President Obama’s opportunity to speak truth to power, Part 2 – Rahm Emanuel does it for him
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.
John Robertson:
November 13th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
The last paragraph is truly frightening.
Connie Lane:
November 14th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman may have tipped his Masada hand when he reportedly told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that Israel may use nuclear weapons against Gaza. The threat to Israel is not the 1.5 million Gazans who reside in the world’s largest open-air prison. The threat is the fast-growing global outrage at the abuse inflicted on Palestinians, commencing with the ethnic cleansing of 400-plus villages six decades ago.
Mary:
November 14th, 2009 at 7:15 am
I fear that there actually is not enough outrage at Israel, although it is slowly growing. The quashing of the Goldstone Report by the US Congress shows Americans who is in charge of the government when it comes to middle east policy. Both Obama and Israel have shown the Palestinians how they do not take seriously any cessation of the building of settlements in the Occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which humiliated Abbas and left him with little choice but to refuse to run again in January. It only shows what we have known all along, that the Palestinian Authority has no authority at all, and now the Palestinian people are left with no other alternative than another intifada.
Avigdor Lieberman is a former night club bouncer with a correspondent mentality. Using nuclear weapons against Gaza will not only poison the land, but will ruin the water as well. His beloved Israel would be permanently contaminated; I hope it would be worth it to him. Thugs are thugs whether they throw drunks out of bars or sit in the highest levels of government.
President Obama’s opportunity to speak truth to power, Part 2 – Rahm Emanuel does it for him. By Alan Hart « Kanan48:
November 14th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
[...] President Obama’s opportunity to speak truth to power, Part 2 – Rahm Emanuel does it for him. By Alan Hart 2009 November 14 by kanan48 Via: Alan Hart. [...]
Greg Bacon:
November 16th, 2009 at 8:06 am
I caught most of Rahm’s tirade on CSpan.
He said several times that Israel will not accept pre-conditions prior to having ‘peace’ talks, but then went on to lay multiple pre-conditions on Palestine and the Arab world to accept before having those talks.
At one time, Israel insisted that Palestinians accept Israel’s ‘right to existence.’ When that happened, Israel then changed and said they must accept Israel’s ‘right to existence’ as a Jewish state.
Next they’ll be insisting that the Arab world accept Israel without defined borders…. and on and on.
Anyone who can read above the level of a 5th grader knows that these ‘peace’ talks are just a stall to allow Israel time to steal all of Palestine, aided and abetted by the USA.
And yes, if Israel isn’t brought to justice for its recent murderous activity in Gaza, the next bloodbath will be worse and the one after that horrendous.
Yes, Israel is such a ‘peace’ loving state.
That’s why the IDF is on the border of Lebanon right now, making war like noises and AGAIN threatening to invade… a prolonged 5 year drought in Israel is making the River Litani look mighty tempting to a nation that steals for a living.
The only ‘peace’ Israel wants is:
A ‘piece’ of Syria; a ‘piece’ of Jordan; a ‘piece’ of Iraq; a ‘piece’ of Saudi Arabia; a ‘piece’ of Turkey; a ‘piece’ of Egypt; a ‘piece’ of Lebanon and whatever ‘pieces’ are left of Palestine after Apartheid Israel finishes its campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians.
Greg Bacon:
November 16th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I left a comment here this morning and maybe it got lost in the cyberworld, but maybe not.
Do you have a list of your censoring policies so us lumpen types can follow correct protocol?
Greg Bacon:
November 16th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Sorry, I feel like an ass. After posting the above comment and hitting ‘Submit,” my original comment appeared.
I apologize for being quick to assume you censored comments.
My comments have been deleted so many times from the NYT that I guess I might be getting paranoid.
Again, my apologies!
Greg Bacon
Mary:
November 16th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I think a peace settlement may have to be imposed by the world upon Israel; otherwise, it will never let up in its relentless pursuit of land and resources and its plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine of all non-Jews.
