Obama is stuck in the same Bush mud when it comes to Gaza reconstruction…

by on February 9, 2009 13

Ali Gharib writes:

It appears now that the U.S. will not be directly involved in aid programmes to Gaza - especially reconstruction - and that the new administration of President Barack Obama will continue the George W. Bush policy of isolating and starving Hamas. That tack is seen by some as collective punishment of Gazans and a major impediment to development there.


In terms of the peace process, the challenge is especially daunting because both a robust U.S. role and Palestinian unity are viewed as essential to progress.

"The American priority today is restoring American credibility. The point is restoring the credibility that what the U.S. does actually has an impact," said Robert Malley, a former high-level Mideast adviser to Pres. Bill Clinton, now with the International Crisis Group (ICG).

"We have to recognise the collective failure of our approach - U.S., Israeli, Palestinian, Arab - towards the question of Hamas and the question of Gaza," said Malley, insisting that didn't necessarily entail engagement with Hamas but rather "a more nuanced pragmatic position".

Speaking at the forum last week on how the U.S. administration should handle the Middle East, Malley said that Gaza reconstruction - "a massive effort to help the people of Gaza" - could be a way to accomplish that ahead of what Washington pledged will be a strong, renewed U.S. focus on the peace process.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics

{ 13 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Citizen says:
    February 9, 2009 at 4:30 pm

    Obama could have sent clear positive signals if he had agreed to direct USA
    humanitarian aid to Gaza, including to reconstruction of basic institutional structures and maintenance, to be followed up by
    authorizing Mitchell to blend such aid with at least discreet, indirect talks
    with HAMAS. So far, nada; as Phil concudes, at this juncture Obama is stuck in the same Bush mud, though he's singing songs rather than
    rattling sabers.

  2. chris berel says:
    February 9, 2009 at 5:39 pm

    Obama is merely being faithful to the law and not dealing with a terrist organization.

  3. delia says:
    February 9, 2009 at 5:47 pm

    That particular mud is called "war crimes," by the way.

  4. omar says:
    February 9, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    chris berel, you mean like the Stern Gang, Irgun? PLO? IRA?

  5. chris berel says:
    February 9, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    I don't see Obama dealing with the Stern Gang. Please link the information showing when Obama dealt with the Stern Gang.

  6. jim byers says:
    February 9, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    chris berel, we deal with israel which by definition is a terrorist organization. get lost.

  7. chris berel says:
    February 9, 2009 at 7:03 pm

    But Jim, if I get lost, who will show you how screwed up your little brain has become?

    By definition, you qualify as a moron, yet you are allowed your say.

  8. Richard says:
    February 9, 2009 at 7:42 pm

    No the US doesn't deal with terrorists – it just employs their offspring:

    From Wikipedia:
    Emanuel's first name, Rahm (רם) means "high" or "lofty" in Hebrew, and is the namesake of one Rahamim (surname unknown), which means "mercy" in Hebrew, killed in the 1940s fighting for the Zionist group Lehi. The surname Emanuel (עמנואל), adopted by the family in honor of his father's brother Emanuel Auerbach, killed in Jerusalem during a skirmish with Arabs, means God is with us. Sources conflict as to whether the family changed its name from Auerbach in 1933 or 1938.

    I understand that the US dealt with
    - Yizhak Shamir (Irgun and Lehi (Stern Gang)
    who ordered the killing of Count Folke Bernadotte
    quoted as saying: "neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat

    - Menachem Begin (Irgun) responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel and the massacre at Deir Yassin

  9. Dan Kelly says:
    February 9, 2009 at 11:08 pm

    Zahhar: We are working to reach honorable agreement for our people

    CAIRO, (PIC)– Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, a senior political leader of Hamas in Gaza, has confirmed Sunday that his Movement was doing everything to reach an honorable agreement that would lead to halting all forms of Israeli aggression, and would allow the Palestinians to live in dignity.

    In an interview with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel in the Egyptian capital Cairo, Zahhar underlined that Hamas wasn’t and it won't be at any time a card in anyone's hand in the region.

    He also said that Hamas doesn’t work for any axis against another axis in the region, explaining that Hamas is working to liberate the occupied Palestinian lands from the Israeli occupation.

    Talking on Hamas-Egypt relationship, Zahhar stressed that it wasn’t in the interest of Egypt and Hamas to have tense rapport, adding that anyone who wants to portray Hamas as a national threat to Egypt is absolutely wrong.

    In this regard, Zahhar called on the Egyptian government not to deal with Hamas as if it was part of an axis not in good ties with Egypt, or being part of an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which is the main opposition party in Egypt.

    He said that Egypt should learn from the Syrian experience that supports Hamas desbite the unhealthy relationship between the Syrian government and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood movement.

    Hamas had underscored a long time ago that it is a liberation movement that doesn’t interfere in any country's internal affairs, and that it's main and only enemy is the Israeli occupation in Palestine.

    Hence, Zahhar elaborated, Hamas is interested in reaching calm in the Gaza Strip free of conditions that are detrimental to the legal rights of the Palestinian people, highlighting that Hamas Movement supports the PLO in structure but not in political programs, many articles of which were deleted for the sake of Israel and the USA.

    "We are working to reach an honorable calm agreement that would lead to complete ceasefire that would enable the Palestinian people to live in dignity and rebuild what the Israeli war on Gaza had destroyed", Zahhar pointed out.

    Zahhar: We are working to reach honorable agreement for our people

  10. Rowan says:
    February 10, 2009 at 12:47 am

    What a load of cobblers. Why 'reconstruct' Gaza? So that Israel can level it again? The entire USA is living in a pathetic dream-world, utterly detached from what is obvious to the 'rest-of-the-world' (you remember them – 'the little people').

  11. Eva Smagacz says:
    February 10, 2009 at 4:22 am

    Obama is very aware that mainstream media will turn on his economic reform and recovery program like a pack of hyenas if he does not placate Israel Lobby.

    His priority is American economic crisis and welfare of american people. I read the hostile press that he is encountering today and I believe that these are just warning shots for him to toe the line.

    A bit like a restaurant owner that has been overhead that he MIGHT, MAYBE consider NOT paying protection money, who wakes up next day having every second window of his restaurant and his home neatly broken by identical size bricks.

    He is taking his message on the tour of the country. What he is doing is clearly NOT relying on mainstream media.

  12. chris berel says:
    February 10, 2009 at 6:44 am

    So the article were not removed because they had no business there, they were removed to hide intent.

    And we should deal with these terrorists?

    Syria aids Hamas because the Syrian dictatorship needs something to keep the people from revolt. Focusing hatred on the Jews works every time.

  13. Alice says:
    February 10, 2009 at 9:58 am

    Focusing on what organized Jewry does, rather than its propaganda,
    is the best medicine for the world, including the Jewish portion of it.
    This principle also applies to the USA, that is, focusing on what the US government does in the world, rather than its propaganda, is the best medicine for the world, including the USA.

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