tirsdag den 10. februar 2009

Change?

Den generelt interessant forfatningsadvokat og kommentator ved salon.com, Glenn Greenwald har de sidste par dage haft nogle interessante kommentarer til obama-administrations sikkerhedspolitik, som synes at være en 180 graders kovending, fra retorikken under valgkampen - som var stærkt kritisk overfor Bush-administrationens magtpraksis i sikkerhedspolitiske sager omhandlende ofrene for de såkaldte renditions, hvor man simpelthen nægtede ofrene en fri rettergang med statens sikkerhed som påskuddet - til nu hvor selvsamme tvivlsomme begrundelse tages i brug.

læs mere her.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/10/obama/print.html
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/09/state_secrets/index.html

Derudover er der selvfølgelig hele Israel-politikken, som bestemt ikke synes at have forandret sig den mindste smule, idet Hillary Clinton ved et pressemøde i state dept. igår udtalte:

"...we have a very clear policy toward Hamas, and Hamas knows the conditions that have been set forth. They must renounce violence. They must recognize Israel. And they must agree to abide by prior agreements that were entered into by the Palestinian Authority.

We are just at the beginning of this deep and consistent engagement that we are part of, that Senator Mitchell is leading for our Administration, but our conditions with respect to Hamas have not and will not change. It is our hope that the work that needs to be done to move the parties toward an effort to settle many of the disputes that they currently confront will be effective. But Hamas knows that it must stop the rocket fire into Israel. There were rockets yesterday, there were rockets this morning. And it is very difficult to ask any nation to do anything other than defend itself in the wake of that kind of consistent attack. So that's not new news. You know what our position is. It is something that the President has set forth.

We are not able to, you know, look into the future to see whether there will be changes on the part of Hamas that would meet our conditions. But you know, certainly, that would be a clear path for them to follow. We are going to report to the President in the next day. And, you know, we'll have more to say as this process moves forward. But again, I want to thank Senator Mitchell for undertaking one of the most difficult assignments that anyone could be willing to shoulder.

And we want to send a clear message, as he did, both listening and responding during the last week, that the United States is committed to this path, and we are going to work as hard as we can over what period of time is required to try to help the parties make progress together. So thank you all very much."

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/02/115864.htm

Israels angreb på hvad der i sin essens er verdens største fængsel, med en befolkningstæthed som Hong Kong og en fattigdom som i Mozambique, er selvfølgelig at betragte som selvforsvar, mens Hamas må droppe al vold og anerkende Israel.

Det bliver interessant at se hvad Hillary og resten af administrationen har af kommentarer, når Netanyahu imorgen, hvis alt går som forventet, vinder valget, idet Netanyahu ønsker at fortsætte overgrebene på Gaza's civilbefolkning, og bestemt ikke anerkender nogen idé om en palæstinensisk
stat. Hvis alt går som jeg regner med, vil hykleriet ingen ende tage, men lad os nu se.

Den tidligere omtalte Greenwald har i øvrigt også en interessant kommentar til den amerikanske politik ift. Israel som uddyber det jeg netop har skrevet.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/09/israel/index.html"

sidst men ikke mindst, et lille interview med den kontroversielle amerikansk-jødiske intellektuelle Norman Finkelstein, der har måtte vinke sin akademiske karriere pænt farvel pga. sin åbenmundede kritik af Israels aggressivitet.