Obama, Michelle, and the late Palestinian-American professor, Edward Said. How can you engage grassroots activism and forget Edward Said?
AMY TEIBEL of the Associated Press filed this report a day ago, on July 14, 2008, informing of Obama’s intent to visit the Occupied Palestinian Territories, namely, the West Bank, during his Middle East trip.
PARIS – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will visit the West Bank next week as part of a swing through the Middle East, a Palestinian official said Monday, giving an important diplomatic boost to the Palestinians at a sensitive time in peace talks.
The Palestinians expressed satisfaction over the planned meeting with the presumed Democratic nominee, which comes months after Obama’s likely Republican opponent, John McCain, passed on meeting with the Palestinians during a brief visit to Israel. Obama is scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his July 23 stop in Ramallah, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was in Paris for a Mediterranean summit.
“We welcome this meeting,” Erekat said. If Obama is elected, he added, “we hope he will stay the course between Israel and the Palestinians in reaching peace and a two-state solution.” During the same visit, Obama is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli officials. The Obama campaign declined to comment.
Declined to comment? Well, if you have to play Israel’s game, then you might as well deny that you have any intentions of engaging the representatives of a people living under Israeli domination for 41 years, and more: military occupation, lands that are continually being confiscated, the illegal presence of an occupying army, and daily killings of resisters.
Because the U.S. is the key broker in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, it is reported that officials on both sides are still trying to get a feel on whether Obama will change U.S. policy in the region. President Bush and Condi Rice just tried to broker a peace agreement, but failed miserably.
In Paris on Sunday, Olmert said the sides are closer than ever to achieving peace, but we have been hearing that for years. There is always some issue that Israel brings up, which prevents going forward.
Few details about Obama’s trip have been released. Obama’s campaign reported that he will travel to Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and Britain.
Photos that Obama might want to take with him on his trip:
Loretta and MLK, as exploited civil rights activists, will not rest in peace until there is a fair and just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Screw AIPAC: here are the true representatives of Judaic thinking on Palestine.
The unheard majority in America supports a just peace for the Palestinians.
The occupation must stop; the ethnic cleansing must stop; the colonization of Palestinian land must stop; the killing must stop.
It’s good that he’s going and that he’s meeting with both sides.
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GAZA, Palestine (Haaretz) – Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair cancelled a planned visit to Gaza at the last minute after the Shin Bet security service personally warned him that it had received intelligence that Palestinian terror organizations were planning to attack him.
Taher Nunu, a Hamas government spokesman, denied there were any security threats against Blair. “Gaza is still open for all visitors, to break the siege and see the extent of suffering here,” he said.
A key stop on Blair’s trip would have been a northern Gaza waste water project being built with international funds.
“We are very disappointed,” said John Ging, Gaza director of the U.N. agency in charge of aiding Palestinian refugees. Blair, a former British prime minister, is trying to revive the struggling Palestinian economy to lay the groundwork for a future independent Palestinian state.
Blair last visited the Gaza Strip in 1998 when he was Britain’s leader.
Israeli cabinet okays Hezbollah prisoner swap including terrorist Samir Kuntar
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."by Israeli security and the authoritarian politicians in power, what might Obama do to trump it?
Simply saying he is going is a significant step even it it does get canceled by security. Could he meet important enough people somewhere else for instance? After it’s all about symbolism. Surely there is some alternate symbolism that would be effective. Maybe even one more effective such that security would prefer a visit to Palestine?
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ROSH HANIKRA (Jerusalem Post) – Two coffins, according to Hizbullah containing the remains of captured IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were brought to the Naqoura crossing on the Lebanese side of Rosh Hanikra and transferred to the care of the International Red Cross.
Two coffins with the remains of captured IDFreservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser
Israel gave the Red Cross documents that would aid the identification process of the Israeli troops.
In the early hours of the morning, the long-anticipated exchange got underway as convicted murderer Samir Kuntar and four Hizbullah operatives captured during the Second Lebanon War were driven from Hadarim prison near Netanya to an IDF base in the North.
23 Red Cross trucks loaded with the bodies of 185 Lebanese and Palestinian combatants drove from a cemetery near Kibbutz Amiad to Rosh Hanikra, where they were set to be transfered to Lebanon in the final stage of the deal.
US to export faulty cluster bombs
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."You are a re-source of articles from elsewhere.
Kudos to Oui for enriching diaries with relevant material often not noticed by the rest of us. The material speaks for itself.
And US cluster bombs continue killing and maiming children in Lebanon. Should we be proud of our government for helping Israel kill innocent children?
LOL! I believe Nunu.
Obama needs to go there to see the water project before Israel bombs it like they bombed the power plant.