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Chomsky: What Obama Didn't Say in His Cairo Address Speaks Volumes About His Mideast Policy

By Noam Chomsky, AlterNet. Posted June 4, 2009.


The U.S. has played a decisive role in sustaining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Obama gave no indication that its role should change.
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A CNN headline, reporting Obama's plans for his June 4 address in Cairo, Egypt, reads "Obama looks to reach the soul of the Muslim world." Perhaps that captures his intent, but more significant is the content hidden in the rhetorical stance, or more accurately, omitted.

Keeping just to Israel-Palestine -- there was nothing substantive about anything else -- Obama called on Arabs and Israelis not to "point fingers" at each other or to "see this conflict only from one side or the other."

There is, however, a third side, that of the United States, which has played a decisive role in sustaining the current conflict. Obama gave no indication that its role should change or even be considered.

Those familiar with the history will rationally conclude, then, that Obama will continue in the path of unilateral U.S. rejectionism.

Obama once again praised the Arab Peace Initiative, saying only that Arabs should see it as "an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities." How should the Obama administration see it?

Obama and his advisers are surely aware that the initiative reiterates the longstanding international consensus calling for a two-state settlement on the international (pre-June 1967) border, perhaps with "minor and mutual modifications," to borrow U.S. government usage before it departed sharply from world opinion in the 1970s. That's when the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution backed by the Arab "confrontation states" (Egypt, Iran, Syria), and tacitly by the PLO, with the same essential content as the Arab Peace Initiative, except that the latter goes beyond by calling on Arab states to normalize relations with Israel in the context of this political deal.

Obama has called on the Arab states to proceed with normalization, studiously ignoring, however, the crucial political settlement that is its precondition. The initiative cannot be a "beginning" if the U.S. continues to refuse to accept its core principles, even to acknowledge them.

In the background is the Obama administration's goal, enunciated most clearly by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to forge an alliance of Israel and the "moderate" Arab states against Iran. The term "moderate" has nothing to do with the character of the state, but rather signals its willingness to conform to U.S. demands.

What is Israel to do in return for Arab steps to normalize relations? The strongest position so far enunciated by the Obama administration is that Israel should conform to Phase I of the 2003 Road Map, which states: "Israel freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)." All sides claim to accept the Road Map, overlooking the fact that Israel instantly added 14 reservations that render it inoperable.


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Chomsky on the recent invasion of Gaza
Posted by: Defenestrator on Jun 4, 2009 2:39 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
samd
Posted by: f2411 on Jun 4, 2009 3:07 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Thank-you. I was also upset by all that President Obama did NOT say, and while what he DID say was spoken with earnestness, it said very little. Basically, it was political to a fault. Peace

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In Word and Deed ...
Posted by: mmckinl on Jun 5, 2009 12:44 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obama has been the messiah and messenger of empty words and duplicitous deeds ... Indeed the "Audacity of Hope" has become the audacity of open betrayal ... first at home and now abroad ... the list of injustice grows every day ...

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Fortress Israel...
Posted by: adp3d on Jun 5, 2009 1:29 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Settlers fought their own soldiers tooth and nail when being expelled from Gaza. There will never be a reversal of West Bank settlements by Israelis, no further accommodations to Palestinians even if all settlements were halted today. Greater Palestine is lost for the foreseeable future. Netanyhu(sp?) and his pal Lieberman would just as soon expel all Arabs from all of Israel. And the U.S. has allowed it to happen right along. We owe the Palestinians a homeland, except their homeland has been occupied for the past 60 years.

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After 60 years---
Posted by: Aquinas on Jun 5, 2009 2:22 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
the time for diplomacy is over! Deliver an ultimatum to Israel! NOW!

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» RE: After 60 years--- Posted by: gathaiga
» RE: After 60 years--- Posted by: atheistcable
The best thing Obama can do is expose the truth of 9/11. But he made it clear that he won't.
Posted by: pfgetty on Jun 5, 2009 2:51 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Chomsky taught me about Israel and Palestine. He taught me about Nicaragua and East Timor. And he taught me about power, and how it "manufactures consent".
It is because of Chomsky that I could early on see the "manufacturing of consent" when our government planned and executed 9/11, in order to bring on a war and occupation and more that Americans never would have otherwise consented to.

