Gaza Attack: Where is Barack Obama?

As the Israeli defense forces continue to bomb the Gaza Strip and Hamas continues to launch missiles into Israel, a small legion of bloggers have begun asking: What in the world happened to president-elect Barack Obama?

With the president-elect just a few weeks from taking the throne in Washington DC, Barack Obama has been largely absent from the diplomatic maneuverings attempting to put a halt to Israel’s military excursion into the Gaza Strip. His absence, some argue, only makes the situation worse.

At least Jewish American blogger Richard Silverstein, who writes at Tikun Olam, thinks so:

Where is Barack Obama? I know he’s in Hawaii soaking up those rays of glorious sunshine. But that’s not what I mean? Where IS he? Gaza is in flames. Bush is doing worse than nothing. He’s actually making the situation worse with his nonsense about calling Hamas thugs and claiming the Palestinian movement caused the Israeli violence and can end it.

Obama’s response is becoming less and less satisfactory as the killing mounts.

…I can understand that the Gaza massacre is not nearly as important to the American people as the Wall Street collapse. But when the economy imploded you didn’t hear Obama’s people deferring to Bush. He consulted with Bush. They worked out a common strategy. They each tried to look energetic, diligent and thoughtful.

In a post called “Stupid Logic Mr. Obama” Ampal — American Palestinian had this to say on the future president’s policy towards Palestine:

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. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

RESPONSE: If someone was starving my family, bombing my sewage and electric power plants, traumatizing my children by daily sonic booms, preventing my sick children from seeing a physician, keeping my college aged students from receiving the scholarships they deserve, causing half of the child population to have anemia, then I would launch every thing including the toilet and sink at them. Come on, Mr. Obama lets show a little more understanding than the current administration.

The “anti-zionist blog” Jews Sans Frontieres thinks maybe Obama wants to project a different image of US power.

…Obama's refusal to comment on this latest batch of war crimes may be significant if only to suggest that Obama wants to project a more reasonable image than offering open vocal support to a regime for whom violence appears to be and end itself.

Now Israel has targeted a Palestinian university you might expect Engage to at least say something but no, not a word.

After linking to a comment from Obama spokesman David Axelrod who argued that Israel is merely responding to the shelling of its cities, VivirLatino came away less than impressed:

I am ashamed and disgusted, especially if this is the change that the United States electorate was and is supposed to believe in. I am haunted by the words and images of people, men, women, and children and how my tax dollars are being used to oppress and make invisible people who aren't even deemed worthy of by some to be people, to have land, a home.

Some commenters have acknowledged that Obama needs to be careful not to step on the shoes of outgoing President George Bush.

Alex Stein, who has resided in Israel and writes the blog False Dichotomies, defended the president-elect's actions:

The criticism of Obama’s silence over the hostilities is unfair. He is right to state that there is only one president at a time, and he is right to take a holiday before embarking on what is arguably the toughest job in the world. Getting over-involved would have little point; he can have little impact until he is President, and there is no sense in compromising his stature with either party by taking sides.

Many sites are obviously looking at this situation through the lens of how the Obama administration will change U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Fayyad writing in the (mostly) Arab-American blog KABOBfest argues this is a test for the look and feel of the Obama administration towards the Middle East.

Gauging [Obama’s] response to the action from outside the Whitehouse will set the tone for what Israel gets out of him. With his chief of staff being a former IDF volunteer, it’s hard to see how he will see things any different than the IDF perspective. And the American stance of asking the rape victim to quit scratching the rapist will continue to the Washington Modus Operandi.

Window into Palestine contends that Obama is basically nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing when it comes to the rights of Palestinians.

Obama no longer has to placate pro-Israel voters, including no shortage of Christian Zionists, so his lack of comment on the premeditated slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza should send us a message — an Obama administration will continue the long-standing U.S. policy of allowing Israel to wantonly kill Palestinians and pay the Israeli government handsomely to do so.

…Democrats who thought an Obama administration would bring some balance to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are probably saddened by Obama’s apparent lack of concern for the mass murder now taking place. But then what did they expect? Obama is nothing if not window dressing for the New World Order and obviously the NWO wants the carnage to continue in Palestine. Of course, the global elite have no special love for Israel, either, and its people will be sacrificed when the time is right.

