Has any presidential candidate spoken out about Gaza's humanitarian crisis? Don't hold your breath.

On Wednesday, January 23, 2008, the British proPeace site, Jews sans frontieres, posted this article: US Presidential race: Obama has to crawl before he can run.

It would appear that our presidential hopefuls are intentionally avoiding Israel-Palestine in their debates. But recent news about the Gaza crisis, which has led to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crossing the Egypt border to obtain sustenance for their families, brought the issue into the front pages of American media. But it has received silence among the presidential candidates.

Mark Elf, the proprietor of Jews sans frontiers (Jews without borders), speaking just about Barak Obama, said

I don't know. Perhaps it's a hoax but let's assume it isn't. Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, has written a particularly assertive email to the UN Security Council regarding the Gaza blockade.

The letter was actually published on Rosner's blog in the otherwise liberal Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz. Rosner is a right wing journalist for Ha'aretz, which apparently attempts to maintain a balance of views.

Comparing McCain and Obama on Gaza was its title.

According to Rosner, the letter from Obama was send first, the one from McCain second. Obama sent it to Khalilzad, McCain to Condi Rice.

Here is McCain's letter:

The United Nations Security Council resumed today its discussions regarding a compromise statement that would address the situation in Gaza. As you know, UN statements have often served as platforms for rhetorical attacks against Israel by various member states. I urge you to ensure that this pattern does not repeat itself.

The United States should oppose any UN statement or resolution that fails to condemn vociferously the terrorist tactics employed by Hamas, including its rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. For the Security Council to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza without reference to the Israeli security situation would constitute a failure of responsibility (Obama wrote: I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condemn the rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in southern Israel).

Hamas, which rules Gaza, has committed itself to the destruction of the Jewish state and has conducted hundreds of rocket attacks against Israel in recent days. After Israel resumed fuel supplies to the Gaza power plant yesterday and electricity was restored, rockets continued to fall on civilian areas in Israel.

The United Nations charter, which makes clear the inherent right of self-defense against armed attacks, applies to all states - including the State of Israel. In the face of continued violence by Hamas, Israel has taken steps to guarantee its security (Obama wrote: we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this... Israel has the right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians). I urge you to ensure that the Security Council recognizes Israel's right to do so and condemns Hamas for its continued campaign of violence against innocent civilians.

Sincerely,
John McCain
U.S. Senator"

No question that McCain has done his crawling. Now here is Rosner's preamble to Obama's letter:

Obama the hawk.

As if Obama did not have enough troubles with the pro Israel camp, the left is not starting to hammer him for supporting Israel too much. Look at this article from Tikkun (the proPeace blog run by Rabbi Michael Lerner):

Earlier in his career, Obama took a relatively balanced perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, aligning himself with positions embraced by the Israeli peace camp and its American supporters. For example, during his unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 2000, Obama criticized the Clinton administration for its unconditional support for the occupation and other Israeli policies and called for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He referred to the "cycle of violence" between Israelis and Palestinians, while most Democrats were referring to "Palestinian violence and the Israeli response." He also made statements supporting a peace settlement along the lines of the Geneva Initiative and similar efforts by Israeli and Palestinian moderates.

During the past two years, however, Obama has largely taken positions in support of the hard-line Israeli government, making statements virtually indistinguishable from that of the Bush administration. Indeed, his primary criticism of Bush's policy toward the conflict has been that the administration has not been engaged enough in the peace process, not that it has backed the right-wing Israeligovernment on virtually every outstanding issue.

Rejecting calls by Israeli moderates for the United States to use its considerable leverage to push the Israeli government to end its illegal and destabilizing colonization of the West Bank and agree to withdraw from the occupied territories in return for security guarantees, Obama has insisted "we should never seek to dictate what is best for the Israelis and their security interests" and that no Israeli prime minister should ever feel "dragged" to the negotiating table.

Senator Obama's letter, however, speaks for itself:

Dear Ambassador Khalilzad,

I understand that today the UN Security Council met regarding the situation in Gaza, and that a resolution or statement could be forthcoming from the Council in short order.

I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condenm the rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in southern Israel...

All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families. However, we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this... Israel has the right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.

The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks... If it cannot bring itself to make these common sense points, I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

Needless to say, about the Gaza crisis, the US supported Israel in the UN Security Council, which it always has, in this case in spite of its humanitarian implications.

Mark Elf continued to say that it was outrageous if not a hoax. On the other hand, he noticed a Rosner statement from a few days earlier:

Barack Obama keeps having troubles with the pro Israel crowed.

Yesterday, speaking on the occasion of Martin Luther King's day to the African American community, Obama was saying that "If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community. We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community."

But condemning anti Semitism does not help him score enough points with the Jewish establishment. Yesterday, the Jewish Forward revealed an American Jewish Committee memo that's raising questions about his stance regarding Israel:

"The Senator's interpretation of the NIE raises questions," wrote Debra Feuer, a counsel for the American Jewish Committee, one day after the Illinois Democrat surged to victory in the Iowa caucus.
Referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she added that Obama "appears to believe the Israelis bear the burden of taking the risky steps for peace, and that the violence Israel has received in return does not shift that burden."

I wrote a couple of paragraphs about Obama and Israel Saturday night. One of them says this: "The American Jewish establishment feels much more comfortable with a Clinton candidacy than it is with an Obama candidacy".

And this is not likely to change.

The question that Mark Elf asks: does Obama think that crawling to the "pro-Israel crowd" is going to change that? And did you see that stuff about antisemitism and homophobia in the black community?

He goes on,

Has a senator ever chosen a special Jewish commemoration to lecture against racism and homophobia in the Jewish community?

Obama should be careful with this crawling. What does he gain among ordinary voters who must surely be getting sick of Israel by now. If he starts acting like Hillary Clinton, or even Bush, his core support will surely drift away. This happens to Democrats all the time lately. They try to out-right the right and the right still wins. Of course the right wins when the Democrats put it in a win-win situation. But what if the crawling works and the Zionist vote or funding or both is decisive and he wins? If he wins on a right wing platform he will have to stand by that platform, indeed he may want to. My own view is that, by so obviously groveling to the establishment on the question of Palestine, he can only harm his candidacy.

So a word from the wise: Obama should be careful with this crawling. Hillary has been at it for a few decades. She did not even think it inappropriate to meet with Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's most vile racist at the Saban Institute a year ago. Hillary will go (and has gone) to extraordinary measures to one-up any candidate on Israel, which usually means subordination to the right wing.

Obama's effort to get into this game is futile. Perhaps it would be more beneficial for him to speak as a pro-civil and pro-human rights liberal Democrat.