Maine Owl

It's just prior to the Maine Democratic State Convention, so let's review the mainline Party position on Israel. This position is so reactionary that the slightest whiff of "evenhandedness" with respect to Israel and Palestine will be shot down in an instant. So it is good to have a firm grasp of what we are dealing with: unquestioning pro-Israel commitments the Party and its presumptive headline candidate endorse.

There usually is a minor scuffle when a few platform amendments are brought up to express evenhandedness and suggest that Israel may not always be the good guys in white hats to whom America must shovel boatloads of advanced weaponry and prodigious financial aid that ends up supporting settlement development. We'll see what happens with that, but usually the debate is squelched rather quickly.

Here is how Barack Obama's official website, delineates his extreme pro-Israel policies:

• Ensure a Strong U.S.-Israel Partnership: Barack Obama strongly supports the U.S.-Israel relationship, believes that our first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East must be to the security of Israel, America's strongest ally in the Middle East. Obama supports this closeness, stating that that the United States would never distance itself from Israel.
• Support Israel's Right to Self Defense: During the July 2006 Lebanon war, Barack Obama stood up strongly for Israel's right to defend itself from Hezbollah raids and rocket attacks, cosponsoring a Senate resolution against Iran and Syria's involvement in the war, and insisting that Israel should not be pressured into a ceasefire that did not deal with the threat of Hezbollah missiles. He believes strongly in Israel's right to protect its citizens.
• Support Foreign Assistance to Israel: Barack Obama has consistently supported foreign assistance to Israel. He defends and supports the annual foreign aid package that involves both military and economic assistance to Israel and has advocated increased foreign aid budgets to ensure that these funding priorities are met. He has called for continuing U.S. cooperation with Israel in the development of missile defense systems.

So, could Obama turn even further right on Israel? Well, he told an audience last week at a Boca Raton, Florida synagogue that his commitment to Israel's security was "unshakable", in addition to "incontrovertible", as described above. He even threw in what sounded like some of his famous denouncement, this time in the direction of former president Jimmy Carter. Lately Carter has been talking to Palestinians, in particular leaders of the hated elected Hamas government in Gaza. And uttering just yesterday the unspeakable truth that Israel possesses "150 or more" nuclear weapons itself.

It seems to me that no useful diplomacy Obama or anyone else could bring to bear will be possible until the U.S.-supported rouge Israeli arsenal is officially acknowledged and placed on the negotiating table.