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President Barack Obama and AIPAC |
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Hundreds of millions voted for "change", But Obama's closest advisors advocate for the Status Quo. Like Dennis Ross, a Senior Advisor to Obama on the Middle East, advocates for confrontation with Iran, and opposes human rights and international law for Palestinians. Where have we heard this before? A quick look at some views of what we might have in store.
Some early views on the new Obama administration.
Not all of Obama's initial acts regarding the Middle East are getting the unqualified support of the AIPAC crowd. Consider George Mitchell, who has been appointed to deal with Palestine/Israel. Mitchell is considered too "even-handed": 'Sen. Mitchell is fair. He’s been meticulously even-handed. But the fact is, American policy in the Middle East hasn’t been ‘even handed’ — it has been supportive of Israel when it felt Israel needed critical U.S. support. So I’m concerned. I’m not sure the situation requires that kind of approach in the Middle East.' Abe Foxman, ADL
AIPAC's fears may be unfounded in regard to Mitchell. It has been reported that Mitchell re-affirmed Bush's letter to Israel - that contradicted years of US policy regarding illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories, that many of the large settlement blocs can be annexed to Israel in any future agreement supported by the United States.
A profile of Dennis Ross, Top Middle East advisor Dennis Ross is a former U.S. diplomat who has served both Republican and Democratic administrations in negotiations on Middle East peace and other foreign policy issues.1 Although generally considered a political moderate, Ross has been closely associated with a number of neoconservative-led organizations and policy initiatives. A consultant for the hawkish Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), Ross supported the advocacy efforts of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC),2 which played a key role advocating invading Iraq in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He also frequently promotes aggressive Mideast policies in his writings and congressional testimony, and regularly teams up with scholars from organizations like the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) to craft policy approaches toward Tehran’s nuclear program and other issues in the region.3 More....
This Is Change? U.S. policy is not about one individual, and no matter how much faith people place in President-elect Barack Obama, the policies he enacts will be fruit of a tree with many roots. Among them: his personal politics and views, the disastrous realities his administration will inherit, and, of course, unpredictable future crises. But the best immediate indicator of what an Obama administration might look like can be found in the people he surrounds himself with and who he appoints to his Cabinet. And, frankly, when it comes to foreign policy, it is not looking good.... MORE
Don’t suppress Carter or opportunity for peace - by Ralph Nader Now that the season of electoral expediency is over, President-elect Barack Obama owes former president Jimmy Carter an apology — and an invitation. At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Democrats denied Carter the traditional invitation to speak that is accorded to former presidents. According to The Jewish Daily Forward, “Carter’s controversial views on Israel cost him a place on the podium at the Democratic Party convention in late August, senior Democratic operatives acknowledged.” Silencing Carter, who negotiated the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement, involved behind the scenes tensions between supporters of the hard-line American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and those Democrats who argued both respect and free speech to let Carter join Bill Clinton on the stage and address a national audience.... More
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