But now the glaring inconsistencies and contradictions and impossibilities of the official story, all pointing so obviously to complicity of our government in 9/11, is ignored by Chomsky........."it doesn't matter" he says.
Well it does. Because all that it has brought, the wars and occupations and trashing of our rights and more, will continue as long as the truth is kept from us. And it is being kept from us by Chomsky, Zinn, our msm, and our alternative press like Alternet.

Obama made it clear yesterday with a statement that, as 9/11 blogger has mentioned, sounds so very similar to what Bush has said. Here is from that blog:

Obama's speech in Egypt warns not to challenge official 9/11 story
President Barack Obama

President Obama's speech in Egypt echoes Bush's speech to the UN, in its warning not to challenge the 9/11 story.

Obama's remarks:

"But let us be clear: Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with," he said.

Bush's remarks:

"We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th, malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty. To inflame ethnic hatred is to advance the cause of terror."

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» 1010 gitarspill Posted by: weathered
This is a Sanitised Version of What The Invaders Did on July 12 and 13, 1948
Posted by: tony_opmoc on Jun 5, 2009 4:03 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
On the direct orders of Ben - Gurion, countersigned by future Prime MInister Yitzak Rabin, on July 12 and 13, 1948, Israeli forces, led by Moshe Dayan, expelled the 50,000 residents of the towns of Lydda and neighboring Ramle. Which ended in the notorious Lydda/Ramle death march. This Operation Danny (Mivtza Dani in Hebrew) was to remove the threat the two towns had on the Tel Aviv / Jerusalem road. The attack was undertaken by the palmach (the irregular terrorists of the Hagana, Stern gang) initially and on the direct order of Ben-Gurion Israeli forces eventually expelled the 50,000 residents of the towns of Lydda and neighboring Ramle.

A large Jewish force was in Galilee with the intention of burning all the Arab villages in the Lake Huleh region.

Yitzak Rabin, later to become Israeli Prime Minister, wrote in his memoirs that "there was no way of avoiding the use of force and warning shots in order to make the inhabitants march the ten or fifteen miles" required to reach Arab positions. Before they left, the townspeople were "systematically stripped of all their belongings,"

Eventually the refugees from Lydda and Ramle made their way to refugee camps near Ramallah along with many others. The whole exodus was over 800,000 people with unknown dead. Count Folke Bernadotte, Swedish nobleman and United Nations mediator, attempted to offer aid. He later wrote that "I have made the acquaintance of a great many refugee camps, but never have I seen a more ghastly sight than that which met my eyes here at Ramallah."


... the immediately responsible officer was Moshe Dayan…Kimche has described how, on July 11, 1948, Dayan with his columns: “drove at full speed into Lydda, shooting up the town and creating confusion and a degree of terror among the population.“ Ramallah, on the road to which these particular Arabs — numbering over 60,000 from this one area alone — were herded, was up in the Judaean hills, outside Zionist-held territory.

The most significant elimination of these “Arab islands” took place two months after the Declaration of Independence. In one of the gravest episodes of this tragic story, as many as fifty thousand Arabs were driven out of their homes in Lydda and Ramleh on July 12-13, 1948…In Lydda, the exodus took place on foot…With the population gone, the Israeli soldiers proceeded to loot the two towns in an outbreak of mass pillaging that the officers could neither prevent nor control.

Kenneth Bilby, correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, who entered Lydda the second day it was occupied, writing in “New Star in the New East,” New York, 1950, p. 43:

Moshe Dayan led a jeep commando column into the town of Lydda with rifles, Stens, and sub-machine guns blazing. It coursed through the main streets, blasting at everything that moved...the corpses of Arab men, women, and even children were strewn about the streets in the wake of this ruthlessly brilliant charge.

No sooner were the enemy in the towns [Lydda and Ramle] than they set about an intensive house-to-house search, all men of military age being arrested and removed to concentration camps. Then Israeli vans fitted with loudspeakers drove through the streets, ordering all the remaining inhabitants to leave within half an hour...Suffice it to say that houses were broken into and women sufficiently roughly handled to give point to the warning to be clear of the town in that time.

Perhaps thirty thousand people or more, almost entirely women and children, snatched up what they could and fled from their homes across the open fields. The Israeli forces not only arrested men of military age, they also commandeered all means of transport.



This is the exodus, note the absence of men.

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What Obama did say
Posted by: solrev on Jun 5, 2009 5:41 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There will be a two-state solution and the two states will have defined borders. Obama also said that the continued throwing stones in retaliation for the last sixty years will lead no where. There is a New World order on the wind, salaam aleikum. The right hates it for who can they hate. The left hates it because they lose the moral high ground. As a gambler I am betting that Obama can make it happen. As a mystic that is why he is there. What will not go unnoticed in Islam, is Obama’s reference to the Shia Sunni split. In the time of the reconciliation Islam must be made whole. Don’t you hate us mystics who hear what was said rather than what was not, salaam aleikum?

