re: Tony Wicher

I hope for the sake of this world that you are right.

Obama is a liar.  That is why he is silent.  His lies will not work to comment on the Gaza Strip.  He is not seeking PEACE he wants war, and he knows he was elected for PEACE and CHANGE AGAINST BUSH as the only choice tendered by the MEDIA but he is and was not the REAL CHOICE to deliver UPHOLDING THE U.S. Constitution which requires the President to RESPECT Congress’s duty to declare war.  BUSH IS ILLEGAL and OBAMA INTENDS TO CONTINE THE VIOLATION AND USURPTION, and is silent because his lies will not be believed.

There is no peace possible with his warfare and weapons.  The only remedy is to face his lies.  he should be forced to admit the current news….THE U.S. is number one in sales of weapons world-wide and the military budget of the U.S. is trillions IN DEBT and he had told us in advance he did not intend to balance the budget or cut the military, he wants to INCREASE OFFENSIVE MILITARY AGAINST ALL POSSIBLE PEACE VIEW.

He is silent because he is incapable, a hypocrit, offering NOTHING.

He has no peace intentions and no clue as to what diplomacy is.

Stop the weapons sales and building and honor peace policy and treaties, NADER knows what to do, and his post on Nader.org is addressing the horror of the U.S. military weapons against sanity, for peace, a cease fire and stop the war, says Nader.  No surprise.

Silence by Obama because he thinks he gains with WAR, he is UGLY UGLY UGLY.  He smiles with hypocrisy and lying innocence of his stupidity. He looks like he has no clue, but he is a lawyer and he knows what peace AND DEMOCRACY AND UPHOLDING THE CONSTITUTION MEANS, AND HE INTENDS LIES AND HYPE WHILE ADMITTING WAR INTENDED AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION AND ALL PROPER LAW.

•  “…you and Cyrena certainly do a good job of supporting every right wing move he makes, and his breaking promoise after promoise he made to progresives…”
You’re at it again Folktruther,
Can you leave me out of this? I’m maintaining a semi-low profile here these days, because it’s just the same old shit from you Obama bashers, and there’s nothing more to discuss in terms of Obama on the Palestinian issue for at least 2 weeks.
This latest event in the 60-year old stretch of Genocide and various other war crimes perpetrated by the Terrorists of Israel under WHATEVER guise they’ve used…Zionism, whatever, whatever was meticulously planned to happen NOW!! Because NOW is when anything that the incoming Administration says cannot be backed up by anything. Nothing he says right now, (which is highly likely to be far more critical of these war crimes than you extremists seem to believe) has any teeth. He can’t back it up with the US seal of ANYTHING, until after the 20th, and that’s the cruel bottom line.
Dick Bush planned this with their clients’ ages ago. Why do you think the UN cease-fire resolution sponsored by Libya failed? The US of A blocked it!!! And they know there isn’t a damn thing Barack Obama can do about it.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g JledWNoIBc43rLj-CsczJss5dXwD95G5PS00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090103/u n-un-israel-palestinians/

Ya know you armchair politicians are all a pretty sad lot since you refuse to educate yourselves on anything other than your own misinformed opinions. You talk about ‘politics’ without a CLUE to how the political apparatus even works, and specifically in terms of the geopolitical power structure, of which you obviously know NOTHING!!

So this is just more of you same rhetorical BS, which you can never back up or substantiate, because I’ve asked you to dozens of times.

Start naming some SPECIFICS instead of all this BS Folktruther.

WHAT ‘broken promises’ to WHICH progressives? (and learn how to use a spell checker for Christ’s sake!)

What ‘right wing’ moves?

Why don’t you start naming some of this stuff Folktruther? It’s just the same old boring rhetoric all the time. If you’re gonna keep talking this same old shit, you should at least freshen up your repertoire.

