As the news out of ಗಾಜಾ makes international headlines, Democracy Now! took a look at where the Republican and Democratic presidential contenders stand on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Democracy Now! spoke with Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah on 24 January:
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to ಚಿಕಾಗೊ to Ali Abunimah, the co-founder of the online publication The Electronic Intifada, author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Ali Abunimah. Your response to what’s happening now in ಗಾಜಾ, from here in the ಯುನೈಟೆಡ್ ಸ್ಟೇಟ್ಸ್?
ALI ABUNIMAH: Well, I’d like to say that the suffering in ಗಾಜಾ has been so unremitting and so horrible and will continue. But I think we have to recognize and celebrate the resistance and the power of the people in ಗಾಜಾ. And we have to recognize that there has been a deliberate siege on them by ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್, a decision taken by the leaders of ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ to starve and inflict suffering on a million-and-a-half people.
ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಈಜಿಪ್ಟ್ has been complicit in this. They could have opened the borders months ago. ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ has been besieging ಗಾಜಾ for almost two years in this way. ಈಜಿಪ್ಟ್ didn’t have to wait until Palestinians took matters into their own hands to free themselves from this barbaric siege.
ನಮ್ಮ ಯುನೈಟೆಡ್ ಸ್ಟೇಟ್ಸ್ is complicit. And, by the way, Amy, this is another setback for the Bush Doctrine. The people of ಗಾಜಾ have been the victims of an experiment by the Bush administration and ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್, where, first of all, they had a democratic election. The US ಮತ್ತು ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ didn’t like that result, so they tried to overthrow Hamas using Contra-style militias and using a starvation siege. Hamas turned the tables on them and got rid of those militias. So they decided to tighten the siege on the people of ಗಾಜಾ, and the people of ಗಾಜಾ decided to break out of it themselves.
But the thing we have to absolutely focus on is the responsibility here. ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್, as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, remains fully responsible for everything that happens there. Under Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, passed, by the way, after the horrors of ಎರಡನೇ ಮಹಾಯುದ್ಧ, ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ is legally required to provide as much food, water, medicine and fuel as the civilian population needs.
And the excuse that the Israelis are using, that they’re doing this in response to rocket fire, we know for a fact that ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ has rejected ceasefire after ceasefire put forward by Hamas and other Palestinian factions. We know for a fact that there are no rockets coming out of the ವೆಸ್ಟ್ ಬ್ಯಾಂಕ್. ಮತ್ತು ಇನ್ನೂ ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ continues to carry out extrajudicial executions in the West Bank and military attacks on ನಾಬ್ಲಸ್, on Balata refugee camp and all the other places in the ವೆಸ್ಟ್ ಬ್ಯಾಂಕ್.
We have to be clear that what ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ is trying to do is a massive experiment in ethnic cleansing to get rid of a million-and-a-half people who do not fit its demographic desires and the desire to remain a state where one ethnic group has special and better rights by virtue of its religion. That’s what’s going on.
AMY GOODMAN: Ali Abunimah, I wanted to ask you about the candidates in the ಯುನೈಟೆಡ್ ಸ್ಟೇಟ್ಸ್. You’re speaking to us from ಚಿಕಾಗೊ, so let’s start with Barack Obama. The stances of the presidential Democratic and Republican candidates on the Israel-Palestine conflict — I can’t remember when in a debate they were asked about the mounting crisis there.
ALI ABUNIMAH: I don’t know if they’ve been asked in a debate, but whenever they have been asked, they have all gone out of their way to express full support for what ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ is doing. Barack Obama is not distinguished from the rest of the pack, except by for how far he has moved to try to appease AIPAC and pro-Israel movements.
I remember, Amy — I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator — when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in ಚಿಕಾಗೊ 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 ವೆಸ್ಟ್ ಬ್ಯಾಂಕ್. 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 ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ and saying how ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ was forced to impose this barbaric medieval siege on [ಗಾಜಾ].
