Desperately Seeking Obama
by Dr. Sunera Thobani
This article originally appeared on Znet.
"Surely there is no greater cause for social justice than
that of the Palestinian people."
The New
Year has begun with Muslims around the world being taught a lesson in the
crudity of racial equations: 400 Palestinian lives equal four Israeli lives.
Reeling
from having learnt that over a million Iraqi and Afghan lives equal 3,000
American lives, the logic of this racial mathematics is certainly no new thing.
After all, the first U.S. Constitution engaged in just such calculations of
human worth, and Katrina demonstrated their ongoing effects. But the lesson has
the power to shock every time: the images of Palestinian bodies being pulled
out of the rubble in Gaza that flood news reports are unbearable to witness.
Surely the
lesson cannot be lost on President-elect Barack Obama. That such violence can
be waged on so defenseless a population with the support of the Bush Administration
is unconscionable. That Obama chooses to remain silent is nothing short of
cowardice.
Why is
Israel able to continue its deadly assault on Palestinians in Gaza? Because
western governments (and their Arab quislings) are willing to allow the carnage
to carry on into day three, four, five ... After all, these governments enabled
the Israeli blockade of Gaza for the last year and a half, they aided and
abetted Israel's criminal meting out of collective punishment to the population
for daring to vote for Hamas.
"That
Obama chooses to remain silent is nothing short of cowardice."
The
mainstream media faithfully reported as true every lie told by the Bush
Administration about Iraq. Now the media upholds the fiction that Hamas is
responsible for the violence waged by the Israelis. Israel probably calculated,
and rightly so as has turned out to be the case, that the support it enjoys
from these governments could withstand whatever murmurs of regret politicians
might be moved to express by anti-Israeli demonstrations in their capitals.
The current
Israeli attack is being attributed by some commentators to the machinations of
Israeli politicians jockeying for power in the upcoming elections in that
country. But there is another consideration that is far more important. Of all
the Middle Eastern countries, it is Israel that stood to lose the most with the
incoming Presidency of Barack Obama later this month.
Obama
promised to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq and committed his administration to
pursuing diplomatic and political solutions ahead of military ones, not only in
Iraq, but also in other conflicts within the region. Iran has been strengthened
by the U.S. defeat in Iraq, while Israel was out-maneuvered by Hizballah in
Lebanon in 2006.
The writing
has been on the wall for the Israelis. The carte blanche given to that country
by past U.S. administrations to destabilize the region and pursue its
territorial ambitions could no longer be counted upon.
"People
around the world took Obama up on his promise of hope."
The
worldwide enthusiasm for the election of Barack Obama signaled a global desire
for change, people around the world are sick of the lies and wars, of the guns
and bombs.
A return to
the rule of law and an end to the Iraq war is what Obama promised, not only to
the American electorate, but to the entire world. The election of the first
Black President was an ecstatic moment for people of color around the world, as
it was for those white populations sickened by the racism and violence of
American empire-building. People around the world took Obama up on his promise
of hope, daring to believe that political change was coming.
Whether
President-elect Obama will, or can deliver what he promised is a question
people of color passionately debate with eyes wide open. The hope that a Black
man will stand up to the racial calculations that turn the ‘native' into a
‘thing', as Frantz Fanon put it, is palpable among many Muslims.
Obama's
public comments that he will welcome pressure from movements for social justice
won him some time and a measure of credibility. Surely there is no greater
cause for social justice than that of the Palestinian people. And Obama is the
first U.S. President who seems to understand the nature of the Palestinian
crisis prior to his election, as some who know him, including Ali Abunimah,
have pointed out.
In one fell
swoop, the Israelis have destroyed whatever momentum Obama might have mobilized
for a peaceful resolution of the blockade of Gaza and the siege that Gazans and
Hamas have endured. Israel has pushed Obama into a corner with this attack,
intensifying the suffering of the Palestinian people and making it all but
inevitable that retribution will follow.
"Obama is missing in action in this first challenge to his
Presidency."
A state of
war with its neighbours benefits Israel's ambitions in the region, even as it
secures support for Zionist lobbies in the western world. During the U.S.
election campaign, Vice-President Elect Joe Biden had warned that Obama would
be tested early in his presidency. Few expected the challenge to come from a
staunch U.S. ally and not from those contesting U.S. power.
Obama's
silence on the Gaza crisis grows more curious by the day; it has already cost
him much political capital. He appears weak and ineffectual even before his
inauguration, one more symbol of hope capitulating to the realpolitik of the
‘special' U.S./Israeli relationship.
As a
community organizer in Chicago, Obama understood the racial calculations that
shape the everyday lives of Black people in the U.S. With a Kenyan father who
was a Muslim, Obama surely understands the consequences of such racial
calculations at the international level. Palestinians have paid a heavy price
for their resistance to Israeli power. As a law professor, Obama most certainly
understands the terrible toll of surviving the crimes of an occupying power
bent on genocide.
Unfortunately,
Obama is missing in action in this first challenge to his Presidency. The
Israelis have used his own words to justify their aggression, and Obama has
responded with a deafening silence. This does not bode well for the future.
U.S. and
Israeli elites have a long history of buying off quislings to further their
interests. Obama needs to act quickly to prove he is not one of them.
Sunera Thobani teaches Women's Studies at the
University of British Columbia.
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