Meantime, don’t confuse me with Tony. He speaks for himself, and I speak for myself. Sometimes we agree, and we disagree an equal number of times to be sure. I don’t believe there’s even a valid ‘question’ or debate about the Palestinians allegedly ‘disarming’ themselves. They aren’t flippin’ ARMED to begin with!! Israeli propaganda has the entire world so bullied that everyone up to Ban ki-moon is having to carefully word their statements to make sure they include the part about those soda pop bottles that Hamas has been known to direct at the walls of their open air prison. And yeah, the kids throw rocks at the IDF tanks too.  So what? It doesn’t change the part that Israel has tried to conceal via their Myth Propaganda, and that is an ongoing Genocide!!

As noted by brewerstroupe in a comment I can’t locate right now, 15 Israelis have been killed in the past EIGHT (8) years from violence related to the occupation of Palestine. Approx 400 of them (Israelis) die in road accidents EVERY year! Bottom line. Yes, the “resistance” (Hamas) has their peashooters that they are frequently goaded into using. And from a totally practical standpoint, they probably shouldn’t bother, since it isn’t helpful to them. (If they had more, then maybe it would be, but they don’t.) On the other hand, they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t, because even when they DON’T retaliate, the Israelis will claim they did anyway. It’s SOP for Israel. They’re serial liars.

Things will improve when the US puts their support behind the UN instead of constantly undermining it.
I give it about 2 weeks.

A hypothetical question to Obama to match his oft-quoted hypothetical question making the rounds in the misguided news outlets and repeated lately by the terrorist Zionists to justify their massacre of besieged, terrorized and under-armed Palestinians in their little parcel of land:

“What would you do Obama if the morning after you settle in that Dark House of yours, you’ll wake up to a Zionist army surrounding it and cutting all life’s basic supplies and necessities and preventing your darling daughters from going to school?!”

Tony Wicher—For someone whose support for Obama is not unconditional, you and Cyrena certainly do a good job of supporting every right wing move he makes, and his breaking promoise after promoise he made to progresives.

Obama will never support the Palestinians, even if they sucidally disarmed themselves, as you want them to do. The history of Israel-Palestinian negotiations is one where the Palestinians give up position after position, getting nothing in return. 

Israel is treating the Palestinians like the US treated the Indians; lies, ethnic cleansing, genecide.  And at the time I have no doubt that there were people like you telling them to give up their rifles and practice non-violence.

By thebeerdoctor, January 7 at 2:59 am #

“To all of the Obama apologists who provide an alibi for the President-elect’s cowardice, I wonder what will be your rational when he no longer will be the lady in waiting, and in fact become the U.S. bride. What excuses will you cook up to explain why we have a total Zionist President and Vice-President (Biden himself has said this), providing the false but badly needed moral support for the rogue state of Israel’s hideous operations.”

beerdoctor,

I think you are wrong. I think Obama is going to be by far the best friend Palestinians have ever had in a U.S. president. But they are going to have to stop with the rockets or there is nothing Obama can do for them.

You could also be right. My support for Obama is not unconditional. Once he takes office we will see what he actually does. 

We shall see.

thebeerdoctor I guess Cyrena needs to give you the “cool your jets” speech too.  Or are you just some kind of Pat Buchanan concern troll clone?  Not really buying your anti-zionist rants.

Maybe you and Robert like “entering a shoot-out with little more than their dicks in their hands.”

Two weeks idiots…and we’ll never have to hear from your types again.  Go play on Politico!

The main issue here is human rights, and the relaitonship the USA has had with other countries (for like forever and ever), not just Isreal and Palestine.

The title of the article puts it in too narrow a perspective, “Gauging Obama’s Silence on Gaza.” 

What we should be concerned with is our country’s elected and appointed leaders’ silence on almost EVERYTHING.  In other words, we should be focused on the root intent that such silence is indicative of. But even more accurately, not just its silence, but its ridiculous and seemingly endless inconsistency, even when it many leaders and its citizens do actually talk about such things.

