President Barack Obama urged Israel on Thursday to open its borders with Gaza.
The plea came in a speech that signalled the new US administration’s shift from Bush-era policy on the Middle East and the world as a whole. In a high-profile address on his second day in office, just hours after he signed an executive order to close the centre at Guantánamo Bay, Mr Obama proclaimed that the US would “actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians” in the wake of this month’s Gaza war.
“The outline for a durable ceasefire is clear: Hamas must end its rocket fire: Israel will complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza: the US and our partners will support a credible anti-smuggling and interdiction regime, so that Hamas cannot re-arm,” the US president said.
“As part of a lasting ceasefire, Gaza’s border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regime, with the international and Palestinian Authority participating.”
17 comments:
Why don't we have the "international community" police the Mexico-United States border and see how that flies here. Besides, why would Israel want the "international community" on their territory when the overwhelming majority of the "international community" constantly condemns them and likens them to Warmongerers and a country that commits war crimes/crimes against humanity. With all due respect, this is a very shitty start, Mr. President.
I hope Israel ignores Obama's advice. That would be insane to have the international community police the border. Most of the international community is rooting for Hamas. This would increase suicide bombings in Israel.
In the few days Obama has been President he has made a very solid start to being exactly the asshole I feared he would be.
2 days, and already the Messiah has the chutzpah to insert the "international community" within Israel's borders . . .Samantha Powers would be impressed.
Pastorius,
Didn't Obama say he was going to side with the Muslims somewhere? I hate to say it, but America is really starting to act too politically correct here. The Palestinians are the ones who refuse to live in peace, not the Israelis. To act like both sides are morally equivalent is wrong. Israel should be allowed to do what ever it needs to do to defend itself. Ideally we would either help them militarily and or financially or stay out of it. So in the mean time we really should also stop demanding that Israel sign these futile peace deals. However I doubt Obama will do that.
Obama wrote in one of his autobiographies (I don't remember if it was part I or part II) that if the tide turned ugly against Muslims in the United States, that he would side with them.
I don't remember the exact quote, and I'm not sure I am quoting it in a fair way, but that was the gist of it.
Ah, here it is:
http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2008/02/i-will-stand-wi.html
The actual quote from the book is from page 261 and is as follows: "Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
But the border with Egypt is effectively non-existent, rendered so by the smuggling tunnels.
Abu,
Yep, and the fact that those tunnels are there shows that Egypt is acting to attempt to keep the Gazans out of their country, just as Israel is attempting to do the same thing.
So, why does Obama not insist on making THAT his first priority?
Pastorius,
I sincerly hope that when the winds turn ugly, he brakes his word and sides with his country over "the Muslims."
How about African-American communities "opening their doors" to Neo-Nazis and KKK thugs? Yeah, I'm sure that suggestion would go over well.
That's a very good comparison. Thanks for that.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6604775898578139565
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.
Abu Abdullah,
He's been in office only a couple days, and already he's giving us reasons to make sure that he is a one term president.
...And, if not, then why Israel? What is his real purpose here?..
His real purpose is to allow for the destruction of Israel and at the same time leave himself a way out, typical passive-agressive double dealing. He knows very well that Israel will not be safe if the "international community" is going to have anything to do with it. I mean...wow the international community has already done such an upstanding job in Africa already, right?
In Mary's Image,
That seems to be the case. I think you are right.
I want to insure folks that Obama doesn't really want Israel nuked, or destroyed, despite all the evidence of such. He simply hasn't a clue about anything going on in the world. While America's socialist press was mocking Palin as being ignorant, Obama got a free pass on about 500 ignorant statements that showed how unaware he was of the world at large.
Anonymous,
Ignorance would be preferable to malevolence, I guess.
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