HUH?

This article makes so many assumptions about Obama (”he won’t change”, he’s an “elitist”) that it barely warrants the time to read it.

McCain/Palin are seriously dangerous. Palin is TRULY scary. I’d venture that her grasp of Middle East issues is equivalent to a third-grader.

Here’s an interesting email that someone sent to everyone he knows in Chicago and then cc’d to me. I thought i would share it since it is public now … to give you an idea of the challenges that peace activists face:

# # # #

I don’t support the Israeli labor party.
Do you support the Israeli labor party?

It is the party that is led now by Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense (war) minister.
It is the party of David Ben-Gurion, who gave the orders to ethnically cleanse
the Land of Palestine of its Arab people. It is the party of Golda Meir who
said there are no Palestinians. It is the party that is the senior member of the
Israeli government with Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party. It is the Israeli government
that denies our Palestinian Arabs their basic human rights. It is the party that
occupies the land of Palestine. It is the party that sends its armed soldiers to
kill the Palestinian women and children.

Why am I writing this to you now? Because Ray Hananiya supports this party
and he is holding a fund raising comedy night on 10/8/2008 in Oak Park to
raise funds for the re-election of one of the members of this labor party in
the Israeli Knesset, who happen to be an Israeli Arab from Jaffa.
I called and talked to Ray about this when I got the flyer to donate for this.
Ray told me that he supports this labor party and this lady Nadia Hilou.

If you support the labor party and the Israeli occupation go ahead donate for
Ray’s efforts. But if you are opposed to the Israeli occupation and to the labor
party of the Israeli government please stay away and let Ray Hananiya know
how you feel about his support to the labor party of the Israeli government.
Here is Ray’s email : rayhanania@comcast.net

Daoud
daoud0928@sbcglobal.net

# # # #
Ray Hanania
http://www.TheMediaOasis.com

Can you please define for me what a pro-Arab candidate is? To me, a pro-Arab candidate is one who from the very begining was against the Iraq war, and someone who wants to speedily but intelligintly withdraw US forces from Iraq. A pro-Arab candidate is one who wants to talk to Iran instead of starting a war that will affect the entire region. A pro-Arab candidate would support the Syrian-Israeli peace talks, instead of castigating Syria as this administration has done. A pro-Arab candidate will start concilatory conversations between the people of war-torn Lebanon, stand up for the rights of women in conservative Arab societies, and help foster a slow but stable transition to democracy across the Arab world. Obama is much more qualified to tackle each of these issues, and he holds positions that are much more reasonable than McCain and Palin with their itchy trigger fingers.

Let us for a moment assume that Obama does not support the Palestinian cause (though I sincerely believe that he does based on my readings in Haaretz, in Hebrew unfortunately). Would he not be a great president for Arabs if he made significant advances on each issue on the above agenda, but still hold pro-Israeli position that is not too kind to the Palestinians? Honestly, can one be pro-Arab and anti-Palestinian? What about pro-Arab and pro-Israeli?

I know it must be frustrating hearing candidate after candidate kiss AIPAC’s ass over the years. But believe me, hearing Olmert brown nose Bush isn’t much better. Israeli leaders are not allowed to question how much of our independence we surrender to Washington, sort of like how US leaders aren’t allowed to question Israel’s role in shaping US policy. No Israeli leader can advance a policy that goes “against” US interest, be it making peace with Syria or securing a military contract that the US wants given to an American company. You see, the taboo is 2-sided. It would be nice if both societies paused for a moment and assessed where their relationship is taking them. In the end though, I honestly believe that Israel will have to pay for stupid US policy more than AMerica will have to pay for stupid Israeli policy.

McCain is the lesser of two evils.

Are you sure about that? McCain and Palin seem to be totally out of control and will pose a great danger to every single country in the Middle East, with the obvious exception of Israel which Palin addresses here.

PALIN: Well, first, we are friends of Israel, and I don’t think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves, and for their security.

GIBSON: So if we didn’t second guess it and if they decided they needed to do it, because Iran was an existential threat, we would be cooperative or agree with that?

PALIN: I don’t think we can second guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.

GIBSON: So if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right?

PALIN: We cannot second guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself.

Very disturbing. Palin sucks.

The only caveat is that eight weeks to the election, one could easily switch from one choice to the other since they both suck so bad.

Ray Hanania
http://www.RadioChicagoland.com

How come Biden doesn’t rank high? He seem pretty pro-Israel to me:

“Because of our lack of a prevention strategy, we’re left with no option here, in my view, but to support Israel

Then it must be that the U.S never has a strategy or any other option than to support Israel entirely and unconditionally because it has done so on every account, throughout Israel’s history. Biden is not about to change that:

The Democrats’ support for Israel “comes from our gut, moves through our heart, and ends up in our head. It’s almost genetic.”

Barack seems to be really supportive of Israel as well, supporting them through every political action or attacks that they have made, as far as I can see here. I feel that just because he is not as “in your face” as some of those rabid racists, it doesn’t mean he’s not pro-Israel.

No influential U.S politican has the guts to stand up in his/her criticism of Israel without getting knocked out from all sides or considered a terrorist.

The presidential candidates are all sucking up to the pro-Israel lobby because the pro-Israel lobby is the ONLY game in town. The Arab lobby doesn’t exist.

First off, the pro-Israel lobby (and in general, most other lobbies also) is a bit more complex than you stated. THere is more than just AIPAC. THere are also many CHristian organizations like Christian Friends of Israel. They support Israel because they believe in the second coming of Christ, during which all the Jews will accept Jesus Christ as their savior or be eternally burned. Plenty of those consider themselves “Zionists”. These people are not really Israel’s friends, and though they do have some Jewish friends in AIPAC, they operate independently of AIPAC and are not controled by Jews. They are “friends” with far-right Israeli political parties and organizations, so long as the armageddon topic does not come up in discussion.

Also, Joe Biden is not considered pro-Israel by the Israeli media or many Jews. Have you seen this? Neither Obama nor Biden rank particularly high.

But most importantly is the idea that the is no anti-Israel lobby. That lobby already exists and it is big and powerful and it competes with (and often wins)the pro-Israel lobby for influence in Washington. It’s called big oil. Yes, the oil lobby supports many positions that are against Israel. It’s just not discussed in newspapers and TV. No country wants America off oil more than Israel. From Israel’s perspective, America is at the mercy of the Arabs and their oil. Every year AMerica throws much more money (directly and indirectly by driving up demand) at governments of anti-Israel oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Sudan, Russia, Venezuela, than it gives to Israel to buy US-made weapons. But sadly, the leaders of these countries prefer to keep the money to themselves instead of helping the Palestinians. Think about it.

So in conclusion, I support Barack Hussein Obama for president.

There’s nothing wrong with being pro-Israel, but oftentimes the candidates embrace the most extremist views supporting Israel that reject principle and fairness needed to resolve the Middle East conflict peacefully.

Like Clinton embracing the idea of “obliterating Iran” just to please this audience.