A country that isn’t committed APRIORI -  from the start - to firstly and foremostly NOT destroying the rights of others - and doing so no matter what the “exigencies of life” apparently dictate - no matter who they are or where they live - is a DUPLICITOUS country, and thus is not a “real” country, but merely a bunch of folks slapped together with no coherent, cohesive, unified consciousness.  It is like a huge jetliner put together with Scotch tape and Elmer’s glue: it might - with enough slave labor and ripped-off assets to fund endless maintenance - actually fly, but it will never be very reliable or serve any worthwhile purpose, and will end up destroying a lot of people’s lives by taxing their physical and mental abilities beyond reason just in order to keep it going.  That “airplane” is our world, and it is the result of our own superficial, incoherent, largely dysfuncitonal mental state.  The fact that so many people are constantly dying prematurely, and/or live very compromised lives even if they do live a “normal” lifespan, is a result of our mental and psychic deficiencies.

Until that mental state fundamentally changes, no improvement will be enough to rectify the damages caused, nor will it last long, or have any significant impact on anything. 

So even if Obama does end his silence on Gaza, unless it is an “across the board” and fundamental change, and unless it reflects a completely new and fresh committment on the part of the whole country’s many citizens to fair treatment of its many neighbors, it will not spell a “new era” for man or for the world. Nor can a superficial, purely intellectual approach ever reflect an organic change inside the “peoples’” hearts and minds.

The best that could be expected from a fragmented committment to human rights is a world that is slightly better in some ways - but only in certain areas and for “a limited time only.”

To all of the Obama apologists who provide an alibi for the President-elect’s cowardice, I wonder what will be your rational when he no longer will be the lady in waiting, and in fact become the U.S. bride. What excuses will you cook up to explain why we have a total Zionist President and Vice-President (Biden himself has said this), providing the false but badly needed moral support for the rogue state of Israel’s hideous operations.
Has anyone ever watched the movie “Massacre in Rome”? It seems that one Israeli life is worth 100 Palestinians. Come on President Barry, please tell us why this is so?

Robert, January 6 at 8:47 pm
•  “From the way things look…it looks like they have muffled Obama mouth!”

Robert,
I know you didn’t mean to, but you hit it on the head here. The only part you don’t get, (and I’ve delved into it a bit later on down here) is that ALL of our mouths have been muzzled, and for longer than you seem to realize.
Now Obama could shoot off his mouth on the atrocities taking place in Palestine, and it would do as much good as you (or I) shooting off our mouths here. Could YOU have prevented the blockage of the latest UN ceasefire resolution? Nope. And, neither could Obama.

From the article:
“He (Obama) has made statements on the economy, the carmakers’ bail-out, and the attacks in Mumbai - so why so little on Gaza?
Well, with the exception of Mumbai, he has spoken only about domestic issues - seen as fair game for an incoming president.
The attacks in India were far more clear-cut than the turmoil in Gaza.
They were an unusual event which presented no lingering policy issues and required no continuing diplomacy.

And that is key.

Mr Obama has reiterated that it is President Bush who is responsible for American diplomacy.
“When it comes to foreign affairs it is particularly important to adhere to the principle of one president at a time,” he said.

***

This is the reality nobody likes.

The clearest cut example of this is the US blockage of the recent UN ceasefire resolution. Not a single solitary thing Barack Hussein Obama as president-elect could do about it. Nada. Zip.

Wolffgang is STILL the UN person of record for this function,  and that’s the bottom line. He is the Dick Bush neocon-Zionist rep, and the blockage of that ceasefire agreement is EXACTLY how this Thug regime has been able to perpetrate these crimes for the past 8 years.

It is no ‘accident’ that this massive ‘final assault’ on Gaza and the Forever Occupied Territories by Israel is happening NOW. This is oh so very intentional, to occur within the anticipated power vacuum of a US political transition. Seeing as how the Incoming Administration is highly unlikely to continue the rogue foreign policy of the current and former regimes, this is the ‘last chance’ for that crowd of world bullies.

For some of us, this is clear. It’s as clear as it is agonizing to witness, and this is an old and on-going agony. It’s the same stomach churning agony that so many of us have experienced since 2002, when it was guaranteed that we were about to destroy another sovereign state (Iraq) and the people in it, and that we couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Even as we knew then, (and still do) that as long as the US had a military presence there, the place would continue to burn and cough up the blood of its soul. Over a million of those innocents have been killed, and 5 million or more displaced – internally or otherwise. Those remaining live as beggars and refugees in their own nation.

