No Signs of Change in Obama's Middle East Policies

[Better Believe It]

November 18, 2008

No Signs of Change in Obama's Middle East Policies
The Irresponsibility of Appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State
By BILL and KATHLEEN CHRISTISON

Bill and Kathleen Christison are ashamed to say that years ago they were both analysts with the CIA. In recent years Bill has written numerous articles on U.S. foreign policies, while Kathleen for over 30 years has written on Middle East Affairs. She is the author of two books on Palestinians and U.S. policy on Palestine-Israel. Bill and Kathleen visit Palestine frequently and are joint authors of a book, forthcoming in mid-2009 from Pluto Press, on the Israeli occupation and its impact on Palestinians, with over 50 of their photographs.

In 2005 Hillary Clinton stood in Palestine and praised the apartheid wall that the government of Israel was building with large amounts of U.S. aid in furtherance of the Zionist goal of destroying one of the world’s peoples -- the Palestinians. This is the wall that the United Nations’ World Court has declared contrary to international law. And this is just one example of Hillary Clinton’s total support for all of Israel’s policies to oppress and eventually expel whatever elements of the Palestinian population remain west of the Jordan River.

On the evening of November 14, 2008, we sent a message to Barack Obama’s transition website urging him not to name Mrs. Clinton as his secretary of state. The text of our message said:

“Appointing Hillary Clinton secretary of state would be utterly disastrous. Combined with the earlier appointment of Rahm Emanuel, it would be seen by all Palestinians, all Arabs, all Muslims, and many others around the world as the ultimate insult, eliminating any hope of a just resolution of the Palestinian situation during the presidency of Barack Obama. It would reduce any good will toward Obama that has built up among Muslims in recent months and would spell finis to hopes for an end of the global hatred that continues to grow against America and its allies. More and more, the “War on Terror” would become a never-ending part of our existence and over time would introduce further limitations of our domestic liberties and of living standards everywhere in the world.

“In desperation, we beg you PLEASE STOP THESE ABOMINATIONS NOW.

“Sincerely,

“Bill and Kathleen Christison”

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/christison11182008.html

[mzmolly]

1. I have two short things to say to Bill and Christine

PNAC and, my ass.

[Better Believe It]

2. I'm Not Sure I Understand Your Comment

Please elaborate.

[mzmolly]

5. Ok.

My ass = the premise is malarky. And, P.N.A.C. is not something that Obama subscribes to. We are no longer planning to invade Syria, Iran and remake the middle east.

Peace ;)

[Better Believe It]

7. So Does Obama Subscribe To AIPAC?

[mzmolly]

10. From what I gather.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/04/1109815.aspx

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Counterpunch is crap, ESPECIALLY when it comes to Israel.

They are nothing but the worst kind of propagandists; the kind that feign goodwill all the while spreading lies and poison. Their conclusions are based on crap opinion and should be relegated to the trashcan.

[LeftishBrit]

18. I agree, though they're pretty crap on other things too!

E.g. Cockburn is a denier of man-made global warming. He was also absolutely vile about the Bosnian Muslims. They also have some blatantly right-wing contributors such as Paul Craig Roberts. Some contributors are left-wing, but I wouldn't call them a left-wing site.

[Vegasaurus]

4. Hillary Clinton has earned worldwide respect

for her international work.

[LeftishBrit]

26. Agree; I think lots of people would be very happy to see her as Secretary of State

[Kurska]

6. Can someone explain to me?

"praised the apartheid wall that the government of Israel was building with large amounts of U.S. aid in furtherance of the Zionist goal of destroying one of the world’s peoples -- the Palestinians"

First off, it has a name, it's called the israeli west bank barrier. Second off At best a wall keeps trouble, at worst walls box people in. Israel certainly didn't build the wall to encircle the west bank ,(Even the future wall won't encompass the jordan river side of the west bank) so how in the world do people think a wall around israel is going to destroy palestine? At worst it would allow israel to annex the small parts of palestine on the israeli side of the walls (The wall itself has probably gone further in defining borders between the current nation of israel and the hopefully future nation of palestine then any peace process yet tried), however even the most vicious partisan would agree that part is tiny compared to the rest of the land.

How do you destroy a people with a defensive wall?

[Better Believe It]

9. So Why Are They Building A Berlin Wall Against Palestine?

[henank]

11. They're not. It's really quite simple

It is NOT a Berlin wall. It is not a wall at all in most places. Go and see for yourself.

There is one reason and one reason only why Israel has built the West Bank barrier and that is to keep terrorists out.

[Tarc]

12. Call it what it really is; an Apartheid Wall

It cuts across and has destroyed numerous Palestinian homes, lands, farms, towns, causing much destruction for the Palestinians on other other side. At it stands now it makes the creation of a viable, contiguous state of Palestine a virtual impossibility. THAT was the real goal of the it's creation.

[Better Believe It]

15. We Need Lots Of Walls In The War On Terror!

"There is one reason and one reason only why Israel has built the West Bank barrier and that is to keep terrorists out."

So do you think we need to build a wall around the United States to keep terrorists out?

