he appeared to be. Could it be that he has metamorphosed since occupying the Oval Office? He was given the Nobel Peace Prize based on what he said and promised. “On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.” Grand words, indeed; but they are hollow, as hollow as the man himself.
President Obama promised that America will not turn its back on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own; but he certainly has turned his back. It is as if he had second thoughts about the Palestinians after he saw the Jewish lobby AIPAC camped in the White House basement.
I know that the Nobel Peace Committee would not withdraw the prize already given; but may I request them to announce, at the very least, its regrets?
Yesh Prabhu, Plainsboro, NJ
[Reply]
Israel does all that you say it does? Only in it’s wildest dreams! You people are nuts.
[Reply]