Perhaps Senator Barack Obama does not want to know that in 2007 alone the ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed was 40 to 1, up from 4 to 1 during the period 2000-2005; that Israel’s escalation of violence since the staged Annapolis “peace conference” has been consistent with the Jewish state’s illegal policy of collective punishment; that Israeli military strikes on Gaza have killed hundreds of besieged Palestinians with tacit White House approval.
Reason? The top Democratic frontrunner has been desperately trying to allay fears of the strong Jewish lobby in Washington that his presidential candidacy is not a threat to Israel’s interests. Obama’s pathetically biased policy in the favour of Zionists became clear when he launched a vile attack on Jimmy Carter for his meeting with Hamas leaders in Syria, citing a “fundamental disagreement” with the former president.
When Obama said “we must not negotiate with a terrorist group”, he conveniently forgot that the Jewish state terrorism murdered 20 innocent Palestinians including five children aged 12-15 to avenge an ambush that claimed three Israeli soldiers who were out to shoot resistance fighters in Gaza. Firing unguided Kassams into Israeli-occupied Palestinian towns is the only way left with resistance fighters to let out anger over a prolonged Jewish occupation, crippling sanctions, blockades, curfew, arrests, aerial strikes, targeted killings of unsuspecting leaders, demolition of housing complexes, raids and no dignity.
It is ludicrous to note that when the transplanted state of Israel, also called the cancer of the Middle East and a thorn in the flesh of Arabs, hits back with full might at unarmed civilians blowing up dozens in one strike, the tag of terrorism is still tied to hapless Palestinians.
Are Obama’s media advisers unaware that on April 16 Israeli jets deliberately hit Reuters photojournalist Fadel Shana, 23, when he stepped from his vehicle to film an Israeli tank targeting civilians? Some bystanders were also killed in the blitz. That the Israelis have no regard for international news agency became evident from the fact that Shana was attacked despite wearing an identifying flak jacket and his jeep being marked “Press”. That was not the end of the Zionist aggression. As colleagues rushed towards the fatally injured lensman, another missile was fired injuring rescuers.
The fact is that Obama’s camp cannot afford to move an inch from Washington’s unflinching stance of blindly backing the state planted by it on the usurped Arab land. The Bush’s administration’s uneasiness in the face of Carter’s fruitful meetings with key Hamas leaders is understandable. Tel Aviv’s anger over the talks is hardly surprising as Carter’s dialogue has highlighted the importance of Gaza rulers and has stressed the fact that no peace process can be initiated without involving Hamas, which came to power after being democratically elected in January 2006.
The winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace prize and the architect of the historic 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, Carter has won hearts and minds of the all peace lovers. His efforts to get the Palestinians long overdue justice are commendable but the regional players, in the name of diplomacy, must refrain from acts that look like encouraging Tel Aviv for normalisation of ties with the Arab world. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was invited to a Doha meeting last week where she lobbied for support against Iran’s nuclear programme and urge Arab states to forge ties with Israel. Livni, on the second day of a visit officially billed as intended to attend a democracy forum, also met Qatar’s leadership and held what Israel hailed as a first public encounter with her Omani counterpart. And as she was returning home, Israeli jets were preparing for sorties to slaughter innocent civilians. The Arabs who took turns in shaking Livni’s hand should have instead given her a strong message about their unwavering support for a Palestine state with (full) Jerusalem as its capital.
Ismail Haniya’s foreign minister, Mahmoud Al Zahar, has rightly written in Washington Post: “Sixty-five years ago, the courageous Jews of the Warsaw ghetto rose in defence of their people. We Gazans, living in the world’s largest open-air prison, can do no less.”
Few would disagree with Zahar that a “peace process” with Palestinians cannot take even its first tiny step until Israel first withdraws to the borders of 1967, dismantles all settlements, removes all soldiers from Gaza and the West Bank, repudiates its illegal annexation of Jerusalem, releases all prisoners, and ends its blockade of international Palestinian borders, coastline and airspace permanently. This would provide the starting point for just negotiations and would lay the groundwork for the return of millions of refugees.
Resistance against naked aggression and state terrorism is just. The Jewish state’s Spartan culture of permanent war against the Palestinians can never let the Israelis live in peace. And the Arab world is doing no service to the Palestinian cause by remaining a mute and dispassionate spectator to the subjugation and slaughter of their brethren in the neighbourhood.
Truth is too bitter. Obama cannot taste it. He can only do what pleases the powerful American Jewish lobby.
[The writer can be reached at [email protected]]