We’ve watched. We’ve watched since before it began, and in the 6 years since. We’ve watched as US citizens as well as citizens of the world, because we’ve been hamstrung. It’s a common torture technique. Tie up the victim and put a gag in his or her mouth. Then force the victims to watch while they rape or murder their loved ones. That’s what we’ve had here for the past 8 years, and the Palestinians have suffered it at the hands of Israel for far, far, longer.

So yep, I understand how everyone is all up and arms about the atrocity that continues in the Middle East. I’ve been feeling it for years. Many of us have been feeling that frustration.

I also think we’re near the end of that, and that the US, within the stewardship of the new administration, is going to join the rest of the world in honoring the International Laws and all other Universal agreements that we are a party to.
Cool your jets Robert. One should never enter a shoot-out with little more than their dicks in their hands.

OBAMA’S DELIBERATE SILENCE IS PUZZLING !

If the 600 plus Palestinian civilian casualties (women, men, children)who were massacred by Israel’s brutal IDF which we have witnessed today & previous days from various news sources were Israeli civilian casualties,...WOULD OBAMA REMAIN SILENT?

WOULD HIS ZIONIST ADVISERS & MSM ALLOW HIM TO REMAIN SILENT WHEN IT COMES TO ISRAELI/JEWISH CIVILIAN CASUALTIES?

I just wonder what lies & zionist advice is CONDI,  Hiliary, Rhambo & Axlerod are giving Obama.

From the way things look…it looks like they have muffled Obama mouth!

“An all-out war against the civilian population of Gaza”—Norwegian doctor in Gaza

Doctor Decries Israeli Attacks

01.05.2009 | http://www.youtube.com/user/CBS
By CBS

Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor in Gaza, tells Sky News that the number of civilians injured and killed in Gaza proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the population.”

WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEO

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11& ar=2385

People with brains are invited to reflect on the following:

“They don’t repair a tire on the Sabbath, but starting a ground terrorist offensive and massacring children, women and men is no problem!”

Peace upon all warriors for peace by word or action!
No Peace for supports of Israeli terrorism by word or silence!

Felicity, if you are sick of ass-covering empty blather, why do you produce it to cnver Obama’s ass.  That Obama can produce only words is completely and utterly untrue.  If he spoke out and stated that the US should suspend aid and trade with Israel until Isreal treats the Palestinians decently, that is not just words, if he is sincere.

If he states that the US should not block cease fire resolutions in the UN, that is not just words.

If Obama stated that what the Palestinians need are anti-tank and anti-plane weapons, and the US should provide them, that is not just words.

In two weeks he will assume office and could implement these threats.  Israel would pay attention.

But of course he will do none of these things, he is bought and paid for by the Zionist lobby.

And while families are destroyed, and they are starved and deprived of clean warter in Gaza, you are doomed to disappointment.  Poor you.

Among the fucken bloody so-called political leaders of the world only courageous and noble Chavez of Venezuela took a stand against terrorist Israel by closing the Israeli embassy and kicking out all its staff!

Que viva Chavez!
Long live Chavez!
?????? ????? ?????

When involved in negotiations or meetings it is generally accepted that silence is acquiescence.  Two more weeks to go.

dihey

Why is it impossible to see Gaza in the picture that accompanies this piece? Because Gaza is way over Obama’s head!
____________________________________

It’s a nice portrait.  It looks like he’s blowing smoke.

@Tony Wicher

The Time to speak up against murder of innocent people is NOW. Not some convenient time in the future.
  I expect the coming president of US to have enough intergrity and courage to try to save innocent people in Gaza,the same way he’s made efforts to save american automobile industry.

Folktruther and beerdoctor - speaking out against the inhumane treatment of the Palestinians by the state of Israel has accomplished nothing. It’s gone on for years inspite of impassioned words by some world leaders and world courts and human rights entities.

My hope is that Obama, who now has access only to words, will, once in power act.  If he, like others doesn’t I’ll be very disappointed.  I’m sick to death of ass-covering, empty blather posing as concern commentary from us and others in the world.

