Any of us who
have attempted to speak ‘off the cuff’ in a public setting know
just how dangerous it can be. We can muddle our words, prattle
on incoherently and ‘mis-speak’ important facts. So when it
comes to politicians delivering speeches we can rest assured
that the words we hear were carefully planned and scripted. Not
only do the words have to make some kind of sense, they have to
fit the established narrative they are creating based on the
historic record that precedes them. Of course some people are
better in delivering their words (think Rudd or Howard) than
others (think Bush II).
In the last
couple of weeks US Presidential candidate, Barak Obama, toured
the European and Middle Eastern region spruiking himself as the
candidate who would deliver a new United States to them. Outside
his public appearances he met with many ‘movers and shakers’ in
order to deliver to them his personal guarantees on what he
would deliver should he win office. While we, the ordinary
people, may never find out what he said in these closed meetings
we do have records of many of his public utterances. It is these
and those utterances on the Israeli / Palestinian conflict that
I want to examine. I want to begin with a speech he made prior
to leaving for his jaunt through the East.
On July 4th
he gave an address to the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee. This organisation is the loudest, most cashed up and
most connected pro-Israel lobby group in the US. They are the
eyes and ears to the words and deeds in high places. Obama began
his address by saying that the Zionist lobby in the US “shared
values and shared stories” that bound them together and that as
“President [he] will work with [them] to ensure that this bond
[is] strengthened”.
He waxed lyrical
on how the bible stories of Israel had created within him a
desire to find his “homeland”. He told of his horror at the
Holocaust stories and that he subscribed to the “never again”
philosophy. He then turned the history of the little town now
known as Sderot (Stay-Rote) on its head.
This little town
is one of the ones we read about as being under attack from
Palestinian rockets. What we don’t hear is how this town came to
be in Israel’s possession. Like many of the occupied towns,
Sderot was stolen from its inhabitants who were forced, at gun
point, to vacate their houses and land for the Zionist dream.
When you read the Zionist history it says that Sderot was “first
inhabited in 1951”. The farmers and their families who lived
there prior to then were forced out and their farms destroyed.
The Zionist history that Obama’s speech writers obviously used
fails to acknowledge the ethnic cleansing of this town. Indeed
the Zionist history shows that there is “no significant Arab
population” in the town. How could there be? The Israeli army
keeps them away. Obama went on to say how bad it was for the
settlers and soldiers who now live on that stolen land.
Further into his
speech Obama said he would strengthen the US / Israel alliance
and that, as President, he would provide up to $US30 billion
dollars in military aid so that Israel could maintain its
“military advantage” in the region. He also said that, as
President, he would ensure the steady flow of weapons to Israel
would continue and he would campaign for Israel’s right to
“defend itself”. Just after uttering this he proclaimed that the
“Palestinian people must understand” that “Israel’s security is
sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable”. In other words, Arabs can go
jump if they challenge Israel’s crushing power. While he says
pressure must be put on the Arab nations to back off, he went on
to say that, “we must never force Israel to the negotiating
table.” Towards the end of his address he said, “I will always
keep the threat of military action on the table to defend our
security and our ally Israel.”
Obama is a great
orator and commands respect when he speaks. He doesn’t mince his
words and on the campaign trail he has rarely stumbled in his
rhetoric or the narrative he is creating. However, like so many
who crave power he is a fully paid up member of the “memory
hole” club. A club whose members refuse to acknowledge anything
that might undermine their thin veneer of respectability,
credibility and sincerity. Any inconvenient truth that stands in
the way must be flushed down the “memory hole” immediately.
After his
Zionist sponsored free dinner he flew off to tour the Middle
East and Europe. While he briefly met with Palestinian leaders
in the West Bank his rhetoric and promise to defend Israel never
waivered. He did not once get ‘off script’. When he held his
most spectacular media event at the ethnically cleansed village
of Sderot he made no reference to its pre-occupation history
which, I suppose, would have revealed an inconvenient truth to
the rapturous media pack.
While he took
time to dress up as a Jew and ‘worship’ at the Wailing Wall, he
did make sure his Christian commitment did not surface and decry
the injustice meted out by the Israeli government and his own on
the Palestinians. Like a true statesman he did not have to
negotiate the so called ‘security fence’ that renders his hope
for a “contiguous Palestinian territory” impossible. In fact by
the time he made it to Germany he had totally forgotten the 10
metre high cement fortress that encases many Palestinians and
separates them from their livelihoods.
When he got up
to speak in Berlin a few days later Barak Obama had conveniently
ignored the facts on the ground pertaining to the real plight of
Palestinians and launched into a speech that contained so much
irony I can only deduce it was written by someone like comedian
John Stewart of “The Daily Show” rather than a seasoned, steeped
in history speech writer. His call to solidarity and shared
suffering must have warmed the hearts of some of the crowd
there. Of course he didn’t mention the bombing of Dresden by the
US ally, Britain. Nor did he mention the US role in supplying
engineering expertise and machinery that assisted in Hitler’s
rise. Nor did he mention the way the US prevaricated in the
final days of the push into Berlin and how it allowed the
Russian forces to occupy West Berlin. But I suppose that would
have been inconvenient given his audience.
A few days prior
to this speech he had again declared that when it comes to
Israel / Palestinian relations a two state solution is the only
way out. However when it came to the “brave” Berliners he said,
“People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a
continent came together, and history proved that there is no
challenge too great for a world that stands as one.” He went on
to say, “the German people, tore down that wall - a wall that
divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope -
walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape
Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were
opened”.
The greatest
irony in his speech was uttered when he declared, with a
straight face and no sense of shame, “That is why the greatest
danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one
another. … The walls between the countries with the most and
those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and
tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew
cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.”
Barak Obama is
no friend of the Palestinian people. Zionists here and in the US
do have reservations about him and his commitment to their
cause. Yet, as far as his public utterances go and I have only
quoted a few, it seems that he will carry their banner high when
developing US foreign policy. Like Blair after Thatcher and
Major, like Rudd after Howard, Obama after Bush will pretty much
be “more of the same”. Nothing will change. There will be
tinkering around the edges and some cosmetic changes. There will
be new forms of rhetoric but in essence, nothing will change.
Palestinians, during this occupation, will continue to die at a
rate of 3 or 5 to 1 compared to Israelis.
Should he become
President, during Obama’s reign, the wall will not be pulled
down and Israel will not be forced to adhere to the numerous UN
Resolutions calling for it to desist and return to the 1948
borders. So long as US foreign policy is not geared towards
undoing the terrible wrongs of Israel and its bloody occupation,
the underlying causes of the mess in the Middle East will not be
resolved. Perhaps even more disturbing, Obama might just be the
President who increases the power of the military industrial
complex rather than rein it in as many hope.
Obama doesn’t
have the luxury of being able to speak ‘off the cuff’. As the
potential next President of the USA, he has to ensure that all
his words are carefully crafted and delivered. He has to
surround himself with people who will not challenge the
narrative he is creating nor raise the history he is ignoring.
If Barak Obama is not able to speak ‘off the cuff’ then we can
only presume his public utterances are the considered and
approved versions of how he views the world. We can also presume
that he repeats the words of his speech writers verbatim because
they are the words and thoughts he agrees with. If this is the
case then Barak Obama might just be an even more dangerous
President that George Bush ever was.