Obama, Palestine and the United Nations – September 24, 2013

Today, President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations. Much of his talk concerned the current situation in Syria, but he also touched on the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Yet even Mr. Obama’s pretty words and soaring oratory were unable to camouflage his extreme pro-Israel bias, as he spouted nonsense that he and his predecessors have all said before. A look at just a few of his statements is informative.

• “I’ve made it clear that the United States will never compromise our commitment to Israel’s security, nor our support for its existence as a Jewish state.”

This apparently means that, unlike Syria, which isn’t allowed by the U.S. to use chemical weapons, the U.S.’s commitment to Israel is unconditional: Israel can commit the most shocking and brutal human rights violations, and the U.S. will still continue to give it billions of dollars every year.

Additionally, is there an internationally-recognized Italian state? Or a globally recognized Lutheran state? No, there isn’t. Anyone with the proper visas, etc. can emmigrate from his/her home country to nearly any country in the world, and be accorded the same rights as any other citizen of that country. This is not the case in the ‘Jewish’ state of Israel, where everyone other than Jews is a second class citizen.

• “But, the children of Israel have the right to live in a world where the nations assembled in this body fully recognize their country, and where we unequivocally reject those who fire rockets at their homes or incite others to hate them.“

Israel is recognized by over 150 nations in the world; Palestine by over 130. So recognition doesn’t seem to be much of an issue for Israel, but somehow, the U.S. hasn’t seen fit to recognize Palestine.

The U.S. rejects those who fire rockets at the homes of Israelis, yet Mr. Obama said nothing about the shooting by Israeli terrorists, commonly known as Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, of fishermen, farmers and other Palestinians who are only trying to earn a living under brutal occupation, nor did he discuss the assault on international human rights workers by the same terrorist group.

Israeli children who, at eighteen must join the military, are routinely encouraged to look forward to that day, so they can kill ‘Arabs’.  Yet Mr. Obama seems to overlook this inciting of hatred. He only sees any acts against Israel as wrong; Israel’s actions against Palestine are all acceptable, it seems.

• “Likewise, the United States remains committed to the belief that the Palestinian people have a right to live with security and dignity in their own sovereign state.”

If Mr. Obama was sincere in this statement, why does the U.S. continually veto United Nations resolutions critical of Israel’s abhorrent treatment of the Palestinians? Why does the U.S. send billions and billions of dollars to Israel every year, and only some paltry aid to Palestine? Why does Israel’s periodic, murderous bombing of the Gaza Strip receive no condemnation from the U.S., but rather whole-hearted support and encouragement from the U.S.’s so-called elected representatives (‘bought and paid for by the American Israel Political Affairs Committee’ would be a better description of those elected officials)?

• “So the time is now ripe for the entire international community to get behind the pursuit of peace.”

The best thing the U.S. could do to foster peace between Palestine and Israel is to get out of the process. So-called negotiations, between the spineless, corrupt Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the cruel Zionist, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have begun. It is a constant puzzle to this writer how Mr. Obama and other so-called ‘leaders’ in the U.S. can talk about ‘negotiations’ between Israel and Palestine. Negotiations can only take place between to equal or nearly equal parties. Each must have something the other wants that can only be obtained by surrendering something it has, that is desired by the other side. The U.S. has given Israel free reign to take whatever it wants from the Palestinians. Israel steals Palestinian lands (that is, of course, how Israel was formed: through the stolen lands and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians), forcibly relocates Palestinians in numbers exceeding 1,000,000 since 1947, bulldozes their home and entire villages to make way for Israeli-only roads and settlements, kidnaps their children and holds them without access to legal assistance or their parents, shoots and kills farmers working in their fields, establishes countless roadblocks with the intention of disrupting and demoralizing the Palestinians, who are unable to get from home to school, work or shops, as a result. All this is in violation of international law.

        So this is the situation that the U.S. not only supports, but actively encourages and finances. The quotations above are the pleasant-sounding words uttered by Mr. Obama, ostensibly expressing his firm resolve to achieve a two-state solution, for the benefit of Israel, Palestine and the entire Middle East. Yet speeches to the United Nation are meaningless, when the U.S. continues to finance the apartheid regime of Israel, and uses its veto power to aid and abet Israel in its many horrendous crimes against humanity.

Mr. Obama is well-known for his oratorical skills; it’s a tragedy that there is no substance behind his pretty words.