Soccer Dad

Obama's AIPAC Speech Produces A Hat Trick (Updated)

Looks like Obama won't have to deal with McCain bringing up Hamas' endorsement any more:

...Obama went before American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington a day after clinching the Democratic nomination and declared his strong support for Israel.

Israel’s security is sacrosanct and it must retain a qualitative military advantage, Obama said. Any peace deal must include Palestinian recognition that Jerusalem would remain Israel’s undivided capital, he said.

Hamas promptly unendorsed Obama, a Christian who has had difficulty dispelling a rumor campaign suggesting he is a Muslim and that his advisers have a pro-Arab bent.

“Obama’s comments have confirmed that there will be no change in the U.S. administration’s foreign policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters in Gaza.

With that, Hamas has joined the co-founder of The Electric Intifada on the sidelines. In a January interview, Ali Abunimah reminisced about the good old days before he was jilted:

I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator—when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time.

I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. And that's just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation. And just yesterday, he apparently sent a letter to Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador at the UN, to urge the US not to allow any resolution to pass criticizing Israel and saying how Israel was forced to impose this barbaric medieval siege on Israel.

An irony to this is that by cutting his apparent ties to the Muslim community, Obama is making his announced goal of negotiating with Iran that much more difficult. Eric Trager writes:

After all, as Obama has increasingly sought to convince doubters of his pro-Israel credentials, Iran and its supporters have come to view Obama as an agent of Israel’s interests–a perspective that likely precludes the meaningful Iranian–American dialogue that Obama expects if elected. In this vein, Iran’s state-funded PressTV covered Obama’s AIPAC speech as promising to “take care of Iran for Israel,” noting that Obama “has realized that by threatening Israel’s number one enemy, Iran, he can curry favor with the highly influential Israeli lobby in the U.S.” Similarly, Hezbollah’s al-Manar noted that Obama “strongly supported and defended the Zionist entity” in his speech before “the Zionist AIPAC council”–with the redundant use of the Z-word intended to communicate profound distrust for the presumptive Democratic nominee. Al-Manar’s commenting readers were even more explicit in their disenchantment, referring to Obama as an “enemy” of Islam on account of his pro-Israel pronouncements.

So in one fell swoop, Obama has alienated Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas--not bad for one day's work.

UPDATE: How does Abbas feel about this?

Let's see:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently negotiating the establishment of a Palestinian state with Israel, lambasted Obama's remarks later on Wednesday, saying there would be no peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict without a resolution of the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital.

"This statement is totally rejected," Abbas told reporters.

Yup, make that 4.

It's one thing for an American president to have the consistent reputation of being a friend of Israel. Obama was counted on as a friend of the Palestinian Arabs before his apparent turnaround.

by Daled Amos

Technorati Tag: Obama.

Posted by daledamos at June 5, 2008 11:15 AM