Oil spills, Aid blockades, and a President.

By Ken Russell in Articles

Can the Charter for Compassion help to bring peace and justice?

I was not unduly surprised the other day to receive an email from a quite frequent email correspondent, Barack Obama. He's been writing to me since the early days of his presidential campaign when in a fit of enthusiasm I enrolled with his organisation. I was excited by the man, and motivated by his invitation to freedom-lovers the world over to join him in a movement to promote a new spirit of open democracy, and initiatives for peace and inclusiveness in the troublespots of the world. My enthusiasm for the man and his message was overwhelming, a scarcely breathed notion that even the kingdom of God on earth was coming closer. Such is the folly of rampant idealism.

Barack's "dear Kenneth" was to tell me of his rage at the appalling oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and what he is doing about it. Clearly stung by mounting criticism of an ineffectual presidential response, he reiterated that BP will pay big time, and cited 20,000 workers under his direction working around the clock to clean up the mess. He went on to assure me of his empathy with the people of Louisiana and other gulf states who are looking down the barrel of ruin from lost livelihoods.

"These people work hard. They meet their responsibilities. But now because of a manmade catastrophe -- one that is not their fault and beyond their control -- their lives have been thrown into turmoil. It is brutally unfair. And what I told these men and women is that I will stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are again made whole."

A fine promise. But what I most regret to say is that there is mounting scepticism within America itself, and among America's many friends abroad, that presidential promises like this will come to very little. The perception is growing in this second year of the Obama presidency that his rhetoric is seldom matched by his actions, and that the people of the stricken fishing and seafood industries in the Gulf should not hold their breath. Who can blame them? Memories of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the lamentable response of the Geo W.Bush government, and the volumes of unkept promises to repair the damage, are still the source of anguish and bitterness in the region. Fine orator that he is, President Obama must deliver more than words.

I have in mind to reply to Mr Obama, and I will invite him to frame a similar letter telling his supporters, in the plainest terms, what he will do about America's aggressive dangerous friend, the state of Israel, and its criminal blockade preventing humanitarian supplies reaching the imprisoned Palestinian people of Gaza.

A year ago the new President gave his famous speech in Cairo, addressing the Muslim World. He vowed "to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world", declaring, "Islam is a part of America" and "is an important part of promoting peace." He was lauded in the west, and moderates in the Middle East were encouraged as never before by an American president.

It was a great act, carefully choreographed, but in retrospect one utterly disconnected from the realities of American politics. A year later, world opinion is dismissing the speech as so much window dressing, a gesture to impress the Muslim world at the time, but lacking substance.

It has been an interesting experience to read the independent media coverage of the attack on the aid flotilla, and the American response to it. It is almost universally negative. Correspondents from within Israel have testified to statements by senior Israeli commanders in the Hebrew- speaking media days before the massacre revealing that the raid was planned at least a week beforehand, and personally approved by Benjamin Netanyahu, including approval for the use of deadly force. The reality is that such is the sensitivity to events touching Israel and its neighbours that no major initiatives are ever taken by Israel without prior consultation with its major ally. There is a strong consensus the White House knew of the impending Israeli attack on the relief flotilla and contented itself with a limp pro forma call for restraint. For Israel it was tantamount to a green light.

"The United States deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy," deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton demurely declared in Chicago.

It highlights what has been apparent throughout the Obama presidency, that despite occasional hand-wringing from Washington, Israel goes its own way - a law unto itself, a pariah state, self obsessed, armed to the teeth, and unconstrained by any responsibility that might limit its own myopic agenda, one that brooks no mercy for the long standing misery of the Palestinians.

Mr Obama may well be privately worried about Israel's aggressions, but so far neither he nor Hillary Clinton, despite their personal sympathies, have given any indication they can or will take steps to change it.
In his letter The President promised not to abandon the victims of the oil spill. But has he the same concern for the victims of his Israeli allies in Gaza? It is their homeland too. They are starving. They are deprived. Their homes are being bulldozed. They exist on mere scraps of aid allowed past the wall. In his election speeches he spoke at length of his intention to reach out to the people of Gaza - but when?

OK, Hamas is a pretty nasty enemy, but at what point should resolution begin, with those who impose an unconscionable blockade, or those who after decades of ruthless oppression and strangulation resort to the only forms of violence open to them?

I have long been critical of Republican friends in the United States for their often totally prejudiced criticism of Obama, and I remain so. He needs a fair go. But is this orator President really no more than a wimp, a figurehead of the moral power of the presidency, but captive to the Israel lobby, the oil barons, big business, and the banking moguls of Wall St?

All around the world foreign ministers like our Murray McCully, he of unparalleled wimpishness, delay their responses to any given international crisis to see what the United States