Israel: Obama's Foreign Policy - No Change

by Sarah Meyer Index Research

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Updated 01.11.09

Amnesty International: Israel's use of white phosphorus against Gaza civilians "clear and undeniable"

“The Obama administration took over the cyber-address of the presidency, WhiteHouse.gov, with a flourish,” wrote the New York Times (21.01.09).

There may be "CHANGE" at the White House web site, but there is NO "change" on the new U.S. President’s Foreign Policy page:

Israel

* Ensure a Strong U.S.-Israel Partnership: Barack Obama and Joe Biden strongly support the U.S.-Israel relationship, and believe that our first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East must be to the security of Israel, America's strongest ally in the region. They support this closeness, and have stated that the United States will never distance itself from Israel.

* Support Israel's Right to Self Defense: During the July 2006 Lebanon war, Barack Obama stood up strongly for Israel's right to defend itself from Hezbollah raids and rocket attacks, cosponsoring a Senate resolution against Iran and Syria's involvement in the war, and insisting that Israel should not be pressured into a ceasefire that did not deal with the threat of Hezbollah missiles. He and Joe Biden believe strongly in Israel's right to protect its citizens.

* Support Foreign Assistance to Israel: Barack Obama and Joe Biden have consistently supported foreign assistance to Israel. They defend and support the annual foreign aid package that involves both military and economic assistance to Israel and have advocated increased foreign aid budgets to ensure that these funding priorities are met. They have called for continuing U.S. cooperation with Israel in the development of missile defense systems.”

Last evening, the reporter Robert Fisk, interviewed on al jazeera following Obama’s inaugural speech, was incensed that no mention had been made of the primary US foreign policy problem: Justice for the Palestinians.

For those who wish to comment on the new whithouse.gov. entry, you can write to Comments@whitehouse.gov.

UPDATES

Did Clinton Sabotage A Palestinian Reconciliation?
05.03.09. Hasan Abu Nimah & Ali Abunimah, countercurrents. There are many in the region who were encouraged by US President Barack Obama's appointment of former Northern Ireland mediator Senator George Mitchell as Middle East envoy. But in all other respects the new president has continued the Bush administration's disastrous policies. It is not too late to change course, for persisting in these errors will guarantee only more failure and bloodshed.

Obama and Israel's Military: Still Arm-in-Arm
04.03.09. Stephen Zunes, FPIF. In the wake of Israel's massive assault on heavily populated civilian areas of the Gaza Strip earlier this year, Amnesty International called for the United States to suspend military aid to Israel on human rights grounds. Amnesty has also called for the United Nations to impose a mandatory arms embargo on both Hamas and the Israeli government. Unfortunately, it appears that President Barack Obama won't be heeding Amnesty's call. Sections on Obama Tilts Right; Obama's Defense of Israeli Attacks on Civilians; Not Good for Israel; Betraying His Constituency

THE UNITED STATES OF ISRAEL
05.03.09. Khaled Amayreh, uruknet. In her recent visit to Occupied Palestine, the former NY senator, who had proven herself a submissive pawn in the service of Zionist circles, reiterated the same old platitudes about US commitment to the "two-state" solution. ... However, she didn’t dare utter a word against the unmitigated expansion of Jewish colonies in the West Bank. ... Mrs. Clinton dutifully asserted US commitment to Israel’s security, ... which possess hundreds of nuclear warheads and has one of the world’s strongest armies ... .

U.S. Military Aid to Israel
06.03.09. Kathleen and Bill Christison, Counterpunch / ICH. U.S. military aid to Israel is doled out in annual increments of billions of dollars but remains virtually unchallenged while other fiscal outlays are drastically cut.

Obama and Israel's Military: Still Arm-in-Arm
08.03.09. Stephen Zunes, z mag / uruknet. ...Currently, Obama is on record supporting sending up to $30 billion in unconditional military aid to Israel over the next 10 years. Such a total would represent a 25% increase in the already large-scale arms shipments to Israeli forces under the Bush administration. Obama has thus far failed to realize that the problem in the Middle East is that there are too many deadly weapons in the region, not too few. Instead of simply wanting Israel to have an ad! equate deterrent against potential military threats, Obama insists the United States should guarantee that Israel maintain a qualitative military advantage. Thanks to this overwhelming advantage over its neighbors, Israeli forces were able to launch devastating wars against Israel's Palestinian and Lebanese neighbors in recent years...

