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Writers Articles And Opinions |
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9 June 2009 By Glad Atzmon
I am very lucky to be in America this week, to watch a
place being transformed, to smell the refreshing scent
of restored liberty, to glance at the euphoric rise of
hope. When I visited America two years ago it was a
different place. There was fear in the air, the
country was terrorized by its own lethal retribution.
The gigantic American flags that were waving from
every corner had a rather threatening impact on me.
And now somehow, seeing exactly the same flags evokes
sympathy and trust in me.
Three days ago, at 5 am, still in my London home,
while waiting for the airport cab service, I caught
Justin Webb’s BBC interview with President Obama. I
will be honest and say, as much as I wanted to love
Obama like the rest of humanity, I was very suspicious
of the man. I remembered him rushing to appease AIPAC
within minutes after he secured his Democratic Party
nomination. We all knew about his first appointee
Emmanuel Rahm, we obviously learned quickly who Rahm
was and what he was affiliated with. In case we failed
to see it, we had Rahm’s father to remind us http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037256.html.
And yet, at 5 am, waiting for the driver to knock on
my front door, I was blown away by President Obama. I
wasn’t prepared for it and I simply couldn’t believe
my ears. When asked about Iran’s nuclear project,
this is was what President Obama had to say, “What I
do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy
concerns, legitimate aspirations. On the other hand,
the international community has a very real interest
in preventing nuclear arms in the region.”
This didn’t leave much room for interpretation, Obama
simply said ‘YES to nuclear energy, No to nuclear
bomb.’ I, on my part, actually believe that an Iranian
nuclear bomb is the necessary way forwards. It will
deter and restrain the Israeli leadership that had
been proving time after time that Israel is merciless
and murderous beyond comparison. However, approving
Iran’s legitimate right for nuclear energy was indeed
the right move. It left the BBC interviewer in a state
of confusion, he was probably as surprised as I was,
he wasn’t sure whether Obama really meant what he
said. He repeatedly challenged the President asking
whether Iran could have the “right to reprocess
energy?” Once again President Obama didn’t leave any
room for doubt. “We need,” he said, “to reinvigorate
a much broader agenda for nuclear nonproliferation -
including the United States and Russia drawing down
our stockpiles in very significant ways, to the extent
that Iran feels that they are treated differently than
anybody else. That makes them embattled.” Obama’s
message was lucid and transparent. It was also an
ethical and universal one. We are about to restore the
belief in humanity and brotherhood. President Obama
was there to remind us that the United State of
America was founded upon the ideal that all are
created equal. And this obviously applies to Iranians
and Muslims (not just Jews and Christian Zionists).
Watching a world leader talking sense, thinking
ethically and expressing himself eloquently is indeed
a rare, refreshing event these days. After years of
repulsive world hegemony invaded by Zionised Neocon
war mongering a la Bush and Blair. After years of
Western leaders dancing to Israeli cacophony composed
and orchestrated by different types of repulsive
Wolfowitzes, listening to Obama’s extended humanist
cadenza was indeed music to my ears.
With Obama’s shift in my mind, I was looking forward
to my trip to America. In spite of the credit crunch
inflicted on America by the enemy within, there is a
scent of cheerfulness in the air. As much as Bush and
Blair failed to liberate the Iraqi people, the
Americans have managed after all, to liberate
themselves. They left the keys to the White House in
the possession of a man, who at least verbally, is
inspired by humanism and tolerance. They have elected
an inspiring man of incredible intellectual esteem.
I am now in America for a week. I am meeting hundreds
of Palestinians and solidarity activists. I can
definitely detect a level of genuine optimism,
something I couldn’t even remotely feel two years ago.
America is expressing some real fatigue of its Ziocon
invaders. Not only have the Ziocons failed to achieve
anything. It made Americans accomplices in a colossal
crime, the Iraqi Holocaust that until now has cost
more than 1,300,000 civilian lives. It bought America
some fierce enemies all over the world and if this is
not enough, the financial meltdown is there to make
sure that each American will pay in the coming decades
a heavy personal price for both Wolfowitz’s wars and
Greenspan’s speculative capitalistic financial
models.
Being a lucky sod, I was here in America yesterday
when President Obama delivered his landmark Cairo
speech to the Muslim world. It is rather obvious that
Obama and his team were doing their homework. It seems
as if they manage to grasp what Islam stands for and
what Jihad means in particular. Obama’s speech is
immaculately structured to address the Islamic meaning
of Jihad. By doing so, Obama assures
America’s enemies that respect for Islam, to Allah and
Muslims is indeed restored.
Unlike his shameless predecessor, who for some
reason was sure that Islam and Fascism were one word,
Obama and his team realise that Islam is actually all
about Salam i.e., peace. ‘Armed jihad
is temporary in that it ends when the enemy
ceases its aggression.’ Obama grasped also that Korea
tells its followers to ‘move quickly to establish
peace once the enemy seeks peace.’ Obama comprehended
that America had been defeated in Iraq. He realises
that in Islam, ‘showing compassion to the enemy that
has been defeated or in seeking peace is considered
superior to achieving victory.’
