Presidential Candidate Obama Distances Himself from Islamic Grantee Is presidential candidate Barack Obama’s decision to support Israel merely a matter of political convenience? Writing in March 2007 on Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah charged that Obama is engaged on a Middle East “make-over” designed to obscure the open advocacy Obama expressed for the Palestinian cause until he decided to run for the U.S. Senate. Obama “Learned to love Israel,” Abunimah wrote, not as a matter of personal belief, but as a political tactic designed to win Jewish votes and move to the more acceptable political center when running as a candidate for national office. “I first met Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama almost ten years ago when, as my representative in the Illinois state senate, he came to speak at the University of Chicago,” Abunimeh wrote. “He impressed me as progressive, intelligent and charismatic. I distinctly remember thinking ‘if only a man of his caliber could become president one day.’” He wrote that the last time he spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004, at a gathering in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, when Obama was trailing in the poll’s, fighting to secure the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate. “As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him,” Abunimeh wrote. “He responded warmly, and volunteered, ‘Hey, I’m m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I’m hoping when things calm down I can be more upfront.’” Obama then referred to Abunimah’s activism, including columns sharply critical of Israel and U.S. policy Abunimah was then publishing in the Chicago Tribune. “{Keep up the good work!” Abunimah quoted Obama as telling him then, according to Abunimah, encouraging him in his pro-Palestinian writing. Abunimah credited part of Obama’s shift to a more pro-Israel stance to the influence of one his “early backers,” Penny Pritzker, whom Abunimah described as the “scion of the liberal but staunchly Zionist family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain.” Pritzker, appointed in January 2007 to be the national finance chair of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, was ranked in September 2007 on the Forbes 400 as the 135th richest person in the United States. “If disappointing, given his historically close relations to Palestinian-Americans, Obama’s about-face is not surprising,” Abunimah wrote. “He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power.” Page 144 The Obama Nation 2008
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 07:01:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015