When Will The Blood of Palestinians
         Shift to President Obama's Hands?

 

Written January 21, 2008

When Obama was elected, Israel “broke” the official ceasefire on November 4, 2008. Of course, I am using the word “broke” loosely as they violated it many times throughout the official ceasefire. It was conveniently timed like it has been with the current ceasefire that Israel once again observed just before the inauguration of President Barack Obama. To put it in layman terms, while they are confident about Obama’s unflinching support for Israel, it is not to the level of George W. Bush who was fanatical in his support. At least it seems that way for now.

Since the atrocities in Gaza began, the only words that have come repeatedly out of his mouth are:

"If missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that.”

It is important to state that Obama was referring to Israeli children and not Palestinians. Even if the record shows that Israel has been the constant aggressor (as it does in an uncontroversial manner), we all know that if Palestinians do everything they can to stop Israeli missiles it would be constituted as terrorism. The double standard and the hypocrisy are so brazened that it does not require any further analysis.

When the terrorist attacks in Mumbai occurred, Obama wasted no time in putting out a statement in support of those affected and he immediately recognized the civilian casualties. It was expendable and there was nothing controversial about it. He did not run the risk of alienating his corporate funders. When it comes to atrocities committed against Palestinians and their struggle under Israeli brutality (which Obama did recognize somewhat very early in his campaign for Democratic Party leadership), it is absolute silence.

In light of all the flowery rhetoric regarding Martin Luther King Jr., is this the type of silence that he would condone or are we all ready to accept the fact that Obama is just like any other politician?

When the United States was massacring the people of Latin America and Vietnam through regimes they diplomatically, financially and militarily supported, did King sit in silence as he celebrated the civil rights acts? No, he saw the acts as completely useless and empty without economic rights denied by the most brutal military forces on earth – mainly, the United States and its puppet governments.  He became the loudest and most critical voice of the U.S. military complex that was shelling out weapons to its allies to be used against defenseless people who were also deemed to be “terrorists” by the United States. They dared to defend themselves against the U.S. and its brutal proxy rulers so the label was deemed appropriate. The torture chambers and the massacres in these places are legendary in the halls of state terrorism.

King was extremely concerned about foreign policy that brutalized the other “colored” people of the colonized world. One thing is for sure, he was no politician.

Today, it is the Palestinians, the colored and “black” people of the Middle East, turn to adopt the “terrorist” label as the Latin American and Vietnamese people did not long ago. The casualties in these places were genocidal and the Palestinians seem to be catching up just fine. With the recent conflict alone, it is plausible that they would break all the records set by competing massacres conveniently tucked away under the tongues of official and unofficial propagandists alike: from the Starbucks coffee sipping undegrad students, campus professors trying to ban Palestinian activism, the book writers, Times columnists and to those too stupid and lazy to understand so they settle for weed-head hippy like rhetoric about "Hope, Peace, Change, Coexistence" without referring to anything specific. Somehow we are supposed to understand what they mean by these things. With the collective might of all these factors, Palestinians will surely become extinct like the Polar Bears by 2013. Let us not beat around the bushes, with the lack of care shown by these people, extinction of these Arabs is the aim, intentional or otherwise.

As people celebrate with unflinching fervor the inauguration of Obama (rightly so, it is a historic moment to have a black president but it ends there), the Palestine Centre for Human Rights estimates that 1,184 have died -- including 844 civilians, 281 of them children -- since Israel began its attacks. When the ceasefire went into effect on January 18, 2009, 54 Palestinians were killed including 43 unarmed civilians (17 children) alone as the IDF continued to bomb civilian homes and UN schools.  Today, more and more civilian corpses are being discovered under the rubbles and the death toll continues to rise. The incalculable damage to civilian infrastructures, already weakened by the brutal embargo (food and vital medical supplies, you name it, utilized after Hamas won the election), in Gaza is too depressing to even think about. Like the Vietnamese people continuing to reap the rewards of destroyed infrastructures and the chemical weapons that were dropped on them, the casualties will continue long after people stop counting. The facts are so readily available and are so one sided that only the most immoral and voluntarily blind Israeli supporter would even dare to defend it. Behind the spectacle this is what the inauguration of President Obama looks like, scenes of massacres and bombed out hospitals. If you are a real supporter, you should be furious.

And so it begins. He is the official President of the United States. Finally, people will stop hounding me for stating that most likely Obama will follow through his stated policy intentions: in light of recent events and previous statements made prominently throughout his campaign, the unflinching support for Israel. Giving room for the possibility that he may take a different direction (slim, but just to be fair), he might still change his position.

I would not put it past his most fanatical supporters to claim that everything that occurred in the Gaza Strip recently is not connected to Obama. They will most likely claim that despite remaining silent regarding the massacres, he had nothing to do with the green light the Bush Administration gave the Israeli government to bury the Palestinian people. That he had nothing to do with the weapon supplies that were used to kill Palestinians which such precise brutality. All these claims are correct. He had nothing to do with any of these.

Thus, the question now turns to: When will Obama become responsible for Israel’s brutal war crimes against the Palestinian people?

The weapons that were used by Israel were all supplied by the United States. That is no secret. The helicopters, gunships, bullets and every piece of military technology you can think of. Not to mention the unflinching diplomatic support for Israel for over 30 years now and counting: from the rejection of U.N. Resolution 242 (the international consensus – literally the United States/Israel versus the whole world) to siding with Israel every single time a condemnation is thrown at them by every mainstream human rights organization and the highest legal bodies/courts in the world.

If Obama does not halt the shipment of weapons used to exterminate Palestinians (more are getting shipped out as this is being read) and begin siding with the rest of the world in how to solve the Palestine-Israel conflict, it will be the blood of Palestinians on his hands. This is the same standard that we use for every other politician or any other president that had come into power. Since we have already established that he is no Martin Luther King Jr. and that he is just like any other politician, these standards should apply to him. In fact, one does not even need to be a politician for this to apply. If someone has a dog with rabies that was known to bite people but that person did nothing about it, then he/she gives the dog away and the current owner also does nothing about it, where does the responsibility shift to? It is obvious where so let us not get distracted by our emotions and opt-out for voluntary stupidity.

People can choose to be blind but serious people know that this is not the last time Israel will kill Palestinians and Lebanese people by the thousands. It is not the last time that it will seek out the destruction of a country by punishing its people. As the shipments of weapons continue to flow out of the United States and diplomatic support is continually thrown on the side of Israel, President Obama’s silence inspires anything but “Hope”.

When U.S. support is this vital, silence in this regard is not neutral it is a green light to commit atrocities.

In the spirit of resistance,

Critical Mood