Obama abases himself for Israel

I'm sorry to say that one of my senators in Congress is Mark Kirk, the man more heavily financed by the Israel lobby than any other Congressman when he was a representative from Illinois and still their poster-boy as a senator.

He considers himself a champion for Israel and has lately been spouting the kind of nonsense one could expect - that Israel is America's strongest ally, that it is the only democracy in the Middle East etc.

Things are changing in the world around him, however. Events have occurred that make him look even more foolish and out-of-touch than before.

The uprisings of Arabs in many countries in attempts to throw off their autocrats have upset the carefully arranged applecart that provided a tight lid preventing democracy for millions. With the ouster of Mubarak, Israel is worried that the U.S. payoff that provided Egyptian compliance with the oppression of the Palestinians may fail to work. At the same time, the U.S. was put in the awkward position of having to support the ouster of the man it had happily supported for three decades.

The release of the Wikileaks "Palestine Papers" provided proof, if any were needed, that the Palestinian Authority was quite willing to sell out the Palestinian people in negotiations with Israel. The Palestinian Authority, by the way, is paid with U.S. funds to (here's that same phrase again) keep a lid on Palestinian unrest by way of a U.S. trained police force (remember that Palestinians may not otherwise be armed and that Israeli settlers in the occupied territories are armed).

The revelations were also significant because they showed not only that the PA is a puppet but that Israel had no interest in the puppet giving away the Palestinian store. The reason is that Israel wants all of the Palestinian land and always has, making the charade of the so-called Peace Process clear to all...except Mark Kirk.

Finally, and most significant, the President of the United States, after desperately talking to Palestinian President (though his term has expired) Mahmoud Abbas on the phone for the better part of an hour, failed to persuade him to withdraw a request for a UN Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements.

Obama's desperation was understandable because the resolution was essentially a statement of what is official U.S. policy, put forward by the Palestinians in a clear attempt to force the U.S. to show its dedication to Israel rather than its own policy. It was the little boy shouting that the emperor (the "honest broker for peace") had no clothes (was actually in Israel's pocket).

It worked. The result was the incredible veto two weeks ago of U.S. policy by the U.S. at the United Nations. In effect, the U.S. slapped itself in the face publicly for Israel and defied the world by alone opposing (1-14) the rest of the Security Council. To make it even more absurd, the U.S. representative to the U.N., Susan Rice, then said the U.S. still does oppose the Israeli settlements but the solution to the problem lay in the (now thoroughly discredited) peace process!

So Mark Kirk's pronouncements about Israel are now clearly seen to be what they have always been - meaningless statements that serve only to cover for the power of the Israel lobby in America, that power now confirmed by the President kneeling before it in the U.N.