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» RE: What Obama did say Posted by: leTerrassier
» RE: What Obama did say Posted by: bonapartist
» RE: What Obama did say Posted by: login@bugmenot.com
» RE: What Obama did say Posted by: hilaryuk
Enough.....
Posted by: Spiritgirl on Jun 5, 2009 5:52 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"It is also worth remembering that the George W. Bush administration went a bit beyond words in objecting to illegal Israeli settlement projects, namely, by withholding U.S. economic support for them."

If Dubya finally did something right, it was to withhold financial aid! Far from honest negotiations Israel has no intention of allowing 2 states to exist. They demand concessions from everyone while giving up nothing! When Hamas was voted in by the Palestinian people, Israel refused to negotiate with them and complained that the election of Hamas was not fair! The only thing that would make them happy is for all of the Palestinians to relocate to other Arab nations.

Can someone explain why they should continue to receive "financial aid" from the US when they are committing genocide against the Palestinian people? And can someone explain, why the US government will not cut off financial aid to Israel until they are willing to concede to the international borders that the rest of the world recognizes. Enough! Enough! Enough!

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» RE: In a word? Posted by: nha16
» RE: In a word? Posted by: login@bugmenot.com
» RE: In a word? Posted by: gathaiga
Dialog
Posted by: lorenzodimedici1 on Jun 5, 2009 6:17 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obama is starting to help people in Israel, Palestine and the rest of the middle east recognize that there are two elephants in the room. Nobody will come right out and say what they are.

People have been tiptoeing around the elephants for fear of the reaction.

Israel believes in a destiny that demands expansion. Their perceived divine right/mission won't be stopped by lack of funding. Their crimes won't be acknowledged without cries of anti-semitism (ironic in that part of the world, surrounded by fellow semites).

The Arab world (a widely diverse one) has many that want to let heinous crimes be committed in the name of their faith and then castigate any that dare question them or call them out.

There are some willing to have a dialog, so Obama's visit and words may tentative steps. They may not be forceful enough, but one country doesn't impose its will on others anymore in the increasingly interconnected world.

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The Great Game in the Middle East
Posted by: daw13 on Jun 5, 2009 6:57 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
is a fascinating, complex affaire, yet to be described in a single source written in great prose. However, one might begin with James LaBeviere's Dollars for Terror to gain an understanding of the degree to which both Israel and the Palestinians constitute pawns manipulated by three powerful forces: (1)The imperial West, mainly the United States today; (2)growing Arab pan-nationaiism, led by Iran; and (3) the Islamic Fundamentalist Movement, created by the CIA but quickly achieving significant independence. Israel's job, too often embraced by many there, but by no means all, has been to aid imperialism at discouraging the development of (2). In fact (3) was created for this purpose. The Israeli tail has never wagged the U.S. dog, but Israel probably has gained the ability to guarantee U.S. commitments in exchange for not blowing up half the world. Israel's ability to do this also discourages (2) and (3) from mounting any serious assault, preferring a war of attrition and the illumination of a demonstrable Western evil for recruitment purposes. Though (2) and (3) are diametrically opposed, sometimes "The enemy of my enemy" becomes my friend. Thus do we see Hezbollah and Hamas making common cause now and then.

And so forth and so on. Like I said, a complex scenariao that the public needs to have presented without hype, manipulation or ulterior motive. Who better than Chomsky, if he has the time.

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Obama is a beautiful and eloquent spokesmodel
Posted by: Bliss Doubt on Jun 5, 2009 7:07 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
for the status quo. I think he will go down in history for making the most glorious speeches that ever said nothing whatsoever. I did, however, wince a little bit when he rolled his "R" when saying "Koran".

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Chomsky is one of the few Americans who make me proud to be American
Posted by: MeyravLevine on Jun 5, 2009 7:07 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
n/t

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May Israel flourish,
Posted by: weathered on Jun 5, 2009 7:15 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
just not at the remarkably arrogant, selfish and deceitful expense of everyone else.

What should have been one of coolest zipcodes on the Planet is now held in global contempt.

Nice job Israel and just think you've no one to blame but yourselves, but manipulating blame on to others is your art.

