A Speech That Even If Netanyahu Had Written it Would Not Have Been Worse

This time last year, I arrived in New York to follow the sessions of the UN General Assembly, as I have been doing for thirty years now. I did not check in at my hotel, but left my luggage with the porters and hurried to the General Assembly Hall, only to be surprised by Muammar Gaddafi shouting, raving, and tearing some papers. This year, I entered the hall only to be shocked by President Obama delivering an Israeli speech in the name of the United States. Each year I say to myself, ‘this will be the last time’. But the profession soon gets the better of me and I return there. Today too, I say ‘this is the last time’ and I mean it, but I cannot guarantee that I will not come back here again next year. What do I have to say today? In the days that preceded the appointed time for the Palestinian bid for statehood at the Security Council, there were three out of 15 members that declared they would reject the bid: Germany, which created the problem of Israel for the Palestinians by massacring European Jews, the United States, which is the cause behind the persistence of the problem with the support it extends to the fascist state of occupation, destruction and murder, and Colombia, a country that sells drugs to the Americans so that they remain ‘stoned’ and unable to see how Israel ruins their country’s economy and reputation as a pioneer in human rights. President Obama’s speech at the General Assembly on Wednesday is a document that will be preserved in history, attesting to the fall of the so-called American leadership of the world, and the fall of the President personally. The United States cannot claim to be a supporter of human rights and still support Israel. All claims about supporting the Arab uprisings seeking freedom and democracy are in vain, as long as America is Israel’s full accomplice in the oppression of Palestinians and in denying them their rights. President Obama was cheered by the students in Cairo as he reached out to Arabs and Muslims around the world, after Bush’s years that saw one million Arabs and Muslims being killed. I cheered him personally at the General Assembly last year, when he said that he wanted to see Palestine a member of the United Nations next year, i.e. this year, and specifically this month. This same Obama delivered a speech on Wednesday that could not have been worse, even if Benjamin Netanyahu had written it, and he condemned himself before anyone else in the process. Barack Obama lost the political will, and lost his liberal electoral base that brought him to the White House, as he attempted in vain to be a President of all Americans, and ended up not representing any political faction. The Republicans, who destroyed the U.S. and world economy through the Bush administration, are blaming Obama today for their own misdeeds. They welcomed the President in New York by giving a warm reception to the governor of Texas Rick Perry, an extremist Christian evangelist from George W. Bush’s school – his friend and patron. Perry accused Obama of appeasing ‘terrorists’ and betraying Israel, and of caving in to the Arab public, as in the revolution of the Egyptian youths. I say that Perry is betraying everything the United States has represented since the independence in 1776, and that Israel is a terrorist state that is the source of all terrorism in the Middle East, including the terrorism on the other side, as it would have never existed were it not for the Hebrew state. The New York Times is liberal in everything except when it comes to Israel. This newspaper thus welcomed Obama in New York with a front-page story entitled “House GOP Finds a Growing Bond With Netanyahu”. The story begins with the administration requesting the Israeli Prime Minister to ask the Congress not to obstruct the payment of 50 million dollars in U.S. financial assistance to the Palestinian National Authority last month. Thus, an Israeli war criminal is mediating between the President of the United States and the U.S. Congress to execute a U.S. policy. This is collapse incarnate, and the entire story in my opinion is aimed at intimidating Obama and preventing him from offering any concession to the Palestinians. The prominent American conservative writer Patrick Buchanan once said that the Capitol building was Israeli-occupied territory, and the New York Times, Rick Perry and Benjamin Netanyahu have only proven the truthfulness of his words. Today, New York, particularly Manhattan, and the area around the UN headquarters, is Israeli-occupied land. I arrived yesterday, and were it not for the requirements of my job, I would have left it today. khazen@alhayat.com