OF OBAMA, AMERICA AND ISRAEL

I have followed with keen interest the debate on the Yahoo groups forum, about some Israeli authorities claiming for one of theirs, the USA President Barrack Hussein Obama, the reason being that the Israelis said they "raised" Obama in the USA, etc.

The author of the posting on the forum of the claim sounded peeved that the Israelis should make such a claim about the American president. Nonetheless, let’s face facts. In view of the fact that America is a melting pot with people from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds from all over the world, why should anyone be piqued that one group of Americans, namely the Jews, are claiming Obama as their own man? Yet, it is clear that by so doing, the Israelis have not and can not close the door to further claims of Obama `ownership` from others. Isn’t it true that African Americans – and by extension, Africans - are also claiming Obama as being African on account of his father’s Kenyan ancestry, and also that the Arab countries can claim him because of his middle name, “Hussein”? We also know – don’t we – that White Americans have a right to view Obama as theirs, because of his White mother.

My conclusion is that since Obama is so obviously “everyone’s property”, so to speak, instead of complaining, the authors of the plaintiff posting ought to assert their own “ownership” of the American president, instead of sweeping that of the Israelis under the carpet. Here I would like to paraphrase the French phrase that talks about “everyone trying to pull the blanket to their own side”. Such is the reality that we must face in the world of today. Let’s be inclusive and not exclusive; let’s fight from within and not from without; let’s stand up and be counted and not sit down and be passed over.

By the way, if those who raised the alarm about the Israelis did so out of unease that hopes which had been placed on Obama on his coming to power, to steer the American ship of State regarding Israel differently from his predecessors, then my response to the Palestinians side (in the large sense of the word) is that they should ask themselves why the American-Israeli tie has stood the test of time for so many centuries. And if it can’t be ruptured, why has the Palestinian camp not set up a rival and more powerful union and thus pulled the carpet from beneath the feet of Israel, so to speak?





Tikum Mbah Azonga