Some suggest that if Obama spoke out against this massacre it would produce nothing. Really? Does anyone think that the person chosen to represent the most heavily armed country in the world, tells of a monumental injustice, that no one in this world will notice? By an executive order, in less than two weeks, Obama could place an embargo against Israel and make them stop the slaughter, without congressional approval.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower

What Obama could do, Felicity, if he were a real progressive instead of a fake one, is call for a mobilization of the people around the country and the world to oppuse the Israel massacre. 

He could have a truth aide detail how Aipac and the Israeli lobby has hijacked US foreign policy to serve their interests rather than those of the American people.  He could call for the suspension of US aid and trade until Israel stops it massacre and turning Gaza into a giant concentration camp.

But he supports the Bushite policies by his silence.
This may be your idea of wisdom but it isn’t mine, or the majority of the Dem rank and file.

Why is it impossible to see Gaza in the picture that accompanies this piece? Because Gaza is way over Obama’s head!

Well, he could say, “This carnage has to stop immediately.”  Would it stop?  No.  Then what.

He could demand an immediate cease-fire.  Would it happen?  No.  Then what

He could drop Hillary down from the sky over Jerusalem ala Rice and she could meet with the Israelis (for about 15 minutes, ala Rice) Would it accomplish anything positive?  No.

The Israelis so far willingly take our money, buy our arms with it, build illegal walls with it, fund Israeli settlers in Palestinian territories with it (illegal)...

If Obama recognizes this, he recognizes that there has to be some monumental changes in how America deals with the state of Israel.  A few words, empty of any clout only serve to send the message that the new president is a powerless blowhard like the last one and it’s business as usual in the ME.

Obama is wise to keep his mouth shut.

Sorry the link did not work. The article is titled ISRAEL’S BLONDE BOMBSHELLS AND REAL BOMBS IN GAZA, by East London University professor Yosefa Loshitzky, which can be found at: http://electronicintifada.net/

Here is something you might want to take a look at:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1019.shtml

Re: BNERIN - Spot on! Thumbs up. His kowtowing to APAC and his pick for the White House media guru say that he’s painted into a tight box when it comes to Israeli aggression.

Let me see if I got this straight.  John McCain said he would rather lose an election than lose a war, but conversely the Israelis are saying they would rather win a war AND win an election.  Maybe if McCain thought as the Israelis he would be president-elect today! But as they say strike when the iron is hot.  With Obama an unknown quantity vis-à-vis the ME, this was the time to engage Hamas and sort of box Obama in.  As I posted before the IDF has less than two weeks to wrap things up and be in a position to dictate truce terms.

I understand all the possible reasons for the haloed one’s reticence.  But every last one of them comes out in the wash when he has no problem giving his weekly YouTube address and pontificating on the economy.

Some say, wait and see, it’s not fair to judge him yet.  Well, Jan 21 is too late when it comes to this issue.  And that was intended by the forces who chose now to launch the operation in Gaza.

Maybe he had the best of intentions, but by staying silent he’s allowed himself to be trapped.  What can he say now?  And while he might not have been able to make a political pronouncement, he certainly could have made a personal statement.

P.S. I’m all for pragmatism, but that’s not what this is.  This is cowardice and calculation (or the lack thereof).  And his stalwart defenders are sure starting to sound like the Bushies of 2001.

During the excruciatingly overlong campaign “season”, Obama supporters in various blog comments raved about Obama’s phenomenal understanding of politics and what amounted to radical views to completely overhaul and reform the decayed and moribund Amerikan political process. 

Obama zealots urged us skeptics to Read His Book!  It explains everything!

It came across a little bit like die-hard unrecovering investors discovering a new pyramid scheme—except this time it isn’t a pyramid scheme!  It’s totally legit, and a sure thing—if enough of us get behind the man and support what he’s doing!

As the teevee infomercial ads say:  And That’s Not All!  Apart from being schooled and smart and shrewd and canny, Obama was also revered as virtuous.  Whatever his exact religious beliefs, it is beyond question that Obama is a pious, decent, good-hearted man!