Bearing it all in mind, Obama was ready for his Cairo
platform. Launching his speech greeting the Islamic
world with assalaamu alaykum he prepared the
ground for an outstanding speech. “I am here to talk
to you face to face. It is peace I am searching.”
Unlike the previous Zionised puppet, the current
American president understands the notion of mutuality
and respect.
“You and us,” he told his billion and a half Muslim
listeners, “share common principles - principles of
justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all
human beings.”
This is very interesting indeed, considering the fact
that these are the exact qualities that the previous
administration was lacking. Instead of justice and
progress it was reactionary bigotry. Instead of
tolerance and dignity it was overwhelmingly
supremacist, chauvinist and Ziocentric.
Obama is brave enough to admit that in spite of 9/11
being an ‘enormous trauma’, “it led us to act contrary
to our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to
change course.” Besides the fact that Obama confesses
here that mistakes had been made, he also hints that
actually the Bush administration and its Ziocon
ideologists were in essentially Non American by nature
for failing to understand the Americans ‘Ideals’. For
many years we speak about the elementary de-Zionification
of Israel. Surprisingly enough, the de-Zionification
of America seems to be more likely.
It is clear that Obama is not yet ready to depart from
his dedicated fundraisers. He still seems to be
committed to the Zionist phantasmic narrative. In
spite of the fact that Obama did not use the word
‘terror’ even once in his speech, he still seems to be
committed to the Israeli cause and the ‘Israeli right
to exist’ at the expense of others. “America's strong
bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is
unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical
ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a
Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that
cannot be denied.” Actually, I myself believe that it
can be easily denied. In fact there is no rational
reason for the Palestinians to be penalised for crimes
committed against Jews by Europeans.
However, as much as Obama seems to succumb to the
Zionist narrative, he doesn’t stop himself from the
necessary equation between the Jewish Holocaust and
the ongoing Palestinian holocaust that is committed by
the Jewish state in the name of the Jewish people.
“Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted
for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated
in an unprecedented Holocaust”, says the president,
but he then continues, “on the other hand, it is also
undeniable that the Palestinian people - Muslims and
Christians - have suffered in pursuit of a homeland.
For more than sixty years they have endured the pain
of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West
Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace
and security that they have never been able to lead.
They endure the daily humiliations - large and small -
that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt:
the situation for the Palestinian people is
intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the
legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity,
opportunity, and a state of their own.”
I think that this doesn’t leave a room for a doubt.
President Obama seems to realise what is going on. He
knows about the humiliation, he knows about the
starvation, he knows about Israelis using WMDs against
civilian population. He for the first time promises
one billion and a half Muslims around the world that
America will not turn its backs on the legitimate
Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a
state of their own.
Whether Obama keeps his promise time will tell,
however, the fact that he allows himself to juxtapose
the Holocaust and Gaza proves that he is a million
years ahead of most Palestinian solidarity campaigners
who are reluctant to engage in this necessary equation
just to avoid offending one Jew or another.
I may allow myself to advise the President that he is
slightly misinformed in regards to Palestinians and
their rights and aspirations. On top of ‘aspiration
for dignity’, ‘opportunity’ and ‘a state of their
own’, the Palestinians also have another fundamental
legitimate right in their disposal, it is the right to
return to their homes, villages, towns, lands, field
and orchards. In short we call it ‘the right of
return’.
Every Palestinian refugee holds such a legitimate
right within his disposal. Not a single Palestinian
leader will ever give this right away, and if this is
not enough, not a single world leader has the
authority to dismiss such a right. The right of return
is a right that belongs exclusively to the very owner
of the land, the Palestinian people themselves. It is
not a political matter for anyone to give away this
right collectively in the name of very many
Palestinians. As one extremely clever Palestinian
refugee pointed to me last night in Houston: “my land
near Safad”, so he said, “is my land, and no one can
negotiate its fate on my behalf. Neither a Palestinian
leader nor any other world leader.” I admit, as simple
as it is, I have never thought about it before. The
right of return is not a political matter or subject
for negotiation. Thus, it won’t be resolved
politically. It is an elementary fundamental right
that will be fulfilled, as long as it takes.
As much as I am inspired with Obama the intellectual,
I do also realise that putting his ideology into
practice may take some time. Obama should prove us
that he knows how to translate his beautiful words
into action. It is rather clear that Obama is
reluctant to put real pressure on the Jewish state. If
it were down to me, I would give the Israelis a
24-hour ultimatum to lift the closure on Gaza. Would
they fail to provide, I would call home my ambassador
in Tel Aviv, I would immediately stop any form of
financial and military aid to Israel, I would freeze
Israeli assets for being a terrorist state, I would
also start a rapid deportation of Israelis from
America. But as it seems, at least momentarily, I am
not Obama, I am just a non-elected monarch of the
Gilad Atzmon & the Orient House Ensemble. President
Obama, on the other hand, is the elected president of
the American people, he may know what he is doing.
The president has still long way to go. And yet,
President Obama has made a major step in the last few
days. He is now marching America towards humanism. He
reclaims the American ideology of liberty. I salute
the man, I salute the great intellect, I salute the
humanist. Gladly I am to admit that God blessed
America. But someone better take very good care of the
safety of its president. He has some fierce and
relentless enemies out there. And as we know, they do
not stop in red!
EsinIslam.Com
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