[Peace-discuss] Arab-Americans and Obama's False Hope

[John W.]

At 03:43 AM 2/6/2008, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:

>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


Washington either changes people, or they don't stay there very 
long.  There's no question about it.



>"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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20080206/4149969c/attachment.html