 Obama impresses Israelis, Palestinians
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-25 07:32  Israelis and Palestinians were in rare agreement after US presidential hopeful Barack Obama sped through an event-packed schedule: He makes a positive impression and says the things they want to hear, but his real audience is back home in America. Obama spent a full day meeting leaders and appearing before cameras in all the sensitive places - Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, the town of Sderot with its collection of rockets fired from nearby Gaza and the headquarters of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Before dawn yesterday in Jerusalem, Obama paid a visit to the holiest place in Judaism, bowing his head in prayer at the Western Wall and pushing a small note into a crevice in the ancient wall, a custom that is observed by many. Soon after, Obama departed for Germany. Obama was front page news in Israeli and Palestinian newspapers yesterday. Israeli newspapers were plastered yesterday with quotes from Obama interviews in which he expressed his commitment to the Jewish state. Obama told the Yediot Ahronot daily that a military strike against Iran must be on the table to keep it from developing nuclear weapons - a critical issue for Israelis who consider Iran their greatest enemy. "He is here in order to impress the voters back home," said Israeli political analyst Yossi Alpher. "Israelis find him interesting, he says the right things carefully, but it's not the kind of visit that one can assess in any substantive or qualitative way." In public appearances, Obama assured the Israelis he would not pressure them to compromise their security, would maintain and even expand the "special relationship" between the US and Israel and back Israel's right to defend itself against attacks. In his brief visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah, he said that if elected president he would start working for Israeli-Palestinian peace at the beginning of his term and not the end, as previous presidents have done. He expressed strong support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, backed negotiations between Israel and "moderate Palestinians," a nod to Abbas, while rejecting talks with his rivals in the militant Islamic Hamas, who overran Gaza last year. Before Obama arrived late on Tuesday, there was considerable skepticism about the candidate among both Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis worried about what they see as the traditional Democratic tendency to place much of the burden of peacemaking moves on Israel, in contrast to the Bush administration's almost total backing of Israel's stand. Some were put off by the faint Muslim strain in Obama's family background. Palestinian concerns were more generic. Many said that US administrations are always pro-Israel, regardless of who is serving as president. Mansour Habayed, 28, who works for a Palestinian cell phone company, noted that Obama spent much more time in Israel than in the West Bank. "I am not optimistic that Obama will be a different president of the US, in terms of finding a solution to our problem," he said. Though clearly charmed by Obama's charisma, both sides assumed Obama was aiming at his own electorate, not them. "It was a campaign visit, but the positive thing for Palestinians was the pledge that Barack Obama will work from the first day in the White House, if he gets elected, to find a solution to the Palestinian issue," said Abbas political adviser Nimr Hamad. "Because it was a campaign visit, it was focused much more on Israel, to attract the Jewish vote." Agencies (China Daily 07/25/2008 page12) |