"The hawkish Hillary Clinton’s naming of veteran Israel supporter Dennis Ross as her special adviser on Iran and the Gulf suggest she is more interested in building future domestic political support than securing balanced advice." Eric Margolis, Here We Go Again With the Iranian Nuclear Scare [09.03.09]

$30 Billion For Israel's Military
13.03.09. Haitham Sabbah. Same old story, new president: U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday. The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. military aid to Israel was increased in a decade-long deal agreed to by Bush in 2007.! ..

$30 Billion For Israel's Military
13.03.09.Haitham Sabbah, uruknet. Same old story, new president: U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday. The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. military aid to Israel was increased in a decade-long deal agreed to by Bush in 2007.! ..
See also:
Amnesty: US Arms Delivery to Israel Threatens "Mideast Peace"
02.04.09. almanar / ICH. The delivery of munitions in the Zionist entity from the US earlier this month has thrown President Barack Obama's commitment to maintaining peaceful relations between Israel and Palestine into question, according to Amnesty International. The humanitarian group said Thursday that the arrival of the Wehr Elbe, a German cargo ship, and her delivery of 300 containers of munitions to the Israeli port of Ashdod suggested the new administration will not act to prevent further attacks against civilians.

Please Tell Me, Where is Israel Headed?
31.03.09. John J. Mearsheimer, FP / ICH. The Israel lobby, will adamantly defend Israel's right to do whatever it wants in the Occupied Territories and make it impossible for the president to put significant pressure on Israel. Netanyahu, like all Israeli leaders, understands this basic fact of life.

Obama tells Netanyahu: U.S. committed to Israel's security
01.04.09. Haaretz. U.S. President Barack Obama called newly sworn in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to congratulate him on his new position, and to reaffirm steadfast U.S. commitment to Israel and its security.

Obama’s death squads in Jerusalem

Obama's Blackwater? Chicago Mercenary Firm Gets Millions for Private "Security" in Israel and Iraq
02.04.09. Jeremy Scahill, alternet. Federal records obtained by AlterNet reveal a multi-million dollar contract for a private U.S. paramilitary force operating out of Jerusalem. On the campaign trail, Barack Obama's advisers said he "can't rule out [and] won't rule out" using mercenary forces, like Blackwater. Now, it appears that the Obama administration has decided on its hired guns of choice: Triple Canopy, a Chicago company now based in Virginia. It may not have Blackwater's thuggish reputation, but Triple Canopy has its own bloody history in Iraq and a record of hiring mercenaries from countries with atrocious human rights records.

Obama’s ‘scientific’ prostitution

Procuring Academics for Empire: The Pentagon Minerva Research Initiative
04.04.09. James Petras, ICH. The Pentagon is seriously engaged in this military-academic empire building strategy, allocating almost 100 million dollars to contracting academic collaborators and funding multiple ‘research’ projects throughout the world against targeted states, movements and communities: The “Minerva Research Initiative” (MRI)

“As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven. Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat, not just to the United States, but to Iran’s neighbors and our allies.’” Barack Obama

US policy on Hamas 'unchanged'
22.04.09. al jazeera. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has reiterated the US position that it will not deal with or fund a Palestinian government that includes Hamas until certain conditions are met.

Illegal Israeli settlements continue unchecked today

"Secret Israeli Database Reveals Full Extent of Illegal Settlement"
by Uri Blau, Haaretz, February 1, 2009. Last January 30, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz disclosed a secret Israeli government database on settlements in the occupied West Bank, and posted the Hebrew text (pdf) of the database on their website. Last month, the ODNI Open Source Center completed an English translation of the 200-page document. Secrecy News obtained a copy of the translation (pdf) which we are publishing today...

An English translation of the settlement dataase prepared by the ODNI Open
Source Center is now available here

NB: Ilan Pappe writes extensively about the Zionist plans and developemnt for the first settlements in his superb book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine . Will someone please give this book to Obama?

Goldstone Report

Obama joins Netanyahu in Shielding Israel from War Crimes Charges
19.10.09. Jean Shaoul, WSWS / ICH. The United Nations Human Rights Council has endorsed a report into Israel’s 22-day assault on Gaza in December and January, accusing Israel of war crimes. / Israel’s premier, Binyamin Netanyahu, predictably denounced the report as biased against Israel and unjust and insisted that he would not allow any Israeli officials to face trial for war crimes. The Obama administration echoed Israel, calling the report unbalanced, and said that its adoption would damage the possibility of resuming talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The talks are a necessary fig leaf for bringing the Arab regimes on side against Iran.

