Obama's Silence

Israel sent ground troops into Gaza today. The infantry will be operating on terrain that has been leveled by a week of naval and air strikes. The stated objective of this now 8 day old offensive is to destroy the infrastructure of Hamas and thereby eliminate its capacity to launch rockets into southern Israel. From the perspective of Palestinian citizens, many of whom have seen their communities destroyed and livelihoods threatened over the past week, the offensive is an attempt to oust an elected governmental body through indiscriminate violence. The New York Times has reported 430 Palestinian and 4 Israeli deaths thus far.

This is a one-sided conflict. Israel controls the supplies of water, food, electricity, medical and humanitarian aid flowing into Palestine. The Israeli state is not threatened by the haphazard firing of makeshift rockets, and neither are its citizens so long as they are outside the short range of the rockets. Israel's response has been disproportionate and could be classified as a war crime.

Barack Obama is in not yet in a position to change the US policy towards Israel with regard to this conflict, but soon he will be. In 17 days he will have no excuse for silence. When he assumes the mantle of the Presidency, his silence will equal acquiescence. That passive acceptance will be unacceptable to me from a human rights perspective and from the perspective of a self-interested American. When Israel attacks Palestine with US supplied armaments and US made planes, Muslims across the world burn our flag along with Israel's. And when Muslims evaluate Obama, as a man and as a leader, they will look at how he handles our military partnership with Israel during this conflict. This is Obama's chance to show the Islamic world that he is a different type of American, the type who truly values human life and will defend it regardless of considerations of political convenience.