Obama: is he different?
In the primaries “Change” is the jingle that Obama has stamped in the American mind. His winning the Democratic presidential nomination against the impressive Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady, confirms an aspiration to see life differently among many of his countrymen. When the Republicans are beset by countless messy affairsboth internal and international, of the Bush administration, what could be better for a Democratic presidential hopeful than gaining precious electoral currency by pressing for a change? Mr. Obama is wise enough not to miss it and so finds himself in the position to become the 44th American president.
Nevertheless, his projecting himself as a man of change has proved to be insincere too soonat least in one aspect now. Despite his previous records of being strongly sympathetic to the Palestinians, he has publicly revealed an unswerving commitment to Israel, which has gainsaid his motto for change. One such deviation is too early, but it may not be too early to predict that he would inherit nothing but a set of Bush ideologies.
Please, don't misunderstand me. Unlike many Arab hardliners, especially in Hamas and Hezbollah, I never wish Israel to be obliterated. On the contrary, like Mr. Obama, I believe that “Israel's security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable.” But I also believe that this security should not be made to prevail by depriving the rights of another people and slaughtering the identity of another country. Yet, when Mr. Obama avows that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,” he has rather endorsed the plea of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPACthe body he was talking to in Washington recently, that any idea to share Jerusalem is inadmissible.
And this is enough to make him seem poised to kowtow to the pro-Israel lobby in a way that may rule out any lingering chance of an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. Jerusalem or a part of it is the right to the Palestinians, and this admission is the very premise to any sound resolution between these two countries in conflict. Yet, by announcing otherwise, Barack Obama has done the best for the conflict to escalate, rather than resolve.
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has immediately rebutted him, declaring that “This statement is totally rejected.”
This is how Mr. Obama has opened his basket of foreign policies. Is it a change, then? By his marvellous oratories, he may convince even a wary audience in the affirmative. But if we compare his inexcusable compassion for Israel with how Mr. Bush has treated this country, certainly, the result will be no difference.
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