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Subject:     Re: [Marxism] Rahm Emanuel: So Far So Not Good From Obama
Date:     Fri, 7 Nov 2008 02:09:45 -0800
From:     Aaron Aarons <aaron at mylists.fastmail.fm>
Reply-To:     Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
<marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu>
To:     aorta <aorta at home.nl>
References:     <bff.4c17aa7c.3645561f at aol.com>



<http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9939.shtml>

Opinion/Editorial
Obama picks pro-Israel hardliner for top post
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 5 November 2008

During the United States election campaign, racists and pro-Israel
hardliners tried to make an issue out of President-elect Barack Obama's
middle name, Hussein. Such people might take comfort in another middle
name, that of Obama's pick for White House Chief of Staff: Rahm Israel
Emanuel.

Emanuel is Obama's first high-level appointment and it's one likely to
disappointment those who hoped the president-elect would break with the
George W. Bush Administration's pro-Israel policies. White House Chief
of Staff is often considered the most powerful office in the executive
branch, next to the president. Obama has offered Emanuel the position
according to Democratic party sources cited by media including Reuters
and The New York Times. While Emanuel is expected to accept the post,
that had not been confirmed by Wednesday evening the day after the election.

Rahm Emanuel was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1959, the son of Benjamin
Emanuel, a pediatrician who helped smuggle weapons to the Irgun, the
Zionist militia of former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, in the
1940s. The Irgun carried out numerous terrorist attacks on Palestinian
civilians including the bombing of Jerusalem's King David Hotel in 1946.

Emanuel continued his father's tradition of active support for Israel;
during the 1991 Gulf War he volunteered to help maintain Israeli army
vehicles near the Lebanon border when southern Lebanon was still
occupied by Israeli forces.

As White House political director in the first Clinton administration,
Emanuel orchestrated the famous 1993 signing ceremony of the
"Declaration of Principles" between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and
Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Emanuel was elected to Congress
representing a north Chicago district in 2002 and he is credited with a
key role in delivering a Democratic majority in the 2006 mid-term
elections. He has been a prominent supporter of neoliberal economic
policies on free trade and welfare reform.

One of the most influential politicians and fundraisers in his party,
Emanuel accompanied Obama to a meeting of AIPAC's executive board just
after the Illinois senator had addressed the pro-Israel lobby's
conference last June.

In Congress, Emanuel has been a consistent and vocal pro-Israel
hardliner, sometimes more so than President Bush. In June 2003, for
example, he signed a letter criticizing Bush for being insufficiently
supportive of Israel. "We were deeply dismayed to hear your criticism of
Israel for fighting acts of terror," Emanuel, along with 33 other
Democrats wrote to Bush. The letter said that Israel's policy of
assassinating Palestinian political leaders "was clearly justified as an
application of Israel's right to self-defense" ("Pelosi supports
Israel's attacks on Hamas group," San Francisco Chronicle, 14 June 2003).

In July 2006, Emanuel was one of several members who called for the
cancellation of a speech to Congress by visiting Iraqi prime minister
Nouri al-Maliki because al-Maliki had criticized Israel's bombing of
Lebanon. Emanuel called the Lebanese and Palestinian governments
"totalitarian entities with militias and terrorists acting as
democracies" in a 19 July 2006 speech supporting a House resolution
backing Israel's bombing of both countries that caused thousands of
civilian victims.

Emanuel has sometimes posed as a defender of Palestinian lives, though
never from the constant Israeli violence that is responsible for the
vast majority of deaths and injuries. On 14 June 2007 he wrote to US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "on behalf of students in the Gaza
Strip whose future is threatened by the ongoing fighting there" which he
blamed on "the violence and militancy of their elders." In fact, the
fighting between members of Hamas and Fatah, which claimed dozens of
lives, was the result of a failed scheme by US-backed militias to
violently overthrow the elected Hamas-led national unity government.
Emanuel's letter urged Rice "to work with allies in the region, such as
Egypt and Jordan, to either find a secure location in Gaza for these
students, or to transport them to a neighboring country where they can
study and take their exams in peace." Palestinians often view such
proposals as a pretext to permanently "transfer" them from their
country, as many Israeli leaders have threatened. Emanuel has never said
anything in support of millions of Palestinian children whose education
has been disrupted by Israeli occupation, closures and blockades.

Emanuel has also used his position to explicitly push Israel's interests
in normalizing relations with Arab states and isolating Hamas. In 2006
he initiated a letter to President Bush opposing United Arab Emirates
(UAE)-based Dubai Ports World's attempt to buy the management business
of six US seaports. The letter, signed by dozens of other lawmakers,
stated that "The UAE has pledged to provide financial support to the
Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority and openly
participates in the Arab League boycott against Israel." It argued that
allowing the deal to go through "not only could place the safety and
security of US ports at risk, but enhance the ability of the UAE to
bolster the Hamas regime and its efforts to promote terrorism and
violence against Israel" ("Dems Tie Israel, Ports," Forward, 10 March 2006).

Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic
Council, told Fox News that picking Emanuel is "just another indication
that despite the attempts to imply that Obama would somehow appoint the
wrong person or listen to the wrong people when it comes to the
US-Israel relationship ... that was never true."

Over the course of the campaign, Obama publicly distanced himself from
friends and advisers suspected or accused of having "pro-Palestinian"
sympathies. There are no early indications of a more balanced course.

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One
Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli- Palestinian Impasse
(Metropolitan Books, 2006).

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