Change we can what?
From the Foreign Policy section of the "Agenda" header on the official White House website:
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Obama and Biden will make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority from day one. They will make a sustained push -- working with Israelis and Palestinians -- to achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.
...
Ensure a Strong U.S.-Israel Partnership: Barack Obama and Joe Biden strongly support the U.S.-Israel relationship, and believe that our first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East must be to the security of Israel, America's strongest ally in the region. They support this closeness, and have stated that the United States will never distance itself from Israel.
Support Israel's Right to Self Defense: During the July 2006 Lebanon war, Barack Obama stood up strongly for Israel's right to defend itself from Hezbollah raids and rocket attacks, cosponsoring a Senate resolution against Iran and Syria's involvement in the war, and insisting that Israel should not be pressured into a ceasefire that did not deal with the threat of Hezbollah missiles. He and Joe Biden believe strongly in Israel's right to protect its citizens.
Support Foreign Assistance to Israel: Barack Obama and Joe Biden have consistently supported foreign assistance to Israel. They defend and support the annual foreign aid package that involves both military and economic assistance to Israel and have advocated increased foreign aid budgets to ensure that these funding priorities are met. They have called for continuing U.S. cooperation with Israel in the development of missile defense systems.
No mention of Palestinians? No mention of the basic human rights that Gazans under Israeli occupation live without day after day? The near total impunity with which Israelis maim and kill Palestinian children? The economic war waged on Gaza's citizens that denies them even the ability to provide their families with daily bread? And then to read this hypocritical bullshit on the Iraq page:
President Obama and Vice President Biden believe that America has both a moral obligation and a responsibility for security that demands we confront Iraq’s humanitarian crisis -- more than five million Iraqis are refugees or are displaced inside their own country. Obama and Biden will form an international working group to address this crisis. They will provide at least $2 billion to expand services to Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries, and ensure that Iraqis inside their own country can find sanctuary. Obama and Biden will also work with Iraqi authorities and the international community to hold accountable the perpetrators of potential war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. They will reserve the right to intervene militarily, with our international partners, to suppress potential genocidal violence within Iraq.Does America have a moral obligation and responsibility for Gaza's humanitarian crisis? After all, we politically green-light any attack against the Palestinians in the name of Israeli 'self defense.' But maybe our blank-check economic aid that helps fund the occupation of the Palestinian territories and the blockade of Gaza (including, until a couple of days ago, humanitarian relief) is to blame? Or is it because our military assistance and privelleged defense contracts provide the Apache helicopters, bunker-buster missiles, and white phosphorous bombs (made in Arkansas) that have devastated Gaza's infrastructure and killed 1300 people? God knows that Palestinian internal refugees won't find sactuary inside their own country (or how should I phrase that?) and that Israeli perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide won't be held to shit. Would Obama or Biden ever even consider thinking about the possibility of entertaining the notion of intervening militarily to suppress potential genocidal violence against the Palestinians?
2 comments:
Yeah, I saw this stuff too. It's just going to take the same people that put him into office to remain vocal. It's just too bad that still the majority of the people in this country don't understand the issues (of domestic terrorism) involved in Palestine, and just become de facto allies of Israel.
As far as I've heard, the white phosphorous bomb thing was debunked as incorrect.
Not trying to shoot out your argument, but that was a big controversy that was (last I heard a few days back) completely not true.
DClark
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