Bush, Obama and the Gaza blitz

[oberliner]

Excerpt:

Hopefully, Obama will bring with him a new Mideast policy, one made in the U.S.A., for the U.S.A. Hopefully, just as Israel has its private links to Syria through Turkey, to Hamas through Egypt and to Hezbollah, Obama will establish independent U.S. channels to all three, and adopt a separate U.S. policy toward all three, as Israel does.

While the United States must support Israel's right to defend her towns and to strike bases from which Israelis are being attacked, Obama should denounce the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, by Israel's cutting off their electricity in the dead of winter and denying them the food and medicine many need to survive.

For us to remain silent in the face of this comports neither with our interests or our values. Israel's policy of withholding from the weak and innocent of Gaza, women and children, the necessities of life, to punish the guilty who rule at the point of a gun, is a policy that Obama should declare the United States will no longer support with tax dollars.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28436363/

[babylonsister]

1. In our dreams.

The tax dollars won't dry up, but hopefully some diplomacy might improve this awful situation.

[ananda]

2. Unexpected fallout to deal with?

It looks as though the war on Gaza might
topple moderate Arab governments and that
they will be replaced with more hardline
anti-Israeli and anti-USA governments.

The repercussions are serious because that
might make room for more hardline religious
groups to take hold, and that spells serious
regression for women and children.

I really pity the people in the ME as their
countries lose hold of any sense of sanity
and moderation.

We reap what we sow, so to speak.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[Vegasaurus]

4. You're deluding yourself

Obama is not going to use his "Muslim background" to talk to Hamas.

Hamas is a bunch of terrorist thugs who are responsible for death, starvation and misery.

Obama understands the threat of Palestinian terrorism.

Negotiating a peace will mean an END to the rockets and an END to terrorism.

It is the only way to peace and Obama will hopefully be able to do something positive to move towards that goal.

[Genevieve]

7. Um, you'rev taling to a troll.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Muslim background?

Just because the freepers called Obama a secret Muslim doesn't mean that he is one.

He has Muslim ancestors on his father's side, but was not brought up as a Muslim. His mother was a Christian. His father, who in any case had little to do with him, was probably an atheist.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Well, wonders will never cease...

Near-fascist Pat Buchanan has actually said a number of things that I agree with!

I agree that Israel's response here is likely to increase the danger to its own interests. And that many of its policies toward Gaza have been both immoral and counterproductive.

I certainly agree that there is hypocrisy in which 'terrorists' our leaders support. Buchanan mentions Qadhafi; and I thought it was really ironic that Blair was getting all cozy with him, while at the same time using the terror threat as an instrument for war.

But there inevitably comes a point where wonders *do* cease. You can never get to the end of a Buchanan article without coming across his xenophobia and tendency to blame other countries for everything America does:

'For eight years, like the "dummy" in a hand of bridge, Bush has sat mute as his Israeli partner, Sharon or Olmert, played America's cards as well as their own.'


Seems to me that it's more like Bush playing Israel's cards. Bush used his allies for his own purposes.

Israel doesn't control America or the world. Olmert has rarely even been able to control Israel.

But Bush *tried* to control the world - and he was the one with the power.