With the nomination of America’s first black candidate who is in with a real chance of winning the presidency, many anti-racist, progressive activists are looking to him as a source of inspiration and a potential leader to correct the injustices oppression in the USA and around the world. They hope that Obama will bring change to the White House and a new administration that can seek to correct some of the worst excesses of the Bush years. They will be sorely disappointed.
Now that Obama is a serious candidate and could be the next president he must work hard to reassure the US capitalists and establishment that he is a safe pair of hands to run the worlds most powerful imperialist countries.
In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Obama reaffirmed his support for the US imperialist project and its Zionist proxy, Israel. He declared that US support for Israel was “unbreakable today, unbreakable tomorrow, unbreakable forever” and said he spoke as a “true friend” of Israel.He said that the capital of Israel would remain Jerusalem and it “must remain undivided” and that any deal between Israel and the Palestinians must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state. What does this mean for Obama’s foreign policy and his position on the Israel’s continued occupation and oppression of the Palestinians? Basically a continuation of US policy to date. He has pledged to continue funding Israel to the tune of $30 Billion US dollars over the next 10 years and said that that Israel’s security was “sacrosanct” and “non-negotiable”. This is a long way from his days as a state senator from Illinois when he was quite happy to be associated with people like Edward Said and make attempted to present himself as favouring an even handed approach to the conflict.
While Obama attempts to present himself as the more rational, realistic candidate on foreign policy, even saying he is willing to enter into talks with Iran using “tough and principled diplomacy” at the same time he has said he will do “everything in my power” to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon. The first comment is a sop to the illusions in him held by millions of progressive workers and youth, that he will negotiate with these regimes and not drag America into another bloody and fruitless war of conquest, the second is a reassurance to his capitalist backers that he will do everything to carry out their wishes and ensure America’s continued dominance of the Middle East. It is a clear sign that Obama is willing to be a hawk if that is required to get the US establishment to back him.
For the Palestinians his announcements have destroyed any hopes that Obama could be an ally and help force a just solution to the Palestinian conflict… There can be no real peace for the Palestinians without allowing the Palestinian refugees the right of return, and no just peace will preserve Israel’s Jewish identity which is artificially maintained by an apartheid system of laws and immigration controls which prevent the return of the Palestinians who were expelled from their land in 1948, while allowing Jewish people the world over to settle in Israel. Obama’s support for a two-state solution is simply support for Israel continued dominance and oppression for as long as Israel exists with its huge military might, bank rolled by imperialism the occupation and oppression of the Palestinians will continue. Israel’s existence and the continuation of the Zionist project prevents the formation of a viable Palestinian state. The Zionist state will only allow the Palestinians to exist if they remain confined in a network of isolated enclaves with all transport and trade routes controlled by Israel and the IDF.
Obama’s open support for Israel makes him an enemy of anti-racists everywhere and all those who oppose the oppression of the Palestinian people and US imperialisms continued interference in the Middle East. What is clear is that the Democrats hope to position themselves as the ‘progressive choice’ against the Republicans but also as a party which is tied to the US capitalist class and business interests by a thousand strings. It is these strings that will be what control any potential president Obama. The only solution is for the US working class to look to the struggles of the International Longshore Workers Union and the immigrant movements who organised the ‘day without immigrants’ protests in 2007 as the way to realise their demands. What will be absolutely necessary is to build a genuine working class party, with a revolutionary programme, to launch a serious political opposition to the fake progressives in the Democrats.