Barack Obama has given up his 'aul principles for the Israeli shekel ?

galway | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Sunday March 11, 2007 20:23 by TD - IPSC

"Obama defended Israel's assault on Lebanon as an exercise of its 'legitimate right to defend itself.'"

Now that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) - one of the main engines for America's support of Israel - is opening its annual policy conference today in Washington with such keynote speakers as Dick Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, the house speaker and Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, it's clear Palestine needs no further enemies, but, bejaysus, out steps Barack Obaba from his sheeps clothing to renege on his previous near pristine support for Palestine.

From L to R : Michelle and Barack Obama, Edward and Mariam Said at a May 1998 Arab community event in Chicago at which Edward Said gave the keynote speech

In a Electronic Intifada report, Ali Abunimah, who ; "Over the years since I first saw Obama speak I met him about half a dozen times, often at Palestinian and Arab-American community events in Chicago including a May 1998 community fundraiser at which Edward Said was the keynote speaker. In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor. On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict".

Now, it seems Obama has done a reverse damascene conversion and howls louder than thou than any neocon in Bush's cabal, appointing Penny Pritzker, "scion of the liberal but staunchly Zionist family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain" as his national campaign finance chair - the Hyatt Regency hotel on Mount Scopus was built on land forcibly expropriated from Palestinian owners after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

Obama, according to Ali Abunimah has also appointed several prominent pro-Israel advisors.