Sunday, January 25, 2009

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SPECIAL ENVOY'S, SO WHERE IS THE CHANGE ??


by Feroze Mithiborwala
23rd January 2009



President Obama in his urge to show the world that one of the first acts of his administration will be to get actively involved in the Palestine / Israel conflict and the larger Arab arena as well as the South Asian theatre has made three appointments. But the imbalance inherent in the appointments of George J. Mitchell as special envoy to Palestine / Israel and the Arab states, Richard Holbrooke to Afghanistan / Pakistan and Dennis Ross to Iran have sowed the seeds for further destruction and war.

Of the three, George J. Mitchell is the only honest negotiator in the Obama team with a track record of proven results in Ireland. He is a true Democrat, in the legacy of Jimmy Carter, with both a commitment and a conviction to bring peace to Palestine and Israel and thus all the region.

Whilst announcing Mr. Mitchell's appointment, the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who herself is beholden to the Israeli Lobby and is a Zionist herself, did not even mention Palestine and stated that G. J. Mitchell would undertake to negotiate between Israel and the Arab States. It was only after Mr. Mitchell clearly mentioned Palestine as being the key to the region, did Hillary refer to the matter.

One may also recall that Hillary had also threatened to "nuke Iran" and today she is the Secretary of State.

Moreover President Obama himself is giving very little room for Mr. Mitchell to involve all the representative forces within Palestine.

Unfortunately Obama still believes that ex-President Mahmood Abbas enjoys the support of his people, moreover since his constitutional term expired on 9th January 2009. The Palestine Authority is in tatters due to the Israeli intransigence and yet Obama wants to exclude the democratically elected Hamas government from the dialogue. This is a sure recipe for a guaranteed disaster and will only serve to reduce any space for maneuver for Mr. Mitchell who faces the most daunting and onerous task.

Especially after the Israeli genocidal attack on Gaza, where Obama chose to keep mum, the will of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation has grown and so has the global support for the cause of the Palestinian nation. Even during Obama's inaugural speech, he chose to desist from condemning the "shoah" in Gaza that was witnessed across every household in the world and had miraculously (?) come to a halt two days prior to the swearing in of the new president.

Richard Holbrooke the special envoy for Afghanistan & Pakistan is a hawk and is currently part of the neoconservative organization, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). Mr. Holbrooke is also referred to as a Hillary Neoconservative. He has co-authored a statement with the extreme hawk and Neocon, Dennis Ross that openly threatens military action against Iran.

Holbrooke has also been part of the National Endowment for Democracy that advocates "regime change". Holbrooke is also part of the "Council for Foreign Relations" which is the bastion of the Israeli lobby and it is the CFR that dominates and determines US foreign policy.

Dennis Ross who is the special envoy to Iran is a hardened Neocon, an Iran baiter and an Israel-Firster. He supported the war on Iraq which Obama has opposed. Ross has also served with the pro-Israel think tank, Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) as well as with the "Jewish People Policy Planning Institute" (JPPPI), based in Jerusalem.

Dennis Ross has co-authored the report "Meeting the Challenge: US Policy towards Iranian Nuclear Development". This report alludes to an Iranian nuclear programme that has been debunked by the CIA National Intelligence Report (Nov 2007) that said that the Iran nuclear program was on hold.

The report calls for the military encirclement of Iran, pressure on Iran to abrogate its nuclear programme and thus leading to its logical extension where "war becomes inevitable".

It is clear to all those who understand the regions of the Middle East and South Asia that the Obama appointees are doomed to fail. If Obama was serious in pursuing peace then Holbrooke and Ross would not have been the considered choice.

And failure, as per the calculations of the Neoconservatives and the Zionists will lead to war.

The call for war under a McCain would have not found support either within America or the world at large, but the Neoconservative / Zionist calculation is to have a supposed liberal called Obama, who having tried to negotiate and use diplomacy and having failed, will then appeal for war.

Obama in his inaugural speech had also stated that,

"Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred" &

"We will not apologise for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense"

and more ominously he further states that,

"For those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughter of innocents (very applicable to Israel), we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken, you cannot outlast us & we will defeat you".

All of the above are classic Bush-Neoconservatism, couched in the suave & sophisticated liberalism of a Black president, with Hussein as his middle name.

And therein lies the danger !!

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