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."
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'scomments to AIPAC, June 11.
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.
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