Goodwill, integrity, honor and a certain humility was Rabin and his was taken out of the equation. Now look what you've got? A nuclear power plant of toxic karma.

- and while that really is Israel's pathology its infected us now too and for all the American Jews who are struck mute, you're codependent, confront this and heal yourselves, this is not going away.

Humility eludes us, denial becomes us and trouble follows us.

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BUSH LITE
Posted by: Dennis St. John on Jun 5, 2009 7:24 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Does chocolate-coated crap really taste better?

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The Speech did do one thing
Posted by: EncinoM on Jun 5, 2009 7:55 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It gave moderate voices in the Middle East a starting point.

To often the only voices we have heard from were fantics and dictators.

With Obama's speech there is a chance for more moderate voices and cooler heads to rise above the din.

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» RE: moderate voices in the middle east, Posted by: login@bugmenot.com
Obama is business as usual
Posted by: bonapartist on Jun 5, 2009 9:00 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
But with a shinier and happier face. Unfortuantely he is all form with very little content.

Thank you for the article Mr. Chomsky.

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Is this the SAME Norm Chomsky. . . ?
Posted by: Nuuon on Jun 5, 2009 9:53 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes. The very same one: The same Norm Chomsky who tells us that it really "doesn't matter" who killed John F. Kennedy, and it really "doesn't matter" who (other than the Arab patsies) was involved in 9/11.

Sorry, but Chomsky simply lacks credibility.

We needn't give the time of day to "intellectuals" who punk-up when they are needed the most. A thousand lefty speeches by Chomsky could never make up for his being missing in action on these strategically important issues.

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» Chomsky's a gift. . . Posted by: weathered
» Weathered please Posted by: EncinoM
» RE: Weathered please Posted by: weathered
Just think
Posted by: willymack on Jun 5, 2009 10:29 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Of what it would be l;ike if we weren't importing oil from Saudi Arabia and trying to steal the oil from Iraq. Just think of what it would be like if we weren't using oil at all. That day will come, sooner or later, so why the hell can't we make it sooner, and on our own terms? Why wait for yet another crisis to occur, then take desperate measures to repair the damages? Think of what it would be like if we could tell Israel "You're on your own, booby. We're finished being suckers and giving you billions just to have you make things worse". Think of what it would be like if we told the Arabs "Take your oil and shove it up your arse". Just think of what it would be like if we left the region entirely and began minding our OWN business for a change. Just think.

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courageous speech
Posted by: mrmystery on Jun 5, 2009 10:31 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think the speech he gave in cairo was amazing and it took a lot of courage for him to say. He's attempting to open up a dialogue that I support. He also made it clear that he definitely has an educated understanding of islam and the islamic culture. Here are some excerpts that made me proud of him and astonished to hear a sitting US president say:

"Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli Settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace "

" It is also undeniable that the palestinian people, muslims and christians, have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations, large and small, that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt; the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own:

" In the middle of the Cold War, the US played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian Government. "

" That is why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons"

"Any nation, including Iran should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power..."

" Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It's a story with a simple truth; that violence is a dead end..."


just to quote a few... I think this speech was a good start and pretty damn significant. Now let's see if Barack backs his words with actions.

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» Turn off NPR, your deluded Posted by: weathered
Denials of Holocausts come from too many sides
Posted by: joboost on Jun 5, 2009 11:11 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In this, we seem to agree entirely: There are good Jews, even good Israelis - but no good Zionists. That is also a "chasm" of gigantic proportions. I don't know if you have come across the reports (actually on Israeli TV) on the x-ray poisoning of Sephardic kids and youths, just a year after Israel's foundation, a very selective way of ... of what? "Eugenics"? And that from "victims of Hitlerism"?

A lot has to be cleared in Israel - in historiography as in simple decency. There are good trends and groupings - but they are still daring whistleblowers, "enemies of the Zionist state" - a small but courageous minority. Think of the air force pilots who refused to fly - but on the other side are the artillerists who took that pot-shot at the family on Gaza Beach (and started two wars, one in Gaza, one in Lebanon).

There are two Israels? There are twelve tribes - and 144 parties: Ashkenasim, Sephardim, Slavic, Ethiopian, rich Americo-Zionist jingoists - and a few real holocaust victims - who never received much of the great compensation billions, but live in poverty.
Israel could have been a beacon of hope - but Zionism has prevented that and turned it into a festering boil of shame.

