Hamas: 1 – Obama’s Mideast Policy: O
Posted on 27. Aug, 2010 by James Devere in Political Commentary
Depending on how one views the rule of law vs. extremism, it is either Hamas: 1 – Obama’s Mideast Policy: 0 or Turkey and Hamas have come together to solve that pesky Gaza problem for the Administration. Obama has either been knocked out in the first round of the tourney or is setting up for a run in the loser’s bracket. An Administration official commented today that the Administration would push Israel to relax their weapons blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“There is no question that we need a new approach to Gaza,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the policy shift is still in the early stages. He was reflecting a broadly held view in the upper reaches of the administration…
[W]orld powers have grown increasingly disillusioned with the blockade, saying that it has created far too much suffering in Gaza and serves as a symbol not only of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians but of how the West is seen in relation to the Palestinians.
“Gaza has become the symbol in the Arab world of the Israeli treatment of Palestinians, and we have to change that,” the senior American official said. “We need to remove the impulse for the flotillas. The Israelis also realize this is not sustainable.”
A Larger Game at Play
Does it make sense to continue to distance ourselves from our strongest ally in the Middle East? There is a global game at work here; there are similarities to so much of the Administration’s rhetoric. How often have we heard the phrase “this is not sustainable”? Our healthcare system was “not sustainable,” our immigration policy is “not sustainable,” deficit spending is “not sustainable,” our energy policy is “not sustainable.” ”Not sustainable” is quickly becoming the scariest phrase in political language. Every time the tag “not sustainable” gets used, the government seems to make matters worse.
This parallels the Arizona border controversy. In order to say that Israel was wholly in the wrong, it must be assumed that their citizens have no right to a secure border. Imagine immigrant activists attacking a group of border border patrol agents or police officers and our government doing nothing about the pr0blem . . . Okay, I guess that is a bad example since it has already happened. What is happening is that there is a larger game at play. The Obamaborder is going global.
Humanitarian Aid is Needed
The position taken by the media is that the humanitarian floatilla was barred from bring the desperately needed supplies to the poor, starving residents of Gaza. The implications conjure images of the people of Gaza dying in the streets for lack of humanitarian aid, of Muslims dependent on a rag-tag fleet of luxury yachts to pull them back from the brink of annihilation at the hands of the angry Israelis.
It seems the media got the narrative partially right; there are people in the Muslim world dying in the streets (or they would be if they had streets). There is a people on the brink of annihilation,but it is at the hands of Muslim raiders. The media was just a few countries off. Below is a photo of the Darfur region of Somalia. Their floatilla is certainly on the way soon.
Muslims are Being Abused
Again, the media has hit narrative on the head, there is abuse of Muslims around the world. There are terrible abuses of human rights in the Muslim world, ranging from the caning of unescorted women to acid attacks on school girls who dared to get an education. None of these have been at the hand of the Israeli government.
Who’s side are we on? There is no PR opportunity to be gained by helping women and children in Muslim countries. It seems that our Administration, along with Flotilla activists, are only interested in political power. There is little humanitarian interest in the Flotilla or our continued snubbing/bashing of Israel. Obama and Hamas are in a battle for the exploitation of one of the biggest political pawns in the history of foreign policy: the Palestinian people. And Hamas just schooled our Administration on the playground of politics.
These pictures are disturbing to say the least. But what goads me is exactly the point of this article; this government is consistently on the wrong side of the issue. Whether it is national security, fiscal responsibility, or the lives of the innocent and unprotected, the administrations policies hurt the most vulnerable.