How about Spain. Perhaps Germany. Maybe a wall around Iraq while we're at it!

[aranthus]

19. Your argument isn't fair.

Do the governments of Canada or Mexico have a national policy of destroying the United States the way that the Hamas government wants to destroy Israel? You know don't. Do Canada and Mexico pay for, train, and order terrorists to infiltrate from their countries into the US to blow up shopping malls and schools the way that the PA did to Israel before the wall? How about Spain? Are they in danger of French terrorists sneaking over the border to murder children?

Maybe you want to pretend that the Palestinians weren't doing these things (you can't have been unaware of them), but reasonable people, including the Israelis, aren't about to. Do you really think that the threat of Palestinian terrorism is the same as the threat to the US from Canada or Mexico? Let me rephrase that. Do you really expect anyone else to believe that? And while we're at it, do you really believe that the fence would have been built if there was no Palestinian terrorism?

[Kurska]

13. The berlin wall kept people in east germany and out of western europe

The Israeli west bank barrier keeps people wanting to violate the Territorial integrity of israel and harm it's citizens out of israeli, and not even just it's jewish citizens (Suicide bombings don't just kill jews, plenty of palestinians have died in them aswell.). Regardless, thats a completely different argument, the crux of their's seems to be that a defensive wall is going to somehow wipe out the palestinians, which just doesn't make sense to me and can be cleared up by simply figuring out what the bloody function of a wall actually is.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[aranthus]

22. What a despicable lying comparison

No the Nazis did not wall off the Jews to "protect" non-Jewish people, and you know it. The Jews weren't going around blowing up schools or restaurants. The Israelis aren't committing genocide. The Palestinians haven't been trying to "protect their land from Israel" so much as they've been trying to destroy Israel (Read the Hamas and PLO charters and see what they say about themselves).

What the Palestinians could do is get serious about making peace with Israel instead of going through the motions while they try to think of new ways to kill Jews.

[Kurska]

23. Israel is not walling off the west bank or the gaza strip

There is no wall separating the west bank from jordan and the gaza crossing is controlled by egypt on the southern side.

Do you actually understand what conditions were like in the warsaw ghetto? In a span of 6 years the population went from 500,000 to barely 30,000 at the time of the warsaw ghetto uprising. Jews were killed wholesale with absolutely no recourse, trains steamed into the ghetto to take hundreds thousands of jews to their deaths in nearby death camps built almost solely to service that single ghetto.

The warsaw ghetto's was a death machine designed to hold and then grind down the largest jewish population on earth at the time (Poland's) to dust and it largely succeeded, 90% of polish jews died during world war 2, 90% of 3 million. In the span of 6 years nearly a thousand years of polish jewish history was mostly gone.

How can you even compare what is going on in the west bank to the conditions of the warsaw ghetto?

I'm not really insulted, just shocked at the depths of misunderstanding of either the holocaust or the current situation.

[Vegasaurus]

24. The anti-Israelis will always pull out the Israel=Nazi comparison

Concentration camp Jews would have been thrilled to be "starving" like the people of Gaza.

Instead they were REALLY starved (to human skeletons).

The separation wall has prevented terrorism. If the Palestinians would quit their efforts to kill as many Jews as possible, the wall would come down.

There was no wall for decades, and Palestinians traveled freely, until THEY started their militancy and violence on a more heightened level (there have always been Palestinian terrorists).

Jews in concentration camps and before they were carted away from their homes were never violent, never terrorists.

To compare Jews in concentration camps to murderous militants in Gaza is a travesty of understanding and basic decency if there ever was one.

[Kurska]

25. Who cares if it's true?

It sounds critical so lets keep yelling it at israel.

[cali]

27. god, I'm sick of people who either don't know history or

deliberately twist and misuse it. It's really quite pathetic.

[azurnoir]

8. PE Obama has not even taken office yet

so it is a bit soon to make a judgment call as to what his policies will be. As for Hillary she is being considered for SoS not queen. Rahm has been referred to as PE Obama's "house Jew" on some rightwing sites, so we will simply have to wait and see.

[Kurska]

14. If you're delusional enough

You'll always find the jew whispering into the ear of the polish king. That person doesn't even have to be a jew apparently

[azurnoir]

16. it's worse than that

if memory serves it was Pam Geller

[LeftishBrit]

17. Absolutely.

I suppose one of the downsides of being elected president is that EVERYONE is lecturing you on how to do your job before you're even in office. I don't remember *quite* such an onslaught on Bush or Bill Clinton before they took office; but maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention then.

I never quite see why Hillary is seen by some as such a bogeyperson - she is more conservative than I care for, but so are virtually all American and most British politicians. I think she's intelligent, and won't take the job if she's not prepared to co-operate with Obama (as you say, she isn't being considered for Queen!); and she must be doing something right as all the RW-ers hate her so much!

I avoid RW sites when I can, as they don't do my digestion much good.

[azurnoir]

21. I don't think there was quite the onslaught in '92-'93

but then again the net wasn't quite what it is today either and I think that has something to do with it.