Truth is often not comfortable: Holocausts are sometimes denied (by some anti-zionists) - sometimes celebrated (in the Thora: "no man, woman, nor child did we let live").

The latter refers to Israel's first arrival in that region. But only the level or percentage of the slaughter changed slightly in 1948: ethnic cleansing and partial genocide (many early Srebrenicas).

Now - I agree: Holocaust should neither be celebrated nor denied. "Hear me, Israel!" (said Isaia - why shouldn't I?)

If we admit our mistakes, show regret, make good - we will have peace. But without that: only arrogant Apartheid.

Obama still has lots to learn. There is always
a lot of problems when the tail wags the dog.
Question now: Who or what wags Obama?
(I'd prefer it to be Michelle - but I didn't write that)
J. Boost

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Nice debut
Posted by: willymack on Jun 5, 2009 11:21 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I didn't expect miracles from Obama's first foray into the muslim world. He was typically low-keyed and subdued, while, at the same time, conciliatory. We have much to make up for and can't do this overnight. This fits right in with his gradualist approach, which calls for patience, something in short supply here at home. I think the positive slant that Al Jazeera gave Obama's speech, along with their criticism of the predictable rethug rants bodes well for the future.

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Chomsky's Habits of Thought
Posted by: BobBrrz on Jun 5, 2009 11:44 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Chomsky, let's face it, is a genius. He's the Einstein of our time. And like other geniuses, he's right almost all the time.
So his first take on a subject tends never to change. Remember Einstein's denial of quantum mechanics, and remember Chomsky's denial of the evolutionary origins of human speech? Chomsky never stops trusting his first instinct. He can't help denying the importance of Who Killed Kennedy or Who Did 9/11 because he's already said "It's not important." He's stuck with his attitude.
Don't fault him for that; he's still the most honest and most eloquent voice we'll ever see on the important topics of our day.

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Retired Teacher
Posted by: Peoria Teacher on Jun 5, 2009 1:39 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Reading Chomsky's article (even though I have the utmost respect for him) and most of the comments here, I am almost ashamed to call myself a liberal. There are many things that Obama has or has not done that I take issue with but this speech was not one of them! This president went so much further than any of our other leaders have gone and the speech was magnificent. Words do matter and his words set a completely new tone for our relationship with the rest of the world. Change will not happen as soon as most of you would like nor will it go as far as you want, but it will happen and that should be celebrated not denigrated - leave that to the far right.

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» Israel's tactics 101 Posted by: weathered
Obama should endorse Arab League peace plan
Posted by: Garvagh on Jun 5, 2009 4:35 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Great piece. The map presented by the Palestinian negotiators at Taba. Egypt in January 2001 should be the basis for the boundaries of an independent Palestine. Obama needs to endorse the Arab League peace plan and tell Israel it must end the occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights. There are 500,000 illegal Jewish settlers in the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

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Obama is a tool for the rich
Posted by: chlamor on Jun 5, 2009 7:23 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Here's an e-mail I received from the author below:

What part of Obama's speech in Cairo should give us hope for a new
relationship with the Islamic world? Rhetoric is just rhetoric when
actions contradict. Obama has become the new salesman for the American
royalty of rich power brokers and entitled elitists.

The significance of Obama's journey to the Middle East to give a
polished speech he began writing before his election is window dressing
and disingenuous. His destinations of Saudi Arabia and Egypt are the
cues to his lack of sincerity toward the Muslim world. He chose the two
most repressive regimes of the region to curry favor with the long
misunderstood and vilified people of Islamic faith. He spoke eloquently
about peace in Palestine and even dared to challenge Israel but his
failure to speak of the repression of Egypt's Mubarak and the Saudi
royal family makes his words hollow and hypocritical.

Progressives and liberals may want us to give Obama time but families
sending their sons and daughters off to the quagmires of Iraq and
Afghanistan war wonder when enough is enough after multiple deployments
of their loved ones. Yes, there is still two wars being waged in the
name of this nation and billions each month is being spent to fund them.
Billions that could be spent to "bail-out" the millions who have lost
jobs due to the handling of the phony economic crisis.

What goodwill is being gained by this nation when we continue to wage
illegal and immoral wars in nations of large Islamic populations? And
how do we stem the hatred toward Americans when we send drones into
Pakistan and make multiple mistakes in bombing the homes of innocent
civilians instead of the alleged enemy?

