::::::::
What a joke.President
Obama surely knows there is zero chance that his Middle East peace talks will
succeed, even with the deck stacked in his favor.All of the main actors
are on the U.S. payroll: Israel, Egypt, and Jordan get billions in foreign
aide, while the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has proven a
pliable puppet for the U.S. as he is disdained by his own people.
But even puppets have their
limits.If the above governments were to support the type of peace treaty
that Israel would agree to,their already oppressed people would
revolt.
This is because Israel has
been quite clear about what it will and will not "concede."The basis
for all Middle East Peace talks has always been the land that Israel stole
during the 1967 six day war: the Golan Heights in Syria must be returned; the
West Bank must be un-occupied; East Jerusalem must be returned to the
Palestinian people.UN Resolution 242 demands that Israel return these
territories. It will not.
Nor will Israel stop Israeli
settlers from building communities in the West Bank or allow all Palestinian refugees
to return to their land and homes that were confiscated beginning in 1948.
Israel does not grant equal civil and political rights to any Arabs living in
this theocratic state.The U.S. and Israel will not even allow the only
political party in the occupied territories with any legitimacy, Hamas, to participate
in the "peace process."
In fact, the only reason that
Israel has agreed to participate in this sham is for some good public
relations.Years of oppressing the Palestinians has earned Israel
international condemnation, especially after the recent flotilla
massacre.Israel hopes that in making a "sincere effort" in the
peace process, it will shift attention away from the ongoing atrocities it
commits as a matter of state policy.
Obama has similar motives as
he pursues a path leading to nowhere. At home, Obama becomes more unpopular
with each passing day, as he confronts a jobs depression by ignoring it or by
pretending that the economy is improving for working people.
The wars that Obama is
conducting are failures;hundreds of billions of dollars continue to flow
into the doomed effort, money that could instead be used to create jobs.
As Obama chooses to pursue
policies only acceptable to corporations, he must lean heavier on right-wing elements.The
same approach that Israel uses to oppress the Palestinians -- racism,
scapegoating, and fear -- are being transferred to the U.S., especially towards
those with ancestry from the Middle East or immigrants from Latin
America.
As former Labor Secretary
Robert Reich recently explained:
"The practical choice we
face is this: Either major action to reverse the jobs emergency or years of
intolerably high unemployment coupled with demagoguery and scapegoating."
(September 3, 2010, robertreich.org)
If there were good intentions
behind the peace talks that included serious proposals, Obama would deserve
credit for his effort.Unfortunately, this is not the case.Obama
refuses to cut U.S. aid to Israel, which it uses to wage war against its
neighbors and to crush the Palestinians.This is because Obama continues
to use Israel as a giant extension of U.S. corporate interests: Israel uses its
U.S. financed military to ensure that profitable resources like oil do not fall
into the "wrong hands."
Obama and the Democrats will
travel down their corporate inspired path until there are obstacles thrown in
their way. On October 2nd attention will be given to the enormous
need for jobs as labor unions, the NAACP, and other organizations descend on
Washington, D.C. for a mass demonstration. Demonstrations in other states
are being planned too.
The bigger the demonstrations,
and the louder that the demand of "Jobs For All!," the less able are
politicians to focus on foreign affairs and phony negotiations. The bigger the focus on creating jobs
and making Wall Street pay for them, the less able are right-wing elements to
steer workers frustration into racism, scapegoating, and other fake
solutions.
All Out For October 2nd !
All Out For October 2nd !
Shamus
Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for
Workers Action (http://www.workerscompass.org). He can be reached at
shamuscook@gmail.com
