Truman in an African Mask

In his annual speech before AIPAC, Obama said that the security of Israel is sacred, so he is sending an urgent cable that, in brief, states that the relationship between Washington and Tel Aviv is above politics. This year’s speech was practically a job application to the Jewish lobby in America. Obama, who mentioned his predecessor Truman several times, appeared on the television as if he was that Anglo-Saxon man, only wearing an African mask at a masquerade ball party par excellence. Obama was riding high on waves of uninterrupted applause, except when his tone became grave regarding Iran and he said that any Israeli military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities would be a sovereign decision.

All at once Obama completely vindicated Zionism from charges of racism and condemned the international diplomatic notes that consider Zionism to be exactly that. He then adopted the Likud Party’s thesis regarding the Jewish state. He reminded Israel of his favors to it, starting with his use of the veto for its sake and ending with his use of the veto against the state of Palestine in the Security Council. He reminded the Jewish lobby of his stance against the Goldstone Report and emphasized his white predecessor’s portrayal of Israel as a story of hope, despite the fact that there are those among the Jews who say it is a story of failure. Due to concerns about the upcoming election, Obama was more Jewish than the Jews. To him, if Iran deserves international punishment it is not only because it is trying to produce a nuclear bomb, but also because it denied the Holocaust. The speech was a perfect example of how Obama distributes his words and deeds evenly between Israel and Palestine: the deeds — as he himself said — are for Israel, and from that we must conclude that his words are for Palestine. The state of Palestine was Obama’s “promise” on the eve of his electoral victory, and he had planned on announcing an independent Palestinian state in 2011.

Obama’s image glistened from being the most pro-Israel of his 40-some predecessors and the staunchest defender of its sacrosanct security. When he promised to honor Shimon Peres by awarding the former president America’s highest medal, he did not forget to mention Perez’s role in the Haganah. It was almost as if Obama was honoring Perez twice: for being in the Haganah, and then for being the Israeli president who graduated from such an organization. When he spoke about ending the siege — not the isolation — against Israel following the barbaric assault on the MV Mavi Marmara, his statement doubled as a retroactive attack against Turkey; there is now a splatter of blood of the Marmara victims on the walls of the White House.

What else could Obama possibly have said? Did he have any remaining bits of praise for the almighty AIPAC up his sleeves, starting from Washington and making his way through all of the political suburbs of the capital on his way to Tel Aviv?

It is the right of the Arabs who praised Obama’s speech at Cairo University to now apologize for their applause, understanding that they will not get anything out of a long speech, save for words that will explode in their faces later on.

We remember now those who were amazed by the dark-skinned man of the African and Islamic roots, who are now unable to comprehend when it comes to the United States and its president turning into a puppet (or hostage, if you will) shortly after arriving at the White House. During the election, Obama campaigned on the slogan of “change,” but he ended up doing the complete opposite once he was voted into the office. Despite his rhetoric, his arms came up short when he tried to reach for the locks of Guantanamo.

Fortunately, Obama’s speech was translated into Standard Arabic and there is no room to excuse any slips of the tongue or bad translations.

I saw Truman in an African mask, the same man who recognized Israel three minutes after the announcement of its founding.