26 comments

  • Manus

    Stop censoring; otherwise change the name of the website to “Israeli Voices”

  • Grafted Devil

    Dena………if youre married I bet your husband [or wife, whatever it may be] drinks alot while around you??…….or consumes drugs on a day to day basis so he/she can actually deal with the ‘questions with no answers’ from you??………~because I DO….everyday…..just to deal with my wife of 20 years and 2 weeks~…….because thats the same dumb-ass response I would get from her…….(yes, I have an ‘unlicensed doctor’ treating me)…..

    That was about the most idiotic and moronic response anyone couldve made………and just as you doltish obamabots can not ever get to the level of right wingers……..we can never stoop that low to yours…..you people can not carry a logical conversation as we can not carry an illogical conversation…..that would waste our valuable, as well as precious time…..

    Its apparent your a democrat…….its apparent that you would give anything to approach obama on all-fours…….

    Thats your perogative…..and more than likely your fantasy…….I couldnt care less…but when you involve me and other Americans, whether they be african-Americans or American-Americans into your cesspool of oil-based racial orgies….then WE get offended….

    LOL….imagine THAT!!…..I get to be of the offended class now…..what freaking progress………..

    When Michael Castro says: “Anyone who voted for Obama hoping for a change is going to get a hard surprise.”……..and you respond with……..”How do you know this? Have you read his mind?”…………………………..it shows your willingness to WANT to learn…..

    but actually, your response should have been is “Gee, I wonder if hes circumcized”……..that ‘all-fours’ thing again…….

    BECAUSE……..what Castro was saying, without too many words and to the ALREADY informed and unindoctrinated is : going by his senatorial escapades in Shit-cago with the deals and associates, friends as well as business, and how he left Shit-cago in ruins in many aspects with his ‘governmental-skills’……..its just about a positive choice he will reak havoc and chaos in America…….(and we’re just going by his past associates and policies)…….

    This ‘cancer’ is about to spread…….and you as well as your counterparts have ignited it malignantly….into a Trojan Horse….

    I mean hell, if I can go up in front of a judge for a D.U.I. and once my record is pulled out from the pockets of the D.A. and I get sentenced for my previous infractions prior to the D.U.I. concurrently with the current charge…….because it shows a pattern of my behavior…WHY in the Hell cant we do it to Dildobama??………

    Let me direct you to a site that will “hope”-fully enlighten you……..I warn you though…..feelings and emotions do not abide there…..

    This is stone-cold facts about your messiah….better get a box or two of tissue…….course, thats if you actually read it instead of gesturing to your pc in a manner of ‘talking to the hand’ thing…..

    http://www.theobamafile.com/

    Since youre a democrat the chances of you reading anything informative is slim…….unless it ‘trains’ you on how to be a perfect little citizen for all to like and except as ‘one of the good ones’….but I SWEAR to you that IF you were to read these things that the media and people like you failed to realize or even ask questions about……..or even take notice about, because after all “WE HAVE HISTORY TO MAKE”…..or “HOPE AND CHANGE”…..”FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT” stands in the way of logic and common sense…….but I swear to you if you read it it will show you the real obama……..not this God-like illusion that is being slobbered over…..

    The reason why I said that you wouldnt read anything informative is because you asked “Where are the Arab leaders? Nobody seems to be speaking about that!”………..well, they are…and have been….

    The problem isnt that you havent heard them……….the problem is that your hiphop station doesnt tell you news….they only play that God-awful tribal-trash they refer to as music………..and girley, you have to WANT to know these things…..you have to go get your information….

    So STOP relying on the ‘victims’ of society, the disgruntled Americans, the ‘unfortunate’ ones and your co worker for the news……………..thats not news, thats opinion…..”emotion versus logic”……..and youre only going to get a one-sided view….

    Theres many places to get the information about your earthly-god, obama….radio, television, newspapers, internet…..everywhere, girl…….

