Saturday 23 March 2013
Obama Talks “Peace” In Israel While Preparing War
In a speech delivered in
Jerusalem on Thursday, US President Barack Obama identified US interests
unconditionally with Israel while reiterating war threats against both
Syria and Iran.
The speech, delivered to several hundred Israeli
university students, was ostensibly meant to signal Washington’s
continued support for the so-called “peace process”—the moribund,
decades-old diplomatic charade that has served as a cover for Israeli
oppression of the Palestinian people and a means of promoting US
objectives elsewhere in the Arab world.
The US administration chose this audience rather
than the Knesset for fear that Obama would be heckled by the extreme
right-wing Zionist elements that dominate the government of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Before appearing in Jerusalem, Obama made a brief
side-trip by helicopter to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where he
appeared at a press conference with Palestinian Authority (PA) chief
Mahmoud Abbas.
Several hundred demonstrators took to the streets of
Ramallah to denounce the visit, but were kept far from Abbas’ compound
by a phalanx of PA police. Confronting the police, demonstrators began
chants against Abbas, shouting “down with the military regime.”
While mouthing empty platitudes about the
accelerating spread of Zionist settlements in the occupied West Bank not
being “constructive,” Obama made no repeat of his 2009 demand for a
freeze on settlement activity. Instead, he pressured the Palestinian
Authority and Abbas to drop their own demand for such a freeze.
Obama argued that politics in Israel “are complex”
and that the settlements were “not an issue that’s going to be solved
immediately.” He chided the Palestinians for holding the view “that we
can only have direct negotiations when everything is settled ahead of
time, then there’s no point for negotiations.”
In reality, the so-called “two-state solution” has
become a dead letter, as Zionist settlements have already gobbled up
nearly half of the land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, which was
supposedly to be the territory of a Palestinian mini-state. There are
now 560,000 Israelis in this territory, 60,000 more than when Obama took
office.
The New York Times reported Thursday on a document
summing up Palestinian Authority “talking points” for the meeting with
Obama that suggested Abbas and the corrupt wealthy clique he represents
are prepared to bow even lower to the US and Israel.
The documents propose an agreement in which
Netanyahu could “pledge to you secretly that he will stop settlement
activities during the period of negotiations.”
Both the Israeli press and Palestinian analysts
described Obama’s address to the Israeli students as the most
enthusiastic embrace of the ideology of Zionism by any president in US
history. One Israeli newspaper urged Obama to emigrate to Israel and run
for office.
Obama first stressed Israel’s unconditional right to
security—though no such security is on offer to the Palestinians of the
West Bank or Gaza or neighboring countries like Lebanon, which have
been subjected to repeated Israeli invasions and bombardments. Unlike
these countries, Israel serves as a bulwark for US counter-revolutionary
and neo-colonial operations in the region.
“The security relationship between the United States
and Israel has never been stronger: more exercises between our
militaries, and more exchanges among our political, military and
intelligence officials than ever before; the largest program to date to
help you retain your qualitative military edge,” Obama boasted. He
announced that discussions were underway to extend for another decade
the US military aid program that pours billions of dollars into the
Israel Defense Forces every year.
Obama repeated a threat of military action against Syria made the day before during a joint appearance with Netanyahu.
“We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons
against the Syrian people or the transfer of these weapons to
terrorists,” he said. “The world is watching, and we will hold you
accountable.”
The overwhelming evidence indicates that a chemical
weapon used on Tuesday, killing at least 30 Syrians in a
government-controlled area near Aleppo, was indeed the work of
“terrorists” —those that the US and its allies are backing in the war
for regime change. The US president was not referring to these Al
Qaeda-linked forces, however, but rather to the mass Shia political
movement, Hezbollah, which has been a dominant force in the Lebanese
government. He demanded that all foreign governments join Washington in
branding it as a “terrorist organization.”
Obama repeated even more forcefully his threats
against Iran and its nuclear program, claiming that while Washington
would seek to bring about Tehran’s submission by diplomatic means, “time
is not unlimited.”
“I have said to the world that all options are on
the table for achieving our objectives,” he added. “America will do what
we must to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.”
Much of the rest of the speech appealed for the
revival of the “peace process” and the “two-state solution.” Obama
insisted that as part of any settlement, the Palestinians would have to
recognize Israel as a “Jewish state,” a definition that would
consolidate the apartheid-style disenfranchisement of non-Jews,
including a large Palestinian population, inside Israel and abrogate any
right of Palestinian refugees to return.
While the media praised this peace rhetoric as
“bold” and “courageous,” the right-wing Zionist politicians of
Netanyahu’s government brushed aside the US president’s remarks.
Netanyahu thanked Obama for the speech and his
“unqualified support of Israel.” His new economy and trade Minister,
Naftali Bennett, expressed reservations about Obama’s reference to
Israeli occupation of the West Bank, however, declaring: “A nation
cannot be an occupier in its own land.”
Danny Ayalon, the right-wing nationalist former
deputy foreign minister said the speech was “no problem” as it contained
no specific proposals for the so-called peace talks.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post suggested that the
talk of reviving the “peace process” was mere window dressing for the
main aim of Obama’s trip, ratcheting up the war threat against Iran.
“Speculation has been rife for years that the US is
holding Israel back when it comes to Iran,” the newspaper noted.
“Indeed, prior to Obama's trip there was speculation that one of the
main purposes of his journey was to hold a bright red stop light up to
Netanyahu.”
It continued: “Publicly, however, restraining Israel
has not been Obama’s message. Indeed, the opposite is true – and these
are the words the Iranians are hearing as well.”
At Wednesday’s joint press conference, Obama
recognized Israel’s unilateral “right” to attack Iran. “Each country has
to make its own decisions when it comes to the awesome decision to
engage in any kind of military action, and Israel is differently
situated than the United States,” he said.
“Obama hopes it will not come to that on Iran, he
hopes the Iranians will back down,” the Jerusalem Post commented. “But
if they don’t, the credible military threat Netanyahu wants to see waved
along with the economic, political and diplomatic pressure already
being applied against Iran is no less than Israel itself. Iran, and the
international community, have been warned.”
Ten years after invading Iraq, US imperialism is
laying the groundwork for a war against Iran, which has three times both
the land mass and population of Iraq. The motives are the same: control
of one of the world’s most geo-strategically vital and energy-rich
regions.
Any Israeli attack on Iran would draw in the US in
short order. With his public endorsement of Israel’s “right” to launch
such an attack, Obama has set in motion forces that are driving toward a
conflagration.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/22/isra-m22.html
Posted @ 17:55
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment