During his visit to Israel on July 2008, President-elect Barack Obama told the media: “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters [Malia, 10 and Sasha, 7] sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” However, on the slaughter of Palestinian children by Israeli forces, Obama has failed to condemn Israel and seems to espouse sickening contradictions.

On December 30, 2008, Michael Hogan of Vanity Fair challenged Obama to stand-up to Israel’s terror against the Palestinian people and free himself of America’s chronic double-standards and pathological hypocrisy and stand-up for Israel’s terror against the Palestinian people. Hogan writes: “Early next year, I’d like to hear him say something like this: ‘If somebody uprooted my family, placed us in a glorified refugee camp, and wouldn’t allow us to travel or trade with the outside world, I would do everything in my power to fight back. I would expect Palestinians to do the same thing’.” Hogan’s challenge failed on deaf ears. Without America’s immoral contradictions, it is hard to envision how the slaughter of Palestinian children would be possible. The U.S. gives Israel $3 billion in U.S. taxpayer money each year. The F-16 bombers, Apache attack helicopters and bombs Israel is using on Gaza’s children were paid for by the Americans.

As an excuse, Obama insisted that, he would not comment on Israel’s aggression in Gaza because “there is only one president at a time”. However, Obama's silence contrasted with his willingness to comment on the economy and the Mumbai (India) attacks last November. Of course, Obama and every U.S. Congressman and Congresswoman, every Western journalist and pundit know that Israel is deliberately targeting of Palestinian children and its use of Palestinian children for training to kill and as human shields to protect Israeli soldiers from Palestinian resistance fighters.

Commenting on Obama’s concern for Israeli Children, the Palestinian-American commentator, Ali Abunimah writes: “Obama has identified his daughters repeatedly with Israeli children, while never having uttered a word about the thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese children killed and permanently maimed by Israeli attacks just since 2006. This allegedly post-racial president appears fully invested in the racist worldview that considers Arab lives to be worth less than those of Israelis and in which Arabs are always ‘terrorists’”.

It is still early to tell if Obama will break with George Bush’s criminal legacy and make any significant changes to America’s imperialist and violent foreign policy that infected the U.S. since the end of World War II. So far (and as a Senator), Obama has shown no courage to stand up - with the rest of the civilised world – to Israel’s terror against Palestinians. He has shown to be just another creation of the pro-Israel Jewish Lobby that dominates the U.S. ruling class.

Palestinian children are dying: shame on you, Mr Obama.

http://www.countercurrents.org/hassan070109.htm