OBAMA, THE COOL PRESIDENT

I feel a mix of weary déjà vu and despair every time I hear politicians warn Israel of the consequences of ‘alienating world opinion.’ It should be clear to all now that Israel doesn't give a toss about ‘world opinion.’ The only opinion it cares about is the opinion of the US administration, an administration that provides both the vital diplomatic clout and dollars to enable Israel to continue to flout UN resolutions and resist whatever pressure - painfully little as it happens- the rest of the world cares to exert.
After Israel ‘withdrew’ from Gaza it sought to create an imprisoned and impoverished ghetto,[1] a slum beside the sea, quarantined from the rest of the world with the Israeli state as jailer. The world watched, the world did nothing; what protests were voiced was dismissed by the Israeli state with a shrug. Whenever the trapped citizens of Gaza sought to hit back they have been subjected to a prolonged and merciless bombardment.
Now the people fighting back in Gaza are, it is true, a pretty unsavoury bunch. Hamas not being the kind of people to whom one can naturally warm. This does not lessen the Israeli crime as some seem to feel. I would in fact posit that Hamas are possibly little more than the mirror image of the settler fanatics who stream across from the United States to steal other peoples land,[2] shaped and given legitimacy by the sheer scale of Israeli brutality.
Obama owed nothing to Netanyahu, indeed as I have pointed out elsewhere Netanyahu had sought actively to damage Obama’s electoral prospects. Netanyahu though, it turns out, need not have worried; the most chilling moment of the last couple of weeks was Obama’s cool indifference to the suffering of the people of Gaza.

[1] And yes I am conscious of the historical implications of this word for the Jewish people and consequently use it deliberately.
[2] The land having been promised to them in documents written by God over 2000 years ago

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