Weekly Commentary: Will President Obama Drop The Racist Automatic Pass for
the Palestinians?

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 27 May 2010

Let’s not overstate the significance of the change in President Obama’s
treatment of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Yes, camera crews will no doubt record Mr. Netanyahu’s arrival and departure
via the front door of the White House and the tool shed tone may be eased
up a bit.

But let’s make no bones about the situation.

President Obama belief system regarding a “solution” of the Arab-Israeli
conflict and how this should be achieved hasn’t shifted a millimeter.

And in this case, the “how” may be considerably more important that the
“solution” itself, since – talk about the inevitability of the creation of a
sovereign Palestinian state within some deadline notwithstanding – it would
hardly be surprising if we found ourselves arguing years from now over who
should be blamed and/or credit for the failure to create a Palestinian state
during the window of opportunity the Obama administration provided the Arab
leadership.

So back to the “how.”

And here is where we come back to the fundamentally racist and condescending
attitude that the Obama Administration takes towards the Arabs in general
and the Palestinians in particular in everything having to do with the
Arab-Israeli conflict.

Because it is fundamentally racist and condescending to give them an
automatic pass.

Consider the following:

If the Israeli Government officially and openly lobbied to bar and/or expel
Palestinian representatives from international bodies and forums would
Washington be silent?

How vocal would the White House and State Department be if the Israeli
Government organized a boycott of Palestinian enterprises?

If Israel took the position that any and all Jewish terrorists serving time
for attacking Arabs should be released would that be ignored?

Of course none of this would be acceptable.

But when the Palestinians do the very same things, the racist and
condescending automatic pass goes into play reflecting an unsaid underlying
assumption that the Palestinians can’t be expected to behave in accordance
with international norms.

In the coming days no doubt a team of Israelis and Americans will try to
hammer out the details of the Netanyahu-Obama exchange of words before the
press at the White House.

Let’s hope that we can progress beyond the standard verbiage about America’s
commitment to Israel’s security and get some serious remarks from President
Obama regarding grossly unacceptable Palestinian behavior.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il