A look at Obama’s statement on Palestine-Israel

Joyce Chediac

In his May 19 speech, President Barack Obama said that the starting point for Palestinian-Israeli peace talks should be Israel’s 1967 boundaries. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s hostile reaction gave the impression that Obama had significantly changed U.S. policy. Following are excerpts from a talk by Joyce Chediac at a Workers World Party forum in New York City on May 20 that analyzes Obama’s statements.

Obama made a big deal in the talk about the oppressed only having the right to demonstrate “peacefully.” Israel, I guess, has a right to shoot them down.

A Palestinian state would be within its 1967 boundaries. This is exactly what United Nations bodies and the World Court recognize as the areas now under Israeli occupation. They are the Occupied Territories and this includes East Jerusalem. Obama, on the other hand, said the status of Jerusalem, as well as the issue of Palestinian refugees, was to be negotiated.

Palestinian refugee holds keys to his lost home.

The Israeli government says this is unacceptable and militarily indefensible. Israel talks about defense of its borders. It is the only state, however, which has no declared borders. History has shown that Israel will expand its borders and annex Arab land whenever this is possible.

Now the Israelis even refuse to dismantle the big high-rise settlements around Jerusalem. For Palestinians living in the West Bank, these settlements have virtually cut off entry to Jerusalem and vice versa.

The White House may want it to look like the U.S. is at odds with Israel now. This plays well in the Middle East. We shouldn’t forget, however, that the U.S. is the dog and Israel the tail. There is no substantive disagreement between the U.S. and Israel. Even now, Netanyahu will be honored by being allowed to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

What Obama names as a baseline for discussions is the same as U.N. Resolution 242 — indeed, 242 included East Jerusalem as part of Palestine. For years Israel used 242 as a club to hit late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with. “Recognize 242! Recognize 242!” the Israelis demanded.

But when Arafat did essentially recognize 242, and agreed to accept a Palestinian state limited to the West Bank and Gaza, the Israelis dramatically accelerated their settlement building on Palestinian land in the 242 areas in violation of international law. Suddenly Arafat’s acceptance of 242 was not enough for Israel.

Obama called for a land swap to get a “demilitarized” Palestine state that “would meet and respect Israel’s security needs.” The Palestinian Authority is dismayed because the leaders believed that the status of their military, what arms they have and what police powers the West Bank-Gaza “state” has, were to “be negotiable.” They have never agreed to a demilitarized state. How could a region without the ability to defend itself be called a sovereign state?

Obama also explicitly called for a “Jewish state.” This was the first time a U.S. president has affirmed the right of Israel to be a “Jewish state.” Such a call is a move to the right. As the political atmosphere in Israel moves steadily to the right, Palestinians can only interpret calls for a “Jewish-only” state as being aimed at the large Palestinian minority within Israel who are currently demanding equal rights with Jewish people within Israel.

In the current political climate, Palestinians see this call for a “Jewish state” as leaving the door open to further ethnic cleansing of the 1.3 million Palestinians still within the Israeli green line — pushing them by force into the West Bank.

Obama made an indirect reference to the recent reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. He baited Hamas as “terrorist” and said he did not know how Israel was expected to negotiate with a group that did not recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Palestine’s right to exist

The issue, however, is Palestine’s right to exist. On this, Obama even came out against an attempt by the Palestinian Authority to get the U.N. General Assembly in September to vote and declare a Palestinian state. A successful vote would only be symbolic, but it would certainly further isolate Israel. The General Assembly is one of the most democratic of U.N. bodies — one country, one vote. Washington can’t use its veto to protect Israel, as it has scores of times in the Security Council.

As for who the terrorists are, there was not one U.S. government word of criticism when Israel opened fire and killed 16 unarmed Palestinian refugees crossing the border into their occupied country on May 15.

In fact, in a bizarre twist, White House spokesperson Jay Carney blamed Syria for the deaths of the Palestinians. He said Syria incited the march to take attention away from its own problems. Carney added that Israel has a right to defend its borders.

Thus the U.S. imposes sanctions against Syrian leader Assad and other Syrian government officials right after Syria allowed Palestinians to march into the Golan Heights from Syria. That’s the real crime in the eyes of U.S. imperialism.

Meanwhile, the issues involving the West Bank and Gaza deal with only 22 percent of the territory of historic Palestine. Left out are the great majority of Palestinian people, the 7 million Palestinian refugees, most of them in frontline states bordering Israel, who demonstrated and crossed borders into Israel on May 15, demanding their right to return.

David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli prime minister, said of the expelled Palestinians in 1948: “The old will die and the young will forget.” How wrong he was!

The Palestinian mass struggle is alive and well. Sunday, May 15, was the first time in 63 years of exile that Palestinian refugees marked their expulsion by going to the border in the thousands, calling for their right to go home.

With this bold action, Palestinians joined the Arab uprising. They showed that no matter what forces are arrayed against them, the Palestinian people will not abandon their right to return.