Opinion Editorials, June 2011

The New-Old Anti-Palestinian American Foreign Policy

By Salim Nazzal

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, June 13, 2011

The belief that Obama might be much better than other united states presidents proved to be  an illusion  Arabs need to review. The later speeches of Obama indicate clearly that the USA is going to stand against Palestine efforts to be a full membership in the United Nation next September.

The USA did not only take this hostile position alone but Obama went abroad to convince other countries to adapt the Israeli position to block the Palestinian efforts. 
 
 Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on the need to avoid any Palestinian efforts to seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state.
 
Also  in London during a conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama said that asking the United Nations to unilaterally recognize a state of Palestine as a way to avoid negotiating with Israel will not work.
 
Palestinians and Arabs complain all the time that the USA sacrifice its own interest to protect the Israeli occupation is not a complain without reason. The Israeli occupation has always counted that the USA will back them in whatever atrocities they  commit and this indeed has made Israel free to commit  atrocities without fearing the international society.
 
And the USA does not want to understand that its bad image in the Middle East is  not going to change as long as they are not changing their biased position towards Israel.

 Netanyahu  made it clear that there is no to return to the 1967 borders , which in fact No to Peace, and the USA backs this policy which leads to prolong occupation and to more bloodshed in the region. This week Israel murdered more than 22 peaceful Palestinian demonstraters on the border of the occupied Golan Heights and injured hundreds. This has gone without any real condemnation from the  western democratic countries because Israel has apparently  become a state over law.
 
It is very obvious that the USA  is against Palestinians whatever they do!

Past history will support this argument.

When Palestinians thought that the international society will  return them their rights  nothing happened and the Palestine cause was almost forgetten.But when Palestinian took arms and used armed struggle America and Europe called them terrorists, and when Palestinians  used   peaceful civil struggle  Israel murdered them and these countries did nothing to stop Israel. And when Palestinians went to negotiations the negotiations lasted 20 years and  Israel  used it to fill Palestine with more settlements to  impose facts on the ground. And now when Palestinians go to the UN America and some European countries stand against this?
 
The  new old American position demonstrates beyond doubt its hostility to  freedom and human rights which America  claims  to be part of  its constitution , and  international policy ,but when it comes to the right of Palestinians  America declares war on the Palestinians right to live as a free nation. 
 
The question is what America and Europe expect Palestinians to do when they stand against their rights to live as a free nation? I t is not easy to answer this question but it undoubtedly will  convince  Palestinians that  America and Europe are  not  only against  the Palestinian  approach or method  used to achieve their freedom but rather against the freedom of Palestinians in principle.
 
 
Dr. Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian-Norwegian historian in the Middle East, who has written extensively on social and political issues in the region

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