Al Jazeera: Tariq Ali om amerikansk udenrigspolitik i Mellemøsten.

Obamas Foreløbige Udenrigspolitik.

Det oprindelige indlæg er blevet slettet, men jeg refererer i stedet til min artikel fra i år omhandlende Obamas udenrigspolitik efter nu to år ved magten. Den omhandler selvfølgelig på ingen måde alle aspekter ved denne, men giver blot et overblik over USAs fortsatte alliancer med stærkt kritisable regimer. Det kan læses på Kontradoxa.

Samtidig med dette kan man orientere sig nærmere om Obama's udenrigspolitik ved at trykke på tagsne nedenunder dette blogindlæg som linker til andre relevante artikler som har været bragt på bloggen.

Zunes om Obama og Israel.

Stephen Zunes, professor i politik og internationale studier ved San Francisco University, har idag en ganske god kronik om Obama-administrationens forhold til Israel.

During the fighting in January, Amnesty documented Israeli forces engaging in "direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects in Gaza, and attacks which were disproportionate or indiscriminate." The leader of Amnesty International's fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip and southern Israel noted how "Israeli forces used white phosphorus and other weapons supplied by the USA to carry out serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes." Amnesty also reported finding fragments of U.S.-made munitions "littering school playgrounds, in hospitals and in people's homes."

Obama and Israel's Military: Still Arm-in-Arm

Et interessant spørgsmål til præsidenten, men intet svar.

følgende er to spørgsmål som Helen Thomas fra Huffington Post stillede Barack Obama ved hans første pressemøde. Bemærk hvordan han behændigt undgår at svare på det sidste af spørgsmålene.

Question: Mr. President, do you think that Pakistan and -- are maintaining the safe havens in Afghanistan for these so-called terrorists? And, also, do you know of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?

Obama: Well, I think that Pakistan -- there is no doubt that, in the FATA region of Pakistan, in the mountainous regions along the border of Afghanistan, that there are safe havens where terrorists are operating.

And one of the goals of Ambassador Holbrooke, as he is traveling throughout the region, is to deliver a message to Pakistan that they are endangered as much as we are by the continuation of those operations and that we've got to work in a regional fashion to root out those safe havens.

It's not acceptable for Pakistan or for us to have folks who, with impunity, will kill innocent men, women and children. And, you know, I -- I believe that the new government of Pakistan and -- and Mr. Zardari cares deeply about getting control of the situation. We want to be effective partners with them on that issue.

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.