Obama: There is only one president at a time...

author : WIP topic : Obama

by WIP

In case you’re wondering what President-Elect Barack Obama’s doing about the Gaza Strip, he’s got his hands full with another occupied strip of land—Hawai‘i! Obama officially has no comment on Israel’s aerial attacks and the 400 dead Palestinians. But on NBC’s Meet the Press on Dec. 28, Obama’s senior advisor David Axelrod spoke on his behalf to say, “There’s only one president at a time, and President Bush speaks for the United States of America until January 20th.”

Too late! Israel is already quoting Obama to justify its assault on Gaza. Numerous Israeli spokespersons such as Benjamin Netanyahu and Ambassador Sallai Meridor have been referencing Obama’s visit to Sderot during his US presidential campaign (and why was Obama campaigning for the US Presidency in Sderot, Israel?), where Obama said, “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

On Meet the Press, David Axelrod confirmed Obama’s sentiment. However, if, as both Axelrod and Obama like to remind us, “There’s only one president at a time, and President Bush speaks for the United States of America,” then there’s only one Obama at a time, and right now he’s speaking for Israel, whether he means to.

And if Obama expects Israel to “do everything in [its] power to stop” rocket attacks, does that “everything” include strangling 1.5 million people and bombing their civil in-frastructure...and still getting rocket attacks?

No, Obama doesn’t live in Sderot. He’ll be living in the White House, and from there, he really does have “everything in [his] power to stop” the Palestine–Israel conflict. He can withhold funding to Israel. He can uphold the Arms Export Contol and Foreign Assistance Acts that prohibits sales of weapons to commit war crimes. He can re-voke the immunity that the US grants Israel at the UN. He can end the great presidential tradition of being Israel’s enabler. Yes, he can.