Geoffrey Wheatcroft in the Independent:
For a time Blair also persuaded his credulous followers that the invasion would revive the "peace process" and lead to a just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That has proved even more of a tragic illusion, which is one reason why watching Barack Obama in Oslo on Thursday was almost unbearable, quiet apart from the fact that a man who had just increased hostilities in a barely justifiable and very likely unwinnable war trying to explain why he should accept the Nobel Peace Prize.
What was even more dispiriting was to compare his flowery words with what an unnamed western ambassador in Israel was quoted as saying on the BBC World Service the other day: President Obama and Hillary Clinton had between them "driven the peace process into a ditch". The bleak truth is that a settlement is much further off today than 10 years ago.
It is also under Obama’s orders that the US military is building a giant iron wall to further imprison the Gazans.
God, I hope news of that is getting out in Europe. There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of that making the mainstream news here.
Potsherd, I’ve been traveling for the last two weeks and I’m not familiar with this story. can you provide details/link?
I hope more Europeans are catching wise to what’s going on and what the United State’s real role and motivation is — war, war, and more war. The founding fathers would be ashamed of us, especially if it turns out to be Europe giving us a lecture on why colonialism is stupid.
Speaking of the news – still no mention of the vandalized mosque in the US MSM.
THAT, I know, has been in European media, at least.
Here’s further information on that “underground wall” that is being built on the Gaza border:
US army installs Gaza monitoring system
Most important paragraph in the article, in my opinion:
Please tell me Europe is paying attention to this.
Better that the Arab League is paying attention to this.
Of all the betrayals, somehow this one cranks up my outrageometer higher than usual.
The Arab League, I’m sorry to say, has little to no influence over the United States. Europe — in spite of all of the mockery and derision by right-wing Republicans — does. If the Arab League speaks out, it will be ignored; not so if Europe gets involved.
The Arab League still has influence over Egypt, and this is still Egypt’s sovereign territory.
That’s great but really, even with the pressure from the rest of the Arab League, would Egypt really risk calling down the Sword of Damocles that is the United States’ fickleness toward allies who are Muslim majority? Like Israel, Egypt is now hopelessly dependent on US aid to survive in its current form. Unlike Israel, there is little to no substantive (short term) political consequence to American politicians if they threaten to cut off that aid to Egypt — or follow through with that threat.
Hell, look at how we treat Great Britain. The British court wanted to set the record straight about what was done to Binyam Mohamed while in US custody. And what happened?
That man was tortured and the US government literally threatened British national security in order to coerce them into concealing that for us. By all accounts, the Obama administration stands with the former President on this. So not even the UK on its own can stand up to US pressure.
The United States has become a threat that few have the power to stand up to. And it pains me greatly to come to the realization that it won’t be until we align most of the rest of the world — Europe included — against us, to make this stop.
Sorry, forgot the link the article that quote is from. It’s:
link to news.bbc.co.uk
RE: “it won’t be until we align most of the rest of the world — Europe included — against us, to make this stop.” – Chaos4700
MY COMMENT: Sadly, I have reached the same conclusion. The only other hope (again, sadly) is that the U.S. will go ‘belly-up’.
P.S. Chaos4700, are you guys still giving Agent Smart a difficult time? Ease up on him so that he doesn’t have to spend the rest of his life in the ‘Cone Of Silence™’.
The US also needs Egyptian cooperation a lot more than it needs the Brits. Which is to say that Israel needs it. Egypt is not without leverage of its own.
And speaking of “outrageometer,” I have to confess I’m actually starting to get physically ill about our complicity in what is being done to Gaza. Seriously. Like, literally. I feel like I want to throw up.
Obama is also repeating the same mistake in the case of Iran’s nuclear program vs the world – under the directions of his Zionist masters. Israel sees an American attack on Iran to the solution to its “ultimate destruction” – No Iran as apower in the Middle East; No HAMAS, and NO Hizb’Allah.
Israel behind US-Iran nuclear conflict
link to rehmat1.wordpress.com
“The bleak truth is that a settlement is much further off today than 10 years ago.”
That is a weird statement. If that was true, then why wasn’t there a settlement 10 or 8 or 6 years ago? The only difference to me is that Obama pursued a solution more earnestly, and thereby exposed the barriers that have long existed: Israeli intransigence and colonial ambitions combined with their total dominance on the ground as well as in U.S. politics.
As much as we love to bash and blame Obama, there really isn’t much he can do about all that. That part is up to us. BDS, BDS, BDS. Spread the message, and that means outside Mondoweiss.
Getting our voices out there beyond Mondoweiss is something I definitely have to work on myself. So I’m going to make a goal, and hopefully some of you will join me: next time I am tempted to write a comment on this blog, I will first channel my thoughts into a letter or op-ed to my local paper. Letters to or meetings with representatives would be another productive use of energy.
The commentary here is often incredibly valuable, but we (and I especially), have to balance our discussion and self-education with action.