This is why I came to think of Obama as “Clinton 2.0”, and so did others:  all of the great taste of personal charisma, neoliberalism, exceptionalism, pro-corporatism, and of course militarism—but none of that filling lechery and the bitter aftertaste of sleaze!

But over time, it seemed obvious to me that all of these saintly qualities were undermined by Obama’s approach of subsuming every question and issue into a political calculus.  This quality does not faze or bother his supporters; in fact, the Golden Calf of “pragmatism” has been dragged from the the shelf and polished to a dazzling shine in honor of this latest “Third Way” approach to politics.

Principles and values don’t count unless you can make practical changes, etc.  Don’t get me started…

I believe that the Gaza debacle has justly shown up this hyper-calculating side of Obama in an unflattering light.  Defenders see it, of course, as still more good sense and shrewdness—they cite alleged “protocol” and the general claim that Obama must keep his winning hand close to his chest until he takes office.  So, except for his blithe pro-Israeli soundbites, there is no “need” for Obama to take a position on the vile and reprehensible inhumanity perpetrated by the terrorist rogue state of Israel.

There’s no indication that Obama is particularly pained at “having” to keep mum on the burgeoning atrocity.  In fact, he doesn’t strike me as particularly warm ‘n wonderful despite his splendid grin.

It seems preposterous to expect that after taking his own sweet time to weigh in substantively on this crisis, he will disclose a humane and even-handed perspective.

Meanwhile, desperate Palestinians and the non-privileged Arab and Muslim peoples are literally dying to hear an encouraging word from Obama.  His determined silence is causing his pedestal to melt like an ice cube in the Negev at noon.  Too bad, but better sooner than later.

He is a disappointing coward and growing increasingly irrelevant by the hour.

How strange this all is. All the talk about hope and change has been dashed against the rocks of militaristic despair. Israel claims it is defending itself, on land that was stolen actually, by slaughtering every thing connected to Hamas in the Gaza strip; that includes mosques, a university, schools, police station, hospitals and hovels that act as a residence for overcrowded refugees. Barack Obama reveals himself to be a sniveling Zionist toad, hopping upon the lily pad of treachery and lies. Take comfort in this new despair: we only have one frog at a time.

The bulk of the money, media and management support of Obama during the election came from Zionist neoliberals, the Dem equivilent of the Bush Zionist neoconservatives.  His silence now is support for Bush’s policy of US-Israeli aggression.  He supports Bushite Zionist policies in the same way he will continue other Bushite policies.

The Bushites made a political revolution in the US to trasnform the US power system and the function of Obama is to consolidate that political revolution during the US decline.

By Allan Gurfinkle, January 5 at 7:49 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Obama has been groomed by the Jewish establishment for years to be on their side, as is detailed in the article “America’s First Jewish President” by James Petras.  It began ....
===========================
Thank you Allan Gurfinkle for providing the link to Obama’s links to the Jewish establishment as reported by James Petras in informationclearinghouse,
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21449.htm

This is indeed the final definite truth on the Obama’s Zionist connection.

Since I heard Obama talking to the Zionist AIPAC, his saying that Jerusalem must be the eternal capital of Israel, and his selection of the self-declared Zionist Biden as his vice-president, I had a gut feeling that there was a strong Zionist link to his campaign, but had no definite documentation for my feelings. Now, this piece coming through your post leaves no doubt as to Obama’s ideological standing.

Thanks again for this great contribution to truth!

Gideon Levy Speaks

And there lie the bodies

12.31.2008 | Haaretz
By Gideon Levy

“The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape’s topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe’s diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place.

Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest.

They liquidated Nizar Ghayan? Nobody counts the 20 women and children who lost their lives in the same attack. There was a massacre of dozens of officers during their graduation ceremony from the police academy? Acceptable. Five little sisters? Allowed. Palestinians are dying in hospitals that lack medical equipment? Peanuts. Whatever happened to the not-so-good old days of Salah Shahadeh? When we liquidated him in July 2002, we also killed 15 women and children. At least back then, moral qualms were raised for a moment.

