Welcome, Mr. Obama!

More Barack Obama? Yes and more than ever. It is because the mobilization of supporters of peace in the Near East around the world, notably in countries where Jewish and Muslim communities are numerous, is only beginning. Now, the American president, after his greatly anticipated speech in Cairo on June 4th, will be in France on June 5th for the commemoration of the debarkation of the Allies on June 6, 1944.

Last week, our report made a point about the relations of Barack Obama with Israel and with the Jewish people. We stressed the new and positive role played by many different people, both Democrats and Republicans, as well as the countless manifestations of intellectuals to help the American president overcome the opposition of the powerful AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), an unconditional supporter of the Israeli right.

It is necessary that the same thing happens here. I wish that, adding to official speeches, certain eminent people of intellectual and religious France speak vividly. I also wish that the important rabbis and imam, that the CRIF and the French Council of Muslim worship – who up until this point have not been sparing of partisan statements – welcome the efforts of one of the few men who can stop the disaster and contain the fire.

The problem is not that the AIPAC lobby exists. It is clear now that this term of “lobby,” heavy with anti-Semitic connotations in the European past, doesn’t have the same negative connotations in the United States. It is considered legitimate that lobbyists walk in the halls of Congress to influence Congressmen. The strongest pressure group is the National Rifle Association, with the goal of defending the freedom of each citizen to have a weapon.

The problem is that the AIPAC lobby has an incredible ability to pressure Congress by claiming, falsely, to represent five million American Jews. One could say that lobbies are judged by the cause that they are defending. But the cause of AIPAC, eminently arguable in the beginning, has now become indefensible. It is no longer a question of known arguments, like the fact that Israel is the country that embodies the glorious vengeance of the martyrs of the Shoa and the only true democracy in the Near East. It is in fact the only country with which the United States can maintain a complicity of civilization, and who could be a sure ally for them in a region where empires are unstable and where leaders often challenge the economic and oil interests of the West.

The report today is, simply, serious and decisive; the unprecedented power of the pro-Israeli lobby has become disastrous since it no longer works for the defense of Israel, but for the exclusive service of the specific positions of Likud, the party of the extreme Israeli right. This party, which has networks both in Washington and Jerusalem – Barack Obama knew them well in Chicago in his youth – has become a real state within a state, but it does not represent the average opinion of American Jews.

They are accused – with the evangelicals and the “neocons” – of having contributed to the launching of the second Iraq war and the lies that justified it. We notice more simply that Likud is opposed to all international agreements that have the obligation of providing the Palestinians with the means to build a viable and sovereign state. At the moment, he is especially opposed to any concession on the freezing of settlements and on the repatriation of settlers that have never stopped establishing themselves in the West Bank.

But it is a question with which Barack Obama is in no way ready to deal after the solemn commitments that he made before Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, as before seen by the Egyptian president and the Jordanian and Saudi kings. When Barack Obama realized that he would have to face the official positions of Israeli leaders and especially of their powerful allies in Washington, he told himself that his easiest recourse was to gain the support of a large number of American Jews. It is in this spirit that he proceeded with the composition of his headquarters staff. It is not only for his recognized and famous talents that he named Rahm Emanuel Chief of Staff.

Son of Israeli parents, Rahm Emanuel grew up in Chicago and, seen in an article published on the site of Newsweek on May 23rd, our colleagues delivered a very informed inventory on all the right arm engagements of Obama in the Jewish and Israel world. From this fascinating analysis emerges the fact that Rahm Emanuel was probably the Jewish person most likely to tell the truth to the Israelis and to convince the majority of American Jews. “Emanuel has, in the past, adopted moderate positions, played peacemaker. In November 2002, he was one of the two Jewish members of the assembly to sign a resolution calling on the support of agreements made in Geneva ten years earlier. Advisor to Bill Clinton, Emanuel was, in the shadows, the organizer of the handshake at the White House between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, who cemented the Oslo Peace Process.”

The truth that Rahm Emanuel promised to bring about was that the behavior of Israel is currently suicidal and radically contrary to the conception that Obama is promoting in the new U.S. foreign policy.

Obama surprised the whole world in beginning his term with openness toward the Islamic world and by the announcement of his willingness to carry out negotiations leading to a Palestinian state. This priority unsettled Israelis and especially Likud, who counted on successive postponements of negotiations to avoid a Palestinian state that he never wanted. Ariel Sharon took advantage of the Iraq war and Netanyahu chose with stubbornness and skill to focus the attention of the world on the threat from Iranian leaders. Simply, he finds himself before a man, Barack Obama, who hammers the conviction that only peace in the Near East can give back the United States the necessary authority to re-assemble the elements of the Arab and Islamic world that are able to put pressure on Hamas, Hezbollah and also, surely most important, on the Iranian authorities. It is there where the test of strength lies and it is there that Obama should have friends in the world.