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Jesse Jackson says the most important change Obama will make, will occur in the Middle East, where “decades of putting Israel’s interests first” would end - What do you think of this assessment ?
Considering Jesse Jackson is not part of Obama's foreign policy team, I would take his assessment of Obama's Middle East policy with a grain of salt.
Obama has stated: "efforts to bring peace must begin with a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel, our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy. That will be my starting point."
Obama also opposes direct talks with Hamas and drafted a letter to the UN Security Council urging consideration of their rocket attacks against Israel when dealing with the situation in Gaza. I don't know how anti-Semitic you could really say he is. Since the the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been neglected by the Bush administration for years, I think a clean slate approach is desirable.
No, the concerns about Obama abandoning Israel are based on suspicion he has nominated anti-Semitic people to his foreign policy team, and that he desires rapprochment with Iran. I admittedly don't know much about Obama's foreign policy team other than Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezsinski belives in engaging Hamas, but largely out of a view that there is no other choice. But Obama doesn't seem to agree, anyway.
As for his policy toward Iran, simply by making gestures toward Iran, Obama will score points for the US. It's a win-win situation. If Iran agrees, then it will be historic. If they decline, US international stature will still rise, but at Iran's expense, as well as at the expense of governments supporting Iranian intransigence (Russia, China, should they do so).
I see no problem with it. That doesn't mean we abandon Israel, but they share plenty of the guilt in preventing any real peace from coming to the region. And part of the reason for that is our unwavering support for them, regardless of the abuses they foster on some of their people. I have no problem criticizing countries that are theocracies. And israel is not much different then some of their muslim counterparts.
I honestly believe that there are problems with each of the possible scenarios. There are problems if we let down on our support of Israel and they are immediately attacked, which would result in decreasing their alliance with us. Also, for the gestures towards Iran, while it may help us, it may also simply make us look weak. I too have little knowledge of his team.
It's irrelevant for the most part AND you have no source.