    For you NOT to know these things or anything about obama other than hes black and the change he keeps torting is the seat at the White House becoming a ‘throne’…for you NOT to know the REAL obama…….is noones fault but your, Dena……

    You failed, you were inept…….not the D.J.s playing something that would make a freight train take a dirt road, not your co-worker in the office-stall next to you geeked up on a meth induced latte viewing porn rather than doing actual work, not your friend thats sitting in your living room talking about how everything from their oil leak in their ford escort to their hang nail is George Bushs fault…..somehow equating that with his ‘failed policies’, (which were actually Bill Clintons policies that busted, but like I said, democrats dont usually read anything informative…..they just think of the ‘here and now’…..not what caused the situation their in…just that it happened and their mad)………

    With respect……..people like you ARE the problem

    And to be honest with you……..I truly do not care as to what happens to the White obama voters…..(before you start calling me a racist, bigot and other words to bash me over the head with…..let me tell you one fact…blacks voted for obama in droves for one reason…..hes black……..THATS what went through their head….that was the first afront…..not only did they vote for him because hes black…they voted against the White of America…..you dont know this………………but thats exactly what happened)…..

    January 20th, 2009 is the day your life changes forever……..without your consent or control…….

    …..and I wish you all the Hell you deserve…….

    Happy New Year!!……….

  • de

    Grafted Devil is a empty person

  • Manus

    …….And the Obama administration can make comments about nearly everything, including his future ‘mutt’, apart from the carnage happening in Gaza. If, the Illuminati clique in Washington seems to think that the Gazeans deserve to die, the future does not baud well too. Obama’s unconditional support for Israel’s policy of “self defense,” preemptive attacks, and repressive occupations is not one iota different from that of George W. Bush, an internationally recognized war criminal.

  • Sal

    Although I volunteered and voted for Obama, I always had a fear that he could turn out to be yet another gutless President. Unfortunately, my fear was correct! Sadly, what Obama is clearly saying with his silence on Israel’s illegal and inhumane invasion is that for the powerful the end justifies the means, even if the means
    result in massacre of innocent women, elderly, and infants! Shame on Obama!

  • michael

    what do you expect from Obama 60 years of war, a condemation?because of civillians get killed? nobody likes the civilians get caught up in the killings but when you use your civillians as your cover for your operations who we want to blame?
    after all if I have no rigth to exist what should I do can it be worse? do I really care a condemnation.
    Yes Obama should ask for restrain from both parties for now.
    He can openly talk when he is in office.

  • Rafal

    The blatant Gaza bias by the media is no surprise considering their nauseating obsession with Obama. There was a mutual truce until Hamas broke it with repeated rocket fire. All the so-called “peace loving muslims” in the world should be protesting the terrorist Hamas leaders and kick them out. The majority of the palestineans in Gaza don’t want peace with Israel or they wouldnt have voted for this terrorist regime.
    This is the same terrorists who use schools and mosques to hide weapons and train terrorists and then the media cries when Israel retaliaties. If they cared about the safety and well-being of their families and children then they wouldn’t live next door or three doors down from Hamas leaders. Would you move into an italian mafia run neighborhood, or a neighborhood known for gang violence.

    Where is all the so-called “brotherhood of Arabs?” LOL. All the peace loving palestinians should take their families and children and move to Lebanon or Jordan or maybe a non-muslim country and give the land back to the Israelis. As long as Hamas is around there will be no peace. They won’t be happy with land. They only want terrorism and war against Israel and all her allies. Why do you think they attacked the US?

  • Amy

    How manay times did Obama say that America has “one president at a time” – So wait until on the 20th January.

    President-elect has no authority to put his mouth in for this kind of “International crisis” at a time when the flames are all over their shades- How difficult is it for people to understand that “charity begins from home”, that’s why Obama talks about stimulus package and not the Gaza issue.

  • Jimbo

    He’s not even president yet! George %&*. Bush is! And at this time in his presidency Clinton was still trying to negotiate a solution to the intractable problem. What the hell is Bush doing, packing up his book collection?

  • Paradise

    Bush, Obama, whoever, they r just puppets moving by the US Government , Palestine from the North to the South is owned to the
    Palestinians and they will take it back sooner or later coz its their right and all the jews will be Kicked out from Palestine one day, and this day is very soon, and all the Arabs are coming back…so wait for them…u have to Panic from now…Read the Holy Quran…God Punished all the jewish people to live everywhere in the world BUT NOT IN PALESTINE…HELL IS WAITING FOR ALL THOSE WHO KILLED AND IS STILL KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE SINCE THE AGE OF ”BEN GURION”, so u can calculate how many Years,or u can say decades , ” TREES WILL SAY ONE DAY, HEY THERE IS A JEW STANDING BEHIND ME , KILL HIM”…………………………………..

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