What I fail to understand is how anyone could have had any belief that Obama would abandon the traditional policy of unquestioning loyalty to Israel. Rahm Emanuel is a poster child for Zionism; he is a personal friend of Obamas, and his father was a member of the notorious Irgun. Obama appointed the notoriously hawkish and pro-Zionist Hillary Clinton to the post of Secretary of State. He chose as his vice-president Joseph Biden, who is a self-proclaimed Zionist.
Obama, unfortunately, is no less a Zionist, and to expect him to speak truth to anything on the issue of Palestine is an exercise in futility, I’m afraid. Within a few months, he went from a strong insistence on a cessation of settlements to none at all. He started out his presidency by proclaiming that the two-state solution would be at the top of his list of priorities, yet he has allowed it to slide further and further towards oblivion. Less than 24 hours after its release, he condemned the Goldstone report as inaccurate, one-sided and unfair to Israel.
It is politics as usual at the White House. It already knows the truth, but has chosen to place its loyalties where the campaign funds come from and where the re-election votes will come from in 2012. Not from the Palestinian people, but from Israel.
admin:
November 19th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
@John
“Truly frightening” that prospect surely is, but it’s the most likely future as things are and look like going.
@Connie,
Re the biggest real threat to Israel… It’s Zionism’s appalling self-righteousness. If that was only my Gentile view it wouldn’t matter. But it was the considered judgment of Israel’s longest serving Director of Military Intelligence, Yehoshafat Harkabi. I quote him in my book.
@Mary
On the matter of Israel’s use of nuclear weapons… As I reveal in my book, there came a moment when I said the following to Prime Minister Golda Meir during an interview for the BBC’s Panorama programme. “I just want to be clear what you’re saying. In the event of Israel being defeated on the battlefield, you would be prepared to take the region and the whole world down with you.” Without a pause for reflection, she replied, “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying!” Within an hour of that programme be transmitted, The Times of London replaced its lead editorial with one quoting what Golda said to me. The editorial then added the paper’s own opinion – “We had better believe her”.
Israel is not going to be defeated on the battlefield, but I would not myself rule out the possibility of the Zionist state taking the region and possibly the world down with it if the day ever comes when the governments of the major powers insist on justice for the Palestinians. And that, probably, is why they never will insist.
@Greg,
I don’t know about all the “pieces” you mention, but I do believe Zionism still wishes to take for keeps southern Lebanon up to the River Litani. That may be the objective of Israel’s next war with Hizbollah, a war I think is not a matter of if but when. Possibly as a warning to Iran.
Mary:
November 19th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Alan, I think you’re right about the nuclear issue. Israel has already committed atrocities and egregious war crimes in Gaza, and human rights abuses take place on a daily basis in the West Bank. I see no restraint in their future, in fact they are interested in changing the rules of war to make it easier to kill civilians.
I am having an online discussion on digg.com right now with some Zionists who claim that because Israel has not taken any more land since Netanyahu became president, the US and the Palestinians should not mind Israel building more settlements. Obviously, it is beside the point that the settlements are illegal in the first place.
Israel’s utter disregard both for international law and public opinion, its arrogant belief that the US is the only ally it needs, and conversely that it is always the victim and never the perpetrator, is guaranteeing a slide to disaster. If the PA collapses, there will be a Third Intifada, and Israel will rampage over the West Bank, which I am inclined to believe is its true motivation. I don’t even think Netanyahu cares what Obama thinks anymore; he’s got the lobbyists keeping the Congress on Israel’s side anyway. He is finally answering Bill Clinton’s old question, “who the f*ck does he think he is?”
Isak:
May 29th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Folks – For those who don’t know, there is something, which Israel and other nuclear powers have, called a ‘neutron bomb’. A neutron bomb is a type of tactical nuclear weapon that releases a quick flash of radiation that will kill any life in the radiation’s path. The advantage of this weapon is that it does not destroy and physical structures and leaves very little radioactive contamination.
It is in fact a pure depopulation weapon.
I encourage everyone to look it up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_Bomb
So, when someone threatens to ‘Nuke’ someone, it could mean they are intending to use tactical nuclear weapons such as a neutron bomb which is designed to be deployed in proximity of your own forces or lands so as to minimize the affect of the weapon on your own forces or lands.
Sak