Mochten er nog mensen gehoopt hebben dat Obama verschil zou maken in de Palestina/Israël kwestie, dan zijn die nu hun illusies kwijt. Obama kiest voor de bezetter Israël, en laat de Palestijnen stikken. In de Arabische wereld is hij zijn imago van een president die probeert om eerlijk te blijven, te bemiddelen, mee te helpen om een rechtvaardige oplossing te vinden nu definitief kwijt.
Een ding heeft Abbas in ieder geval aan de orde gesteld: hoezeer hij ook bereid is gebleken om Israël tegemoet te komen, en in de ogen van de Palestijnen veel te ver, het heeft niets opgeleverd. En nu valt ook het Amerikaanse masker af: ook Obama zal geen centimeter afwijken van het beleid van zijn voorgangers, als het erop aankomt kiezen de VS de zijde van Israël, zelfs van deze uitermate rechts nationalistische en oorlogszuchtige regering, zelfs als je op je vingers kunt narekenen dat het niet in het belang is van Amerika om de verhoudingen met de Arabische wereld, waar nu zoveel verandering gaande is, zo op het spel te zetten.
Obama hield zijn speech voor de VN. Dit was wat hij onder andere zei:
Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile, persecution, and the fresh memory of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they were.
And so we believe that any lasting peace must acknowledge the very real security concerns that Israel faces every single day…The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland. Israel deserves recognition.
Israël verdient erkenning? Wat krijgen we nu? Is dat de kwestie waar het om gaat? Is het Amerika dat op de stoep staat voor erkenning door de VN?
Lisa Goldman zegt op de +972 site:
In other words, the president mouthed 1970s-era slogans that have little to do with contemporary reality. Israel is the strongest military power in the Middle East. It has a standing offer from the Arab League: Full diplomatic recognition in exchange for a withdrawal from the territories occupied in the 1967 war. The idea that the Arab states want to wipe Israel off the map is “nonsense,” said senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath at a press conference that followed the president’s speech. But that is what Obama knew he had to say if he wanted to be re-elected in 2012.
Wat genant. Wat een afgang.
De mensen in de Palestijnse delegatie zijn ondanks het feit dat ze al geen hoge verwachtingen hadden verbijsterd. Geen woord meer over de nederzettingen, geen woord over het feit dat de Palestijnen toch echt meer reden hebben om de Israëlische agressie te vrezen en zich ertegen te verdedigen, dan Israël. Het lijkt wel alsof Obama denkt dat het de Palestijnen zijn die Israël bezetten, zegt Hanaan Ashrawi. Hier.
I did not believe what I heard, it sounded as if the Palestinians were occupying Israel. There was no empathy for the Palestinians, he only spoke of the Israeli problems.
He told us that it isn’t easy to achieve peace, thanks, we know this. He spoke about universal rights – Good, those same rights apply to Palestinians.
[The Americans] are applying enormous pressure on everybody at the UN, they are using threats and coercion. I wish they would invest the same energy in an attempt to promote peace, not threats.
Ahmed Tibi, Palestijns lid van het Israëlische parlement:
It is possible to think after hearing the President’s speech today, that the Israelis were demanding a state from their Palestinian occupiers. Avoiding [mentioning] the ’67 borders was biting and clear. His message is continued suffering for the Palestinians, accompanied by long and perpetual negotiations with Netanyahu.
Hier een felle en onderbouwde reactie van professor Mazen Qumsiyeh op de speech van Obama, die hij volstrekt hypocriet noemt:
Who will address the fact that the Palestinian people were subjected to the largest armed robbery in the last 100 years accompanied by massacres and ethnic cleansing? Who will mention that the value of hard assets alone stolen by the Zionist project exceed $30 trillion? Who will speak of the over 60,000 Palestinian civilians massacred or the hundreds of thousands who were injured or jailed? Who will explain to those gathered in New York that International law recognizes the right of such native people to resist including by armed means? Who will explain to world leaders that 99.99% of the people resisted by methods of popular unarmed resistance?
Artikel van Qumsiyeh op zijn website: hier.
En Youssef Munayyer:
Despite vast international consensus on Palestinian self-determination, American ambassadors have furiously tried to persuade their counterparts to oppose Palestinian statehood and undoubtedly have expended American political and diplomatic capital in the process.
Congress has threatened to not only cut off assistance to Palestinians but also to defund programs at the U.N. that could promote Palestinian aspirations.
In short, the U.S. has consistently acted against its own interests to serve the interest of a right-wing Israeli government. The Palestinians’ aspirations have exposed this rather embarrassing American behavior internationally. This has been a way for Palestinians to say to the world: “You see, this is what we have to deal with when we participate in U.S.-led negotiations.”
Bron: hier.