Thursday, December 8, 2011

Constraints on Obama

Written on Feb. 20, 2011
I really believe that Obama's heart is with the Palestinians, yet the political constraints pull him away from what he really wants to do. His veto of the UN resolution calling the illegal Israeli settlements "illegal" is due to the pro-Israel forces who know how to work the system better than the pro-Palestinian forces. There are six reasons for that.
First, the Jewish community has been living in democratic or western societies far longer than Palestinians. Many Palestinians living away from Palestine always had an eye to returning back without the chance of assimilating. Additionaly those that came only knew a political system that was corrupt where kings, presidents-for-life and dictators ruled ruthlessly. They were taught not to get involved in the political system. My parents, like 99% of all other Palestinian parents, had the attitude that you cannot change the system. Palestinians have only been in the US in great numbers only since the 1960s and 1970s.
Jewish Americans were in America during the Revolutionary War. They came and were entrenched in the political system. They became involved in the system working to change it from within. They made alliances with the Civil Rights Leadership, helping the African-Americans gain equality. I cannot name a single Arab that did that. (it is a shame.)
Second, the money factor plays a major role in the American political system and the pro-Israeli supporters learned that very fast. They give, give and give some more buying influence by the millions and billions. Palestinians cannnot compete. Other Arabs do not have the political motivation like Palestinians to care and so they do not give. Money buys power and the Palestinians are so far behind that they cannot realistically compete.
Third and becasue of the first reason Palestinians do not vote in great percentages as do Jewish Americans. When the State of Israel was created, President Truman was advised, given global politics, not to recognize Israel. Truman told his advisors that Jewish Americans vote and in the critical 1948 campaign that made a difference. In addition, the Jewish influence had 75 Senators sponsor a letter demanding that Truman recognize Israel. That is power. In 1984, five Lebanese businessmen gave Walter Mondale money for his presidential campaign. The Jewish lobby pressured Mondale to give the money back. Outrageous?--you betta!
Fourth, Jewish Americans knew very well how to work the press. In many cases, they owned major newspapers and had tremondous influence in TV news and radio. Many Hollywood producers and directors were and are Jewish and they fed Americans with the notion that Arabs are terrorists. Children were indoctrinated with a doll of a wondering, desert Arab called "Nomad."
In 1984 when the Achille Lauro ship hijacking incident took place and the Palestinians killed Leon Klinghoffer, the Jewish Defense League, a militant group, planted a bomb in the office of American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) killing its director, Alex Odeh. The press hardly covered the story as they were more concerned with an American being killed in the Mediterrean rather than here at home. While the Killinghoffer killing received front page and succeeding pages of coverage, Odeh's death was relegated to the middle of newspapers--if at all.
Fifth, Jewish-Americans coined the term "anti-Semite." Although Semite refers to both Arabs and Jews, Jewish-Americans made exclusive use of the term to refer to Jews. One could not disagree with Israel and not be called an anti-Semite. The control of the press reinforced this powerful tool. Politicians were put in place if they dared to speak against Israel. The label of anti-Semite was too much. Sen. Charles Percy (R-IL) dared to vote for AirWax planes for Saudia Arabia and Rep. Paul Finley (R-IL) dared to meet with Arafat in the 1980s and dared to advocate a State for Palestinians.
A very wealthy Jewish-Amerian circumvented election campaign laws and purchased billboard anti-Percy ads in Southern Illinois causing Percy's defeat. Rep. Finley was targeted as the Jewish community gave a tremondous amount of campaign money to his opponent, the current Illinois Senator, Dick Durbin. Other politicians started fearing the Jewish lobby as a clear message was sent--do not oppose Israel and do not say anything that would label you as anti-Semite.
Finally, while Palestinians always had a moral argument against the occupation itself they never used it. Instead, they resorted to attacking Israel and hijackings. Maybe because of the lack of support in the press as Israeli repression of Palestinians was not covered, Palestinians, out of frustration, resorted to causing international incidents by hijacking planes to draw attention to their plight. This gave the impetus to the Jewish controlled media to label Palestinians as terrorists. Palestinians did not help themselves, instead those hijackings turned their moral cause to that of a barbarian cause. Although I remember as a child my elders cheering every time this happened, I knew that this did not help the Palestinian cause. The Palestinians are David and Israelis are Goliath--yet Israel turned it around against the Palestinians.
Given, the entrenched Jewish mindset in the political system, their money, their voting record, their power in the press, their powerful anti-Semite" weapon and the Palestinian discontent with or lack of understanding of the political system, it is no wonder that President Obama is constrained in what he feels. After all, he does want to get re-elected--doesn't he?
(  © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)

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