Juan Cole: Palestine, Bahrain and US Hyprocrisy

[pampango]

President Barack Obama appears to have thought that he could go to the UN with a liberation of Libya and a further postponement of Palestinian rights to boast of, and that these stances would make him popular in the global south. But in fact he just looked inconsistent and hypocritical and self-interested.

The United States was not at the forefront of the changes sweeping the Middle East in the past year, and its instinct as a Great Power is to support the status quo. Thus, the Obama administration had almost nothing to say about Tunisia until after the populace had forced their president out. President Barack Obama appears to have been on the fence about what to do about Egypt after January 25, but his instinct certainly wasn’t to support the revolutionaries against their own government. Only about a week before it was all over did Obama join the chorus of those saying that Hosni Mubarak had to go.

It was Saudi Arabia, France and Britain who decided that Muammar Qaddafi would have to go. Obama reluctantly went along.

Obama’s argument, which simply echoes that of the Likud government in Israel is that the Palestine Authority is sidestepping the peace process by going to the UN. But that is a ridiculous proposition. There is no peace process. Obama failed to provide one. Thus, the Palestinians are wise to make an end run around the US in the region, since American policy toward the Palestinians has been since the time of Harry Truman to sacrifice them at the altar of US domestic politics (Truman pointed out that he had Jewish constituents, but no Palestinian ones to speak of). The Israel lobbies in the US are so powerful and successful that 81 congressmen spent some of their August recess in Israel!

Obama made fine speeches about the Arab Spring, about the will of the people and the idealism and activism of the youth. He even did so with regard to countries such as Egypt, where the Mubarak dictatorship had faithfully served US purposes.

http://www.juancole.com/2011/09/palestine-bahrain-and-us-hyprocrisy.html