Here lie their bodies, row upon row, some of them tiny. Our hearts have turned hard and our eyes have become dull. All of Israel has worn military fatigues, uniforms that are opaque and stained with blood and which enable us to carry out any crime. Even our leading intellectuals fail to speak out on what havoc we have wreaked. Amos Oz urges: “Cease-fire now.” David Grossman writes: “Hold your fire. Stop.” Meir Shalev wants “a punitive operation.” And not one word about our moral image, which has been horribly distorted.

The suffering in the south renders everything kosher, as if the horrible suffering in Gaza pales in comparison. Everyone is hungry for revenge, and that hunger is excused by the need for “deterrence,” after it was already proved that the killing and the destruction in Lebanon did not achieve it.

Yes, I know, war is war. After all, they brought this on themselves. They are a terrorist organization and we are not. They want to destroy us and we seek peace. Still, is there nothing here that will stop this blood pipeline? Even those whose hearts are hardened by “moral righteousness” will have to momentarily halt the bombing machine and ask: Which Israel do we have before us? What will become of its standing in the world, which is now watching the events in Gaza? What are we inflicting on the moderate Arab regimes? And what of the simmering popular hatred we are sowing throughout the world? What good will emerge from this killing and destruction?”

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11& ar=2375

By Fadel Abdallah, January 5 at 7:11 pm

Fadel,

I disagree. This article is correct that there are good political reasons why Obama should not speak out while he is president elect.

By Fadel Abdallah, January 5 at 7:11 pm

Fadel,

I disagree. It will not be time for Obama to speak until after Jan 20.

O"Bomb"a is just another Zionist puppet for Israel and their war against Islam,if you think things are bad now,just wait.

“The fierce urgency of NOW” should compel all people of conscience to phone, FAX, email Obama’s transition team and Congress:

* Insist that Israel ends its siege of the Gaza Strip. Israel has deliberately impoverished the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip and caused a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions by prohibiting the delivery of food, medicine, fuel, and electricity. Your Administration should insist on the illegality of collective punishment and support the human rights of Palestinians such as freedom of movement as a first step towards ending Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip.

* Demand a freeze in the construction of settlements and Israel’s Wall in the West Bank. Israel’s West Bank settlements, including those in East Jerusalem, are all illegal under international law,and the International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that Israel’s Wall is illegal and must be torn down. Halting this construction should be a first step toward completely dismantling the infrastructure of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and others have labeled “apartheid.”

* Hold Israel accountable for its misuse of U.S. weapons. In 2007, the United States and Israel agreed to increase military aid to Israel by 25% over the next decade, totaling $30 billion. During the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 2,000 innocent Palestinian civilians who took no part in hostilities, oftentimes with U.S. weapons in violation of the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts. Your Administration should hold Israel accountable for these violations of U.S. law and cut off military aid as required by law, rather than increase it.

* End the U.S. veto protecting Israel at the United Nations. The United States has used its veto power at the UN more than 40 times since 1972 to shield Israel from the consequences of its violations of human rights, UN resolutions, and international law. Your Administration should work with, not in opposition to, the international community so that human rights, UN resolutions, and international law are applied and enforced uniformly.

* Base a just peace on human rights, international law, and equality. Such a policy is the only way to ensure the legitimate security needs of all peoples and can only be achieved by engaging in dialog with all interested parties. A just and lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace includes the complete end of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip; a resolution to the Palestinian refugee issue consistent with international law and UN resolutions, including the right of return and/or compensation; and full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. A policy denying Palestinians these internationally-guaranteed rights will only lead to yet another failed “peace process”.

To sign:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/form.php?modin=137

One no longer looks to Washington for leadership but instead works to protect oneself from Washington’s errors.  Only people who live in Washington see themselves as self-important.

Placing America first is not isolationism.  It must be done at the community and State level.  Although we cannot ignore Washington we also should refrain from focusing on it too much.  Change will happen in our backyards first and Washington will resist it or attempt to block it just as they did to the people of California regarding their efforts to lower auto pollution. 

Obama’s votes and rhetoric are inconsistent and I doubt that he has the brass to stand up and force positive change. I do not trust him.

