In the mere 18 minutes of his inaugural address President Barack Obama swept away what The New York Times editorial on January 21, 2009 called "eight years of President George Bush's false choices and failed policies." Obama was cordial and reciprocated Bush's "generosity and co-operation" he had shown throughout the transition to power.
Let us acknowledge that the Bush team had worked assiduously to make the transition smooth for the incoming President Obama. Bush hosted a luncheon for Obama with all the living former presidents, and so on. But the Bush inner circle is whining about Obama's "ungracious inaugural" because Bush was sitting right behind Mr Obama throughout the speech, which might have been uncomfortable.
Bush's close aides were saying that Bush was subjected to a lot of the text that was a blunt repudiation of his legacy. Didn't Obama suggest "to set aside childish things"? From day one Obama was signalling a sharp break from his predecessor, and indeed, he has repudiated Bush's Guantanamo and "war on terror" policy regime already. After all, he won the presidential election on a promise "to make a break from the Bush years."
With Bush looking on, Obama declared: "On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics." Nothing is more refreshing after eight years of Bush's unilateralism and policy of expedience than Obama's statement on foreign policy which will restore America's most cherished ideals.
Obama rejected "as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." These ideals were reflected in "a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations." Obama said, "Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake." And so, he tells to all other peoples and governments that the United States is ready to lead again by making itself "a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks further of peace and dignity."
And so Obama not only swiftly shed off Bush's unilateralism, but also opened to the Muslim world that the United States would "seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect." Even though Obama warned "those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents," that "our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you," he offered to "extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
There is no trace of Bush's mutually exclusionary rhetoric, "If you are not with us, you are against us." Most striking part of his address was Obama's awareness that "our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please." Instead, he reminded us, "our power grows through its prudent use." Obama is re-defining the United States' relationship with the rest of the world, but his understanding of power and security is equally applicable to other governments, friends as well as foes.
He underscored that "Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint." Obama pledged of the United States: "We are the keepers of this legacy, guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort, even greater co-operation and understanding between nations."
Fair enough. Obama is free to counsel all other peoples and governments. And so, the government of Israel completed the withdrawal of its invading forces out of Gaza before the inauguration ceremonies started. And a week later a fragile cease-fire in Gaza still holds.
People in Gaza suffering from the horrendous destruction and devastation of their homes, schools, mosques, and their basic infrastructure must be wondering what Mr Obama's take on the conflict in Gaza is now, despite his silence during the on-going carnage which resulted in the death of about 1,400 people because there was only one President at a time.
They must have listened to President Obama who said, "we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace."
If it is the Obama administration's intention to "play its role in ushering in a new era of peace," at least we should expect a more even-handed appraisal of the reality of Israel occupation of Gaza. I do not approve of Hamas' ideology, but that does not negate the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance to the long Israeli siege and occupation of Gaza.
As Obama said in his inaugural address, violence and force will not make Israel safe. The occupation of Gaza with concrete high walls with a blockade by the sea is the violent subjugation of the Palestinians. It will only ensure the continued spiral of violence. As long as the siege and occupation continue, as long as Israel speaks to the Palestinians through explosions and air strikes, so will armed resistance to Israel continue. As Chris Hedge of
"The Palestinian reaction to Israeli occupation should be familiar to Israelis. Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister says that the Israeli government will have no dealings with Hamas terrorists. But Tzipi Livni's father was Eitan Livni, the chief operations officer of the terrorist Irgun Zvai Leumi which fought against the British occupation of Palestine.
The underground Jewish group set off a massive bomb in the King David hotel in Jerusalem, a blast in which 91 victims were killed, including four Jews. These Jewish terrorists hanged two British sergeants and booby-trapped their corpses. Irgun, together with the terrorist Stern gang, massacred 254 Palestinians in 1948 in the village of Deir Yassin. Tell me the moral difference between Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Stern gang and Hamas. I fail to see one."
Let's face it. Hamas won the Gaza election in 2006. And contrary to Israeli expectations, all the persistent bombing, shelling and the invasion of Gaza will not make Hamas go away. There is a temporary setback, but I suspect Hamas will regroup sooner or later, or some other more radical groups will emerge. Violence begets violence; the spiral continues. The military occupation of Gaza has failed. Israeli will have to negotiate with Hamas.
As a principal underwriter of the security and well-being of Israel, the time has come for Obama to take his advice to Israeli officials seriously: "the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply." Obama cannot carry on the same uncritical policy vis-à-vis Israel as if whatever Israel does is correct and justifiable.
Obama must be guided by his own counsel that the United States rejects the choice between safety and the ideals, which cannot be sacrificed for the sake of expedience. It has to embrace the force of its own example. The rest of the world is watching whether Obama will review the US policy toward Israel and what he will do about it.
"What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task," Obama said.
"This is the price and the promise of citizenship." The same can be said of every citizen of the world: a recognition that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world. It applies to the Palestinians as well as the Israelis "because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."
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