None of the other candidates in the mainstream have spoken out for Palestinian rights. The only ones who have taken forceful positions opposing the current US strategy are Dennis Kucinich on the Democratic side and Ron Paul on the Republican side. The mainstream are all perfectly comfortable with the war crimes that ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ is committing, no matter how much they talk about human rights elsewhere.
AMY GOODMAN: Hillary Clinton, her view on the Israel-Palestine conflict, specifically also what’s happening now in ಗಾಜಾ?
ALI ABUNIMAH: Again, we saw Hillary Clinton, the moment her political ambitions became pronounced, shift. You’ll remember, when she spoke in the 1990s in favor of a Palestinian state, since then she has become one of the most anti-Palestinian hawks. For example, a couple of years ago, she went and staged a photo opportunity in an Israeli settlement by the apartheid wall and talked about how the wall was necessary. This wall, of course, which has been condemned as illegal by the International Court of Justice, which has ordered ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ to tear it down, Hillary Clinton went and stood in front of it and endorsed it.
And we’ve seen that time and again. John Edwards, the same, staunchly pro-Israel. On the Republican side, you have John McCain, who talks like a maverick on other issues, but on this one he has gone out of his way to offer full support for ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್. You have Huckabee, who is on the Christian evangelical right, that is historically not very friendly towards Jewish people, but is very strongly pro-Israel for reasons of biblical prophecy. And Huckabee, who is — according to a report in The Jerusalem Post, talked about a Palestinian state in ಈಜಿಪ್ಟ್ or Saudi ಅರೇಬಿಯಾ, so really talking about the forced transfer or ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians as a solution. That, unfortunately, is the level of discourse.
And maybe it’s because there’s such a consensus in the mainstream on unconditional support for ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್, no matter how illegal its actions or how harmful they are to the ಯುನೈಟೆಡ್ ಸ್ಟೇಟ್ಸ್, perhaps because there’s such a consensus, that’s why there’s no debate.
AMY GOODMAN: Governor Romney?
ALI ABUNIMAH: Governor Romney, I haven’t heard his specific words, except that he has been particularly outspoken in claiming that Islamic militancy, of which he claims Palestinians are a part, is the greatest threat to the ಯುನೈಟೆಡ್ ಸ್ಟೇಟ್ಸ್. And what we’ve seen is this debate happening, this discussion happening in a broader context, Amy, where many of the candidates, not just on the Republican side, whereas they claim to be running against Bush or at least away from Bush, have actually absorbed some of the basic tenets of Bush’s world view, which sees the ಯುನೈಟೆಡ್ ಸ್ಟೇಟ್ಸ್ and the West engaged in this massive civilizational struggle against Islam. It’s a very dangerous and false idea.
And many Muslims feel that they are now the targets of a hysteria, which is similar or has even become worse than the anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s, where Islamic militancy is under every bed and where any form of resistance, any form of resistance to US imperialism, to Israeli colonization and occupation, is defined as extremism. And there’s nobody who’s — you’re not even allowed to go and get food for your family from ಈಜಿಪ್ಟ್ if you’re starving without being called an extremist, without being accused of militancy or terrorism. That’s level we’ve reached.
No resistance is permitted, Amy. But what we’ve seen from ಗಾಜಾ and what we’ve seen time and again in ಲೆಬನಾನ್ is that resistance will continue, that people will not quietly accept the fate that has been designed for them in the boardrooms of the Pentagon and the White House and the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. People will resist.
AMY GOODMAN: Ali Abunimah, I want to thank you very much for joining us from ಚಿಕಾಗೊ, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada. His book is called One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
ZNetwork ತನ್ನ ಓದುಗರ ಔದಾರ್ಯದ ಮೂಲಕ ಮಾತ್ರ ಹಣವನ್ನು ಒದಗಿಸುತ್ತದೆ.
ಡಿಕ್ಷನರಿ