Hillary's Betrayal : Facts screwed up

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009103121332825958.html
US backs Israel on 'preconditions'
01.11.09. jazeera. She said Israel has made "unprecedented" concessions on settlement building. [NB: How much was Hillary paid by AIPAC to make this statement?]

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Blind and burnt: Mahmoud, 14, young victim of banned white phosphorus shelling

Related:

Obama's Iraq: No Change

Obama: Our “Seamless” President Elect (updated)

Who Is The President Elect - Obama or AIPAC? (updated)

Will Israel Play Proxy in Iran? (23.11.09, updated)
Palestine: Wake up America (Updated 01/06/08)

WAR CRIMES in LEBANON and PALESTINE (16.08.06)

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The url to Israel: Obama's foreign policy- No Change is: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2009/01/israel-obamas-foreign-policy-no-change.html
The smaller url is: http://tinyurl.com/9qccp4

Sarah Meyer is an independent researcher living in the UK. She is a member of the BRussels Tribunal Advisory Committee.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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TAGS: Index Research, Obama, Gaza, Israel, US Foreign Policy,

Torture: Truth and Reconciliation Imperative

by Sarah Meyer Index Research

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webdesignsphere

"I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process. I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values. And I darn sure wasn't going to sacrifice those values; that I was a President that had to make tough choices and was willing to make them. I surrounded myself with good people. I carefully considered the advice of smart, capable people and made tough decisions. I'd like to be a President (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace; that focused on individuals rather than process." George Bush (The self-described "compassionate conservative": 12.11.08 interview)


Michael Isikoff wrote an article in Newsweek entitled ‘Obama To Take On Torture’: The “new Obama Justice Department is not likely to launch major new criminal probes of harsh interrogations and other alleged abuses by the Bush administration.”

Chris Hedges, in War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning,wrote (p.130):

“The effort to give a name to the victims and killers begins a collective act of repentance, a national catharsis. The process, as seen in South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is the only escape. And while justice is not always done … dignity, identity, and most important, memory are returned. This, for many families, is enough. …

Usually those who pay the price – if there is one to be paid – are the lowly gunmen who are tried and imprisoned to take the heat off their commanders. Most of those who carry out war crimes, however, are never punished. They are allowed to fade away in retirement, whispered about but never finally condemned. There are powerful institutions security services, armed forces, and ministries of the interior, that my permit some facts to be exposed but will rarely permit a society to ascribe any responsibility to the actual state organs that directed the killings. Yet despite the inevitable injustice of any investigation, the power it has to restore memory is vital for recovery from war.“

Mr. Hedges continues the theme of memory and reconciliation until the end of the chapter, p. 141:

"There probably can never be full recovery of memory, but in order to escape the miasma of war there must be some partial rehabilitation, some recognition of the denial and perversion, some new way given to speak that lays bare the myth as fantasy and the cause as bankrupt. The whole truth may finally be to hard to utter, but the process of healing only begins when we are able to at least acknowledge the tragedy and accept our share of the blame."

Our whole world deserves this Truth and Reconciliation process. Mr. Hedges’ morally powerful and moving book should be on all college reading lists as well as as a MUST READ for the US Justice Department, and the Pentagon and White House staff.

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REFERENCES:


Full copies of the Cheney indictments (21.11.08)

PRISONS AND TORTURE IN IRAQ (13.03.07)

Philippe Sands Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values Palgrave Macmillan (May 13, 2008)

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Sarah Meyer is an independent researcher living in the UK. With thanks to Musafir and Winston.

the url to Torture: Truth and Reconciliation Imperative is: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2008/11/torture-truth-and-reconciliation.html
the smaller url is: http://tinyurl.com/58349a

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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TAGS:
Index Research,
torture,
justice,
Obama,
Truth and Reconciliation,
Chris Hedges

Obama: Our “Seamless” President Elect

by Sarah Meyer Index Research

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BUSH and BO

With Bush, we had sentimental creepiness & neo-con lies; with Obama we have rhetorical hypocrisy. With many appointments now made, we can see that Obama is indeed trying to please the “48% that didn’t vote for me.” To complete his team, he might as well nominate Cheney as head of Homeland Security and Sarah Palin (with bear rugs) as Secretary of Agriculture. To placate the disgruntled anti-war movement, he could then ask “progressive” power-happy HuffPo Arianna Huffington [ “I only text three people – my two teenage children and Barack Obama.”] to be his press secretary.

Following are some comments from The Disappointed and Angry. These articles represent the 53% of the US public that voted for Obama, hope and "CHANGE."

Obama's Foreign Policy Team
23.11.07. Robert Dreyfus, The Nation. So are we surprised that now, as president-elect, Obama is selecting people whose views are coherent with Obama's frequently stated views? Are we surprised that the views of Obama's conservative and centrist advisers are, in fact, coherent with Obama's own? And are we surprised that his choices for his foreign policy and national security appointments are drawn exclusively from conservative, centrist, and pro-military circles without even a single -- yes, not one! -- chosen to represent the antiwar wing of the Democratic party? No, we are not.

Obama's Foreign Policy: The Case for Pessimism
24.11.08. Justin Raimondo, global research. The new president's appointments resound like slaps in the faces of his liberal supporters / In that alternate universe, where up is down and black is white, it makes perfect "sense" for a president to appoint people to key posts who oppose his policies. In our own world, however, such an approach would be crazy – yet it seems to be happening right before our eyes.

Gates and Bush

Obama Plans to Retain Gates at Defense Department
25.11.08. P. Baker, T. Shanker, NY Times. In deciding to ask Mr. Gates to stay, Mr. Obama put aside concerns that he would send a jarring signal after a political campaign in which he made opposition to the war his signature issue in the early days. Some Democrats who have advised his campaign quietly complained that he was undercutting his own message and risked alienating war critics who formed his initial base of support, especially after tapping his primary rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, for secretary of state.

Obama's Treasury Pick Has All the Wrong Ideas
25.11.08. William Greider, The Nation/alternet. Timothy Geithner is an architect, and now an enabler, of the unfolding crisis.

Obama appointees signal continuing aggression and war
26.11.08. WSWS. Barack Obama’s vague campaign promises of “change” are rapidly evaporating as the key positions in the next administration are filled with veterans of the US political establishment. Far from ending war abroad and social reaction at home, Obama’s choices underline the essential continuity with the policies of the Bush administration.

Hillary Clinton and Bush

Watch out for Obama's Team Selling Conservative Policies as Progressive Politics
26.11.08. David Sirota, Open Left / Alternet. Obama's early list of names for his staff doesn't bode well for all the progressive policy promises Obama made during the campaign.

Starving for Change
24.11.08. Chris Hedges, Truthdig. The swelling numbers waiting outside homeless shelters and food pantries around the country have grown by at least 30 percent since the summer. If Barack Obama continues to turn to the elites who created the mess, if he does not radically redirect the nation’s resources to assist the working class and the poor, we will become a third-world country.

Obama Chooses Wall Street Over Main Street
25.11.08. Robert Sheer, Truth Dig. Why then has he appointed the very people responsible for this disaster to now make it all better? Why not ask him? Heck, yes, it is time for the many of us who responded to his e-mails during the campaign to now challenge our e-mail buddy as to why he suddenly acts as if the interests of Wall Street and Main Street are one and the same.

You ain’t seen nothing yet
26.11.08. Mike Whitney, Peoples Voice. Obama hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and already the Wall Street cheerleaders are celebrating his first great triumph. According the pundits, the stock market staged a surprise 494 point rally last Friday because -- get this -- it was announced that Timothy Geithner would be appointed Obama’s Treasury Secretary.

Some people still hope

Obama's choice of a team of rivals says much about the president he will be
26.11.08. Jonathan Freedland, Guardian. We're still waiting for change because Obama is not yet president. George Bush is still in the White House and will remain there for nearly 60 more days. / ... Obama understands that servants need not be identical to their master, so long as they can implement his will. / ... More widely, the incoming president is betting that he can still cast himself as the new broom come to sweep out the Augean stables, even when he's surrounded by a team of Washington insiders. . So he has turned to the former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, a Capitol Hill fixture, to reform healthcare. / .. The true believers on the liberal left/ ... are enraged by the proliferation of ex-Clintonites in the incoming administration ... / But this concern probably rests on a misreading of the way Obama sees his cabinet and circle of advisers. His longtime strategist David Axelrod gave the clearest clue at the weekend, when he said: "He's not looking for people to give him a vision. He's going to put together an administration of people who can effectuate his vision." In other words, he's not hiring Daschle or Summers or Clinton for their ideological colour. He's hiring them as political professionals who will take a brief - ultimately authored by him - and get the job done. / Perhaps that is a gamble on Obama's part, to imagine he can construct a progressive administration staffed by those in the centre and even on the centre-right. / ... The traditional reading of this would be as a sign of weakness, suggesting Obama feels compelled - New Labour style - to keep right-leaning opinion on board. But it could just as easily be read as evidence of tremendous confidence: that he is sure enough in his own convictions to be surrounded by those who are far from nodding yes men. / ... The Hillary nomination is the one that gives me pause. But the other signs are encouraging. The only real criticism of Obama's presidency? That it hasn't started yet.

I do not have such hope as Mr. Freedland. The 'root' problem lies within THE SYSTEM.

IF YOU WANT TO TELL PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA HOW YOU FEEL, CLICK HERE

VIDEOS:

Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill (Miami Book Fair)

Obama Introduces his economic team

Danny Schechter's promo film for his book, PLUNDER. Sign up for Danny's superb daily 'Dissector' on the financial problems here.

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REFERENCES:

Who Is The President Elect - Obama or AIPAC? (10.11.08)

US Martial Law Timeline, November 2008

UPDATES
For Obama’s National Security Team War Experience Trumps Change
26.11.08. anti-war. When President-elect Barack Obama announces his national security team next week, the most obvious break ushered in will be from his promise for dramatic foreign policy change. For while Senator Obama ran his campaign around a mantra of change, his team will consist without exception of experienced, and hawkish, elder statesmen who seem set to drive America’s foreign policy around the same old, familiar roads that Obama ran so firmly against.

Obama Addresses Worries That There Isn't Enough 'Change' in His Cabinet Picks
26.11.08. Steve Benen, Washington Monthly, Alternet. During the Q&A, CNN's Ed Henry asked if there were enough new faces on his team to fulfill Obama's pledge to bring change to Washington. The president-elect first noted it would be even more jarring if his team didn't include officials with experience from the Clinton administration. ... / t was the first real inkling that Obama is aware of the media chatter, and he hopes to put some of this to rest, reminding his audience that he plans to "combine experience with fresh thinking." The change, according to his argument, will come from his vision, not his cabinet picks. [we shall see?]

Obama’s Budget Head Would Cut Social Security
28.11.08. Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive/ alternet. On Tuesday, Obama picked Peter Orszag to direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Orszag believes that Social Security benefits should be cut back to help balance the Social Security Trust Fund over the next 75 years. He spells out his views in a paper he wrote with Peter A. Diamond for the Brookings Institute back in 2005, called “Saving Social Security: The Diamond-Orszag Plan.” In it, they call for “a reduction in benefits, which would apply to all workers age 59 and younger.”

Radical Solutions for a Crazy Economy
28.11.08. Nouriel Roubini, Forbes / alternet. [Nouriel Roubini, a professor at the Stern Business School at New York University and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, is a weekly columnist for Forbes.com.] The fight against a deadly combination of stagnation/recession and deflation has to be unorthodox.

Obama's Bush Doctrine
28.11.08. E. J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post. In electing Barack Obama, the country traded the foreign policy of the second President Bush for the foreign policy of the first President Bush. / That is the meaning of Obama's apparent decision to keep Robert Gates on as defense secretary and also to select Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. / With strong ties to the military and a carefully cultivated image of tough-mindedness, Clinton will protect the incoming president's back from those on the right ready to pounce at any sign of what they see as weakness. / As for Gates, Obama has found the ideal figure to help him organize his planned withdrawal from Iraq, and to bless it. / Ironically, Obama is likely to show more fidelity to George H.W. Bush's approach to foreign affairs than did the former president's own son. That's change, maybe even change we can believe in, but it's not the change so many expected.

The Custodians Of Empire
28.11.08. Tom Engelhardt, New Republic / ICH. Obama's "New" National Security Team Is Not Very New. On Hillary Clinton, General James L. Jones, Robert Gates, Yochi Dreazen; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen, Centcom Commander David Petraeus, Generals Raymond Odierno and David McKiernan, the U.S. commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan -- all second term Bush picks; others.

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Sarah Meyer is an independent researcher living in the UK.

The url for Obama: “Seamless" President Elect” is: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2008/11/obama-our-seamless-president-elect.html

The shorter url is: http://tinyurl.com/5qfd9n

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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TAGS

Index Research, Politics,Obama,Hillary Clinton,
Robert Gates, Timothy Geithner