Now is the moment for President Obama to finally do something serious about Israel’s monstrous apartheid. Fresh from his foreign policy victory in normalizing relations with Cuba, without a re-election to worry about, he should not veto the Palestinian UN Security Council resolution that seeks an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land seized in 1967.
The State Department says the US will “not support” the Palestinian bid. But “not support” could include “not veto.”
In an ideal world, one in which our President acted entirely without political constraint, Obama would not only direct the US Ambassador to the UN to vote in favor of this motion, he would also cut off all $6 billion of military aid to Israel contingent on Israel radically shifting from an apartheid society to an equal-rights society; an end to land theft and colonization; and so on. Perhaps, someday sooner than we realize, we’ll have a President so fed up with Israel’s human rights violations that she or he will do the right thing.
But, to be realistic, our current President is not about to do either of these radical things. He’s lived too long under the Gulliverian constraints of the Israel lobby to flip into a full on, radical confrontation. However, an abstention might be within the realm of possibility, and would still represent a serious challenge to the Israel lobby’s political power.
Progressive Israelis are calling for a non-veto. Gideon Levy says the U.S. automatic veto is imbecilic, and a veto of justice. The Haaretz editorial board says Israelis should ‘welcome’ the Palestinian bid to set a deadline on ending the occupation.
The President has demonstrated the guts to take on major issues like immigration and relations with Cuba, and has continued to push for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear standoff in the face of the lobby’s repeated objections and attempts to undermine and destroy the delicate negotiations. What does Obama have to lose at this point by abstaining from the U.N. vote? Certainly, the lobby will pressure all of Obama’s would-be successors to repudiate the decision. Be that as it may, this President is on a roll, taking action on what he sees at the right thing on some key foreign and domestic policy issues. Netanyahu’s intransigence has frustrated him for the entire duration of his tenure in the Oval Office. By now he knows that absent significant international political and economic pressure, no force of Earth will derail the Israeli political consensus of accelerating land theft and colonization. By abstaining on the UN vote, the President can step aside and allow exactly that kind of political pressure to begin to coalesce.
President Bush I withheld loan guarantees in 1991, which is probably the largest rebuke any elected U.S. official has delivered to Israel in 25 years. Some say the Israel lobby coalesced around Bill Clinton, and the resultant flood of campaign contributions made the difference in the 1992 election. But Obama has no re-election to consider; only the question of his legacy. When he remembers the death and destruction in Palestine, will he be able to look at himself in the mirror the day after he leaves office? His entire administration has been one craven cave-in after another to Benjamin Netanyahu’s agenda of increasing land theft, slaughtering civilians in Gaza, and impunity from sanctions.
Those who claim there is a ‘status quo’ in Israel (we hear that term all the time from pundits) are dead wrong. For Palestinians, there is no ‘status quo’; there is only ever-increasing oppression, an oppression that is not stable and consistent over time (as implied by ‘status quo’), but is actually getting worse, as more and more land is devoured, and more Palestinians are killed or made to live unlivable lives. The simple abstention would be Obama leaving a mark in the column of justice and fairness, and a challenge to the ever-worsening oppression of the Palestinians.
“not veto” It could happen. I believe more than just a dream. We can do our part by contacting Obama, Samantha Powers, our Reps etc etc. Let them know millions of us would like to witness an abstention. This can happen
Ain’t gonna happen EVER.
usa and zionists have a common goal: NEVER establish a Palestinian State. The evidence and facts are very clear by now for everyone to see if they open their eyes and ears.
The proposed Jordanian resolution is TOTALLY in line with what obama/kerry have said. We uncovered their charade.
There will only be a Palestinian State through 1S1P1V, which will arrive either passively or actively over the next 25 years or so.
No hope for obama/kerry. usa can never be a fair and impartial third-party. The zionists brainwashed and/or blackmailed the usa. The real question is WHY usa is behaving this way? WHY???
Obama/Kerry have proven themselves to be cowards and worthless on this issue. Kerry has been busy strong arming the world to sell out the Palestinians. The solution for Palestinians will never be found in the US and increasingly not in Europe. It for sure will never be found with Abbas. Global grassroots advocacy for one state is the only path.
This is the second article here at Mondoweiss to imply that Obama’s policy change toward Cuba is some sort of enlightened awakening and that somehow this now means he will change his tack toward Palestine. Sorry. Reality encroaches once more.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/12/us-cuba-policy-change-score-11-1-us-wins/
Here is a link to a fine article from Ron Ridenour. There are others our there. The fact is, the change in policy toward Cuba is nothing more than a change of strategy to accomplish regime change there and install (re-install, since the dictatorship which ruled Cuba before the Castro “revolution” was a U.S. installed puppet theater) a government friendly to U.S. Corporations.
So unless a change in policy toward Israel might somehow benefit the corporatocracy, it ain’t gonna happen. Certainly not as a result of some sort of “enlightenment” on the part of our war-mongering sociopathic Assassinator in Chief.
Incredibly the U.S. has hitched it’s wagon to Israel. It will cost the U.S. increasingly more and more in the world, both morally and economically. More and more countries will emulate the Israel model where you get rewarded for disrespecting the U.S. From the Jpost instead of distancing from Israel ”
WASHINGTON – Israel is now officially a strategic partner of the United States, a classification held by no other nation, according to a bill signed into law by US President Barack Obama on Friday.
The United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 took more than a year to draft in Congress, and became an omnibus bill for the US-Israel relationship, reinforcing cooperation across industries with a focus on defense.Signing the law, the president hailed its bipartisan support and said it “reflects the importance placed by my administration on strengthening and deepening US-Israel bilateral cooperation and ties.”“It reinforces critical defense and security programs, which have reached an unprecedented level under my administration,” Obama said. “It also lays the groundwork for increased trade and cooperation across a range of cutting-edge fields, including energy, water, agriculture and technology.Recommitting the US to maintaining Israel’s “qualitative military edge” over its neighbors in the Middle East, the act expands authority for the forward deployment of US-made weapons stockpiles in Israeli conflicts.It is the policy of the United States, the bill reads, “to reaffirm the unwavering support of the people and the government of the United States for the security of Israel as a Jewish state.”
Members of Congress Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), Ted Deutch (D-Florida), Ed Royce (R-California), Eliot Engel (D-New York) and Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) authored the law.