Recently, an Arab friend sent me a note written by Hassan Al-Husseini, a retired Arab-American editor who divides his time between Arlington, Va., and Saudi Arabia, explaining why he was voting for Nader. Al-Husseini expressed deep dismay in Obama’s collapse on Israel/Palestine and made some damaging comments about Obama’s fatherlessness.
I am intimately familiar with a similar case to Obama’s: a Nigerian high official who came to the USA in his youth, fathered a child from an American White teenager, and then abandoned them to go on to other relationships. Obama’s Kenyan Muslim father did the same with 4 wives and a concubine, fathering 5 or 6 children, and died a crippled drunk from car accidents. Some children are often scarred for life by such irresponsible fathers.
I emailed Al-Husseini. I’d voted for Nader twice in the 90s and 2000, this time I’m an Obama man all the way. I have faith. Al-Husseini said this:
Over the past 20 years, a very close White female American friend’s son graduated from Harvard with a PhD in ethnic studies. The young man’s father is now a high Nigerian official who had abandoned his son and unmarried mother from an early age. The father is a loser, the son a winner. But the son lacks that father presence. That is what Louis Farrakhan highlighted in his Million Man March.
Many studies highlight the unusually high proportion of America’s 2 million prisoners who are Black males, the result of fatherless families. I know that we have many problems in Arab and Muslim societies, but the strict aspects of Islamic values, like the Catholics, have afforded some protections against some of the worst excesses of human behavior…
Obama reflects some double personality or schizophrenia in his policies. He has embedded in his campaign a core of extreme Zionists who want to make Obama more extreme that Benjamin Netanyahu… Obama can easily tone down his hard-core, pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian rhetoric. He did not need to issue a letter to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations supporting Israel’s starvation of the people of Gaza when they broke through at Rafah to get food, water, fuel and medicines. He did not need to pander to AIPAC after he won enough votes to gain the Democratic nomination. He does not have to denounce his Muslim connections…
Although I am not a practicing nor a fanatical Muslim, I do see the bashing of Islam. I have respect for the Nation of Islam of Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan. They have succeeded in drawing fallen Blacks from prisons, drugs, alcohol, smoking and womanizing into hard work, clean and honest living. I heard the major speeches of Rev. Wright, and he was somber, serious, coherent, moderate and generally good. I invite you to google his speeches and the PBS Bill Moyers interview….
I am a life-long student of the American political system. While I admire and uphold the ideals in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, we cannot overlook the ethnic cleansing and genocide committed against Native American Indians, the enslavement of Africans, the colonisation or domination of parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia, and finally the abuse of the Arabian and Iranian Middle East. That is what Rev. Wright said. He also defended Israel’s right to security, but called for respect for Palestinian rights.
Myself I think politics is the art of the possible, that’s why I’m for Obama. He’s the best hope still, I say. I’m thrown by Farrakhan’s antisemitism, and his and Elijah Muhammad’s authoritarian streak. Chilling. I told Al-Husseini that Obama’s fatherlessness gives me sympathy for him. His first book is a great one, on this theme. Though it does speak to a “hole in Obama’s soul,” to paraphrase New Age thinking on this score. Al-Husseini responded.
I sympathize with Sen. Barack Obama, whose African father abandoned him and his mother at a young age to pursue his personal ambitions. It is clear that Barack overcame his tragic beginnings with the love of his mother and American grandparents. He went on to make great achievements. He has proven a dedicated husband and loving father himself. But in this presidential campaign, he is being forced to abandon many of his Arab-American and Afro-American friends in pursuit of his own ambitions. His policies of political convenience are beginning to worry me and others….
After 60 years of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Barack Obama was the hope of bringing change and peace to this festering and dangerous area of U.S. foreign policy. His African and Muslim connections were supposed to add to his understanding of global human problems. His dedication to the U.S. Constitution should uphold his commitment to democracy and humanity. But it seems he is developing a blind spot for bringing Muslims and Jews together, or healing Arab and Israeli wounds. This inconsistency does not bode well. He has been adding fuel to the fire.
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It does seem he is adding fuel to the fire–the upbeat take is that he needs to do this just to gain the seat of power.
You have to love the irony of Phil Weiss sucking up to the Saudi's. I'm wondering how that fits into the left wing "progressive" agenda. It's actually kind of like the Nazi-Soviet non aggression pact of 1939.
Perhaps it's the wahabi life style that appeals to him.
Tony Blair was the great socialist hope, the new left.
I would be surprised if anyone could remember anything socialist he offered.
JFK was a bit of womaniser, he wanted to disband the CIA etc etc (if only).
What are the elections for a religious leader?
Phil if you are not amputated you can still change tack. Obama/Ross/AIPAC ain't gonna do nothing good for the Jews.
I'm afraid your Saudi friend has Obama pegged. The old "he's just saying it to get elected" argument holds no water. That is why He's voting for Nader and why I supported Ron Paul and will support Bob Barr, the Libertarian nominee. I know exactly what they believed. They made no effort to conceal it.
And that is the problem with Obama. I have no Idea what he believes in his heart. I'm not sure even he does. Or if it even matters, since he will do as he is told.
Weather a just settlement for Palestine ever comes about will not depend on confronting the Lobby here, it will depend on confronting Israel there. So long as Israel feels its neighbors are too weak to warrant concessions it will offer none. No coalition of American Jews, no matter how noble and well intentioned, can change that.
Although I certainly admire the ardor with which they try.
Thanx,
P.S. I'd love to be proven wrong about Obama, but I wont be.
It's too bad for all of us that the MSM made a circus clown out of Ron Paul–how can you fault the masses when they were barred from seeing and hearing him so much, especially considering his intelligent and long-consistent take on foreign policy and monetary and fiscal policy, the two things most rotten in our ship of state, and gaining ground daily?
The MSM should have been all over the place, discussing in print Ron Paul's ideas and how they apply to the nation's core problems. The MSM is a collective Goebbels would understand all too well.
Obama's about-face and march to the right since winning the nomination over Clinton will doom his presidency if not his election chances first.
He's thrown his anti-war supporters under the bus, advocating opening an eastern front in Afghanistan on the 'war on terror'. He's thrown the Palestinians under the bus in return for filthy lucre from the 'New York Money Jews'.
Obama no longer shows signs of having any moral underpinning to his ideas; I can only wonder what Michel thinks; perhaps she is as ambitious and amoral as he is.
From this vantage point it looks like Phil is supporting just another American bumbler who has learned nothing from the Iraq experience (America destroyed the country in order to save it), the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, the French defeat in Algeria (after also trying to torture their way to victory), the American defeat in Vietnam, and the Israeli defeat in Lebanon (in spite of destroying half the place).
So what does anyone make of the recent poll that showed 42% of Americans would support Israel if it attacked Iran? A few more percent would not–but, g-d, that's really frightening. If these Americans polled (one thousand of them) actually know anything about the history of Israel and Iran, I'd really be surprised. Naturally, the poll does not cover that (just like our MSM).
Why was no analysis for mass consumption ever done of why so many of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia? This is not a fact that sticks to most Americans I meet. It's not in America's long term interest to be in bed with the House of Saud. Of course, that doesn't matter to the ruling class–we shouldn't be in bed with Israel or Saudi Arabia–but no future prez will pry us apart from either.
This guy wants to lecture the United States on some of its mistakes but avoids the technological feats of the USA and amazing contributions to humanity. How about slavery by Arabs and other atrocities committed by them in the past? You can't point your finger at USA without three fingers pointing back at you.
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