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AIPAC delegates applaud Barack Obama as he gives one of the most

controversial speeches of the campaign. His clear call for an undivided

Jerusalem pleased Israel but crushed Palestinians and Arabs. But is all

this just election-year posturing?

 

 

Die Welt, Germany

Is Barack Obama a Pro-Arab Pacifist or a 'Zionist Poodle'?

 

"Before liberal students, he portrays himself as a true pacifist. However, before the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC - the acronym for the praised or damned Jewish lobby - he declares with the deepest conviction that there will be no limits when it comes to preventing Iran from manufacturing nuclear weapons."

 

By Lord George Weidenfeld*

                                                 

 

Translated By Ulf Behncke

 

June 14, 2008

 

Germany - Die Welt - Original Article (German)

The candidate of American Democrats, Barack Obama, is campaigning with the help of the American Jewish lobby. Going further than many presidential candidates before him; Obama calls for an "undivided Jerusalem " and threatens to do "everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

 

OBAMA PLEASES ISRAEL, ANGERS ARABS AT AIPAC

 

 

Unedifying scenes are playing out in the camps of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. A close associate of the Clinton campaign returned to London from the campaign trail and poured her heart out over the "betrayal" by long-time partisans of the couple, secret lists of "defectors" and the arrogant behavior of Old-Clintonians toward the new generation.

 

In all seriousness, some see a promising candidate in popular daughter Chelsea - sixteen years from now . One of the central reasons for the official reconciliation between Clinton and Obama seems to be that it will enable Senator Clinton to have the financial contributions she made to her own campaign refunded by the winner - something that is completely legitimate.

 

Libyan ruler Muammar Qadhafi comments on U.S. democracy and 'our Kenyan brother' Barack Obama, expressing dissapointment with Obama's  comments to AIPAC, June 11.

Al-Jazeera TV, Qatar: Qadhafi warns that Obama Suffers Inferiority Complex That Might Make Him Behave 'Whiter Than the White,' June 11, 00:07:43RealVideo

Confusing for many voters are the contradictory statements that Obama has made about the most controversial foreign policy issues. On the question of the moment: "How should we deal with Iran?," Obama offers ambiguous answers. Before liberal students, he portrays himself as a true pacifist. However, before the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC - the acronym for the praised or damned Jewish lobby - he declares with the deepest conviction that there will be no limits when it comes to preventing Iran from manufacturing nuclear weapons.

 

Furthermore, he argued in favor of an "undivided Jerusalem," a phrase that even some of the Jewish state's staunchest supporters dare not express so openly. Indeed, some of his spokespeople later tried to play down the highlights of his positively pro-Israeli speech. But in the Arab world these unleashed a storm of indignation. [See links to the Arab reaction below.]

 

Commentaries from the Arabic press and editorials in the Syrian, Egyptian and, above all, Iranian press, accuse him of duplicity. A Hamas spokesman in Gaza even went so far as to call him a creature of the Israelis, a "Zionist poodle" and a traitor to the Arab cause. Ambivalence during an election campaign may be inevitable, but could bring considerable difficulties should Obama become president.

 

In Europe, efforts by the generally-overrated Jewish lobby in America are accorded far more importance than they deserve. In the meantime, Arab propaganda is also very active, in particular at universities.

 

The Islamic Saudi Academy of Virginia: The institution is under attack for it religious curriculum, which is said to include material that incites racism and intolerance toward other religions.

 

Al-Jazeera TV, Qatar: TV Report on the Controversy over the Islamic Saudi Academy in Virginia, June 17, 00:03:22RealVideo

Centers for Middle East studies and Islamic culture at elite universities in the English-speaking world enjoy generous financial support. In the last ten years, €270 million has been disbursed. In addition there are religious schools, the Madrassas, which are inspired and run primarily by radical Saudi-Arabian Wahhabis.

 

Increasingly there are also academic boycotts directed against scientific cooperation with Israeli universities and research facilities.

 

These violate the basic principles of academic freedom. The next U.S. President - whatever he may or may have not said during this bitter and turbulent election campaign - will have to dedicate himself to intellectual decontamination.

 

*Lord George Weidenfeld is a publisher, philanthropist and news columnist born in Austria who is now a British citizen

 

CLICK HERE FOR GERMAN VERSION

 

SEE ALSO:

 

Al-Wahdawi, Yemen

Palestinians Must

Campaign to 'Alter

Obama's Position'

http://worldmeets.us/alwahdawi000001.shtml

 

Al-Arab Al-Yawm, Jordan

Obama: The Dream

Candidate is a

'Prisoner of War' ...

http://worldmeets.us/alarabalyawm000004.shtml

 

Al Seyassah, Kuwait

If It Were I In

Obama's Place!

http://worldmeets.us/alseyassah000018.shtml