[Peace-discuss] Arab-Americans and Obama's False Hope
Jenifer Cartwright
jencart13 at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 6 03:43:06 CST 2008
Pathetic, isn't it? As I said, things changed when Obama got to Washingotn... and not the change I was hoping for. Maybe it's the damned town, ya know?? Didn't do much for Kerry either, after all that great post Vietnam protesting...
--Jenifer
"C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:
[The following is from "Can I Have My Change Back? Arab-Americans and Obama's
False Hope," by Remi Kanazi, a Palestinian-American poet from New York City. He
is the co-founder of www.PoeticInjustice.net and the editor of the forthcoming
anthology of poetry," Poets for Palestine." --CGE]
....Senator Obama is not anti-war, nor does he genuinely seek appropriate
alternatives to militarism in the Middle East. Arab-Americans and putative
leftists naively, and sometimes willfully, overlook the fact that he is an
ardent supporter of the invasion, bombing, and ongoing occupation of
Afghanistan. One also cannot dismiss that his views are consistent with the
Democratic Party platform, which aspires to refocus on Afghanistan. Obama plans
to deploy additional troops in and increase funding for the operation in
Afghanistan, but as with the case in Iraq, it will only intensify the struggles
of the civilian population of the country. Obama fully supported the Lebanon
war, (even as the Israeli military killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians and
leveled civilian infrastructure with tens of thousands of US-shipped cluster
bombs), and played up his pro-Israel rhetoric nearly as much as his current
Democratic opponent, Hilary Clinton. As with nearly every other candidate,
Obama wholly supports Israel's 40 year occupation of Palestinian land and
dutifully endorsed the siege of Gaza. Surprisingly, this is a politician who
once curried favor with prominent members of the Palestinian community,
attending a community fundraiser in which Edward Said was the keynote speaker,
dining with Rashid Khalidi in Chicago, and receiving praise from Ali Abuminah
during his time as a state senator. Domestically, too, his shift to the right
is glaringly apparent, reflecting weaker stances on undocumented residents, the
Patriot Act, gay rights, and a host of other issues...
Full article at
mrzine.monthlyreview.org/kanazi050208.html
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