That “there is one President at a time” is another lame and hypothetical statement used to avoid making a moral stand on the Israeli massacre in Gaza.

Even before he was elected, Obama spoke against the Russian incursion into Georgia and he condemned the terrorist operation in Mumbai after his election.

Obama’s total silence on this Israeli massacre can be interpreted in one of the following ways:

1. He is complicit in the Israeli crime and supports it through his silence.
2. That he agrees with evil Bush stand in blaming the Palestinians, and thus has nothing more to add.
3. He is not fully informed on the issues and background of the Israeli operation and thus is refraining from making a stand.
4. He is not free to think by himself even as an individual and he prefers political expediency over moral principals.
5. That he has not received the green light from his handlers to say anything on the issue.

I understand that some of these five points overlap. However, in my book, no matter what of the above possibilities apply, Obama’s silence is a disgrace for him personally and for the symbolic moral power of the American presidency.

I agree that the political reality of the U.S. includes endless pandering to the Israeli lobby and as an american Jew I rail against it endlessly. Just let your mind wander to HR Clinton and her almost neocon advisers. And it is true the Obama ran with the great pander. However I still think he was intending to parse it to make the Arab Middle East more open to him. the Israelis want to lock him into business as usual.

January 5, 2009

Propaganda, Perception, and Truth

Consider the Realities of Gaza

By WILLIAM COOK

  “How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be”

  —Oedipus Rex, Scene I

“Consider as well the Israeli effort to claim victim hood based on Hamas’ terrorism against its civilians; consider the reality not the propaganda. The following statistics come from B’Tselem as recorded by http://www.ifamericaknew.org: 4,897 Palestinians killed since 9/29/00 to 11/30/08; 1062 Israelis killed during that same time period. Of these numbers, 1050 were Palestinian children and 123 Israeli; 2,227-3149 were Palestinian civilians and 727 were Israeli civilians. Since June28, 2008, in Gaza, the start of the cease fire, a total of 247 were killed up to October 6, 2008, 155 of these were civilians and 57 were children.

Add to these horrific numbers the tally the Israeli’s accumulated on December 27th, approximately a week ago, of 251 Palestinians killed, most civilians including 20 children and 9 women with another 584 wounded 130 of them children (PCHR). The death toll for Palestinians has exceeded that of the American casualties in Iraq, and continues to climb above 5200 as each day passes with no end in sight. 

And so we must ask, why? What drives this merciless military machine that is the government and armed forces of Israel? Can it be true as Livni attests that “Israel expects the support and understanding of the international community, as it confronts terror, and advances the interest of all those who wish the forces of peace and co-existence to determine the agenda of this region.” What is terror if not the forced imprisonment of 1.5 million people locked behind gates and walls of steel while a state of the art military including land, air and sea forces pummel the people day and night in a merciless barrage of devastation and mayhem? What civilized state in this community of nations could believe that Israel “advances the interest of all” by such devastation of a helpless neighbor? What civilized state could support, what Livni, without blushing, calls the “forces of peace and co-existence” that determine the agenda in the mid-east? Consider the reality not the propaganda.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/cook01052009.html

There’s not much he can do without cutting his own throat politically. At the end of the day, that’s all ANY politician cares about.

As I have watched Obama change his positions during his campaign, I became immediately aware that I could not trust him.  He will do what is expedient for him at any given time in his journey.  During the campaign it was to get elected.  As President he will not ruffle any feathers, so why comment on Gaza; that’s not important; it’s the economy now; he has got to fix it or he’s toast four years from now and will go down in history as a failure.  If re-elected he will be considered a success.  Every action from now to the next election will have that election as the primary test as to what he does and doesn’t do.

Call me cynical?  I just judge a person by the behavior, not the words.

I suspect that the Israelis picked this time to invade Gaza to mess with Obama and lock him into are more narrow and pro Israel stance that he had intended. And I suspect it’s gonna work.

Well, remember how quick he kowtowed to the ‘american izraeli public affairs committee’? So, is it any wonder that izrael has a free hand in the world at everyone’s expense most especially the USA’s?