As expected the new deal of Obama has turned out to be the same old deal
of oligarchy, imperialism and nationalistic insanity. As expected Obama
has sold out to the self appointed "royalty" of America. The richest
families and multi-national corporations continue to wield the greatest
influence and power in this alleged democracy. Locally and nationally
special interests buy the elected political prostitutes while the poor
and diminishing middle class go begging for table scraps of the great
American dream.

While Obama speaks with a charisma not heard since JFK, like JFK he is
merely a tool of a corrupted system never meant to be about "we, the
people".

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Denver VVAW member

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israel is terrorist state
Posted by: jejer on Jun 5, 2009 7:34 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
not a whole lot we can do. Israelis are terrorists, and what most dont understand is american jews pledge allegiance to israel over american which im pretty sure is quite illegal.
Because of the holocaust to publicly denounce israel and they're terrorist acts is racist and antisemetic. well the old testament is filled with stories of the jews commiting mass genocide and insurections. Its about time the zionists were treated like the terrorists they are....In America and Abroad!

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How to negotiate with Israel
Posted by: barefeet on Jun 5, 2009 8:48 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
First one has to recognize that Israel has the only superpower on earth by the short hairs.

Only then can one see why the situation is so utterly intractable that no words can bring it to a conclusion that recognizes any outcome that considers other than what Israel wants.

A normal negotiation requires one party to ask more than it will accept to begin negotiations.
If Palestinians do this Israel will walk out in a huff as they have already countless times.

If the Palestinians ask only what is reasonable the Israelis will negotiate endlessly to reduce the terms for the Palestinians.

What is needed is for the USA to *dictate* to Israel that the relationship outlined in the first paragraph above is OVER. ALL further money gifts and material gifts and implied support of Israel actions is OVER. Any strike against any neighbor will be met by a USA strike against Israel. Further, Israel's weapons of mass destruction are to be bargained for Iran's capability in that regard.

Without Israel's "four aces" (in paragraph one-above) they will quickly plead with their vastly numerically superior neighbors for peace and the world will move forward from the Insanity that they have inflicted upon us.

Of course Chomsky, being a Jew, would never-never suggest this clear cut and rational solution so on we go until we are drawn into a nuclear conflict where WE and the beloved neighbors of the Jews lose and Israel takes the whole region and its natural resources which they clearly covet.

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» RE: How to negotiate with Israel Posted by: login@bugmenot.com
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Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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On sustaining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Posted by: RedAaron on Jun 6, 2009 4:54 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The problem is not that the U.S. has played a decisive role in sustaining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because the problem is not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict! The problem is the ongoing Zionist oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians, and Israel's massive murderous violence against anybody anywhere who threatens the continuation of that dispossession.

In fact, what is sustaining the conflict is the refusal of the Palestinian people to give up their resistance to that oppression and dispossession. Ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without ending the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians would only free the Zionists to be even more aggressive throughout the region and beyond in pursuit of their imperial ambitions. Let's hope - and work to ensure! - that it never happens! Rather, let's do our best to help destroy the Apartheid Zionist state so that the Palestinians can live in peace in their homeland, along with whichever descendants of the colonists can accept living in genuine equality with them.

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There are words and there is policy, rarely do they shake hands
Posted by: cmagda on Jun 7, 2009 6:45 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Lofty words, however, they are only words just the same. Obama made it clear from the beginning his support for Israel as soon as he took office. I suggest a book that makes clear the clout Israel has made for itself here in America: The New Jerusalem - Zionist Power in America, by Michael Collins Piper (American Free Press). A great read you will not find elsewhere that puts what Obama said into context.

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If Obama had Prosecuted Americans Who Tortured Muslims, he would have more Muslim support
Posted by: JohnHKennedy Denver CO on Jun 9, 2009 6:04 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obama did wow a lot of Muslims. But if he prosecuted those in the Bush Administration who ordered or conspired to Torture Muslims, he would enjoy a lot more support from them.

That would be Real Change.


SIGN THE PETITION To Prosecute Our Torturers

ANGRYVOTERS.ORG

Over 250,000 have signed
Join them and call yourself a Patriot

.

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Never Trust a Bilderberger
Posted by: editnetwork on Jun 10, 2009 4:14 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Again. Destabilization is the name of their game, and Mr. Chomsky knows it inside out. I'm grateful for his analysis on many tough issues and in deconstructing "official" history of all kinds. However, he's been outed as a behind-the-scenes operator, which makes me doubt his true purpose with a piece like this one.

Read Daniel Estulin's The True Story of the Bilderberg Group. It will change how you see the world and how you hear what "important people" say.

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