| PALESTINIAN SITUATION SEEN FIRST-HAND 
By Tammy Watts Obeidallah I will be the first to admit I have a bad case of tunnel vision when it
comes to the Palestinian conflict. This in itself makes it nearly impossible to
choose a worthy candidate in a nation where allegiance to Israel is a
prerequisite to becoming electorally viable.
I will also admit the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is probably the furthest
thing from the minds of most Americans, who have more immediate worries such as
mortgage payments, inadequate or non-existent medical coverage and/or loved
ones deployed to some illogical war zone.
However, the Israeli occupation of Palestine
is in so many ways a summary of the disasters plaguing the United States
today. The staggering cost of aiding and abetting the Israeli government, to
the tune of $30 billion over the next ten years, is both an economic drain and
a major component of our failed foreign policy.
American taxpayers are not only forced to funnel hard-earned dollars to
military and economic aid for Israel, but are also providing substantial
assistance to the Fatah party, as reported last year by Christian Science
Monitor.
According to CSM, “Senior US officials in Washington promised ongoing
military support for secular Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas amid his power
struggle with Islamist Hamas as part of an $84 million aid package largely
aimed at improving the fighting ability of an elite corps of loyalists from his
Fatah Party.”
Such action is used to exacerbate and prolong civil strife, whereby the lack
of security in the Palestinian territories can be utilized as a perfect excuse
not to establish a Palestinian state. With no official state and no defined
borders, Israel is free to
grab more land at will, whittling away at the last 20% of historical Palestine .
Additionally, the same Israeli lobby that demands Congress’s unflinching
support of the Jewish state helped sell us the now over $650 billion Iraq War,
a figure which pales in comparison to the human cost. Those who deny Israeli
influence in the fiasco must remember former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s
statement after the fall of Baghdad : “That’s
one enemy of Israel
gone.”
Next on their hit list is Iran
. According to U.S. News and World Report, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is coming
to New York
next week to attend a “pro-Israel, anti-Iran rally.”
At one point, I was actually leaning McCain-Palin’s way; or rather leaning
away from Senator Barack Obama and his expressed solidarity for the “brave
citizens of Sderot.” His spineless denial of former friends who were
pro-Palestinian activists in Chicago
didn’t exactly raise his stock with me, either.
However, there is one thing Obama does have going for him: he is not of the
Zionist “Christian” ilk that brought us eight years of George W. Bush. Lest we
forget, McCain and Palin belong to the special evangelical breed that believes
all Jews have to congregate in “Greater Israel” before Jesus Christ can return
to earth. These views have been downplayed by the McCain-Palin ticket, as
pointed out by conservative political activist George Ajjan on his website,
www.ajjan.com.
In his analysis of Palin’s Republican National Convention Ajjan states:
“If Sarah Palin is the evangelical Christian’s dream candidate, you’d never
guess it from this speech - she used the word God twice, exactly as many time
as Barack Obama did in his keynote remarks last week.”
Alaska ’s
governor may be more savvy than was our illustrious President about airing her
beliefs. However, on August 17, 2008 at the Wasilla Bible
Church attended by Palin
and her family, the congregation was singing in Hebrew and blaming Palestinian
reprisals against Israelis as “judgment from God” rather than the
American-backed occupation.
All of which brings us back to our choice—or lack thereof—in the 2008
election: a candidate who supports Israel on the basis of warped religious
beliefs versus a candidate who supports Israel on the basis of grabbing the
Jewish community’s votes and money. Either way, the American people lose.
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(Issue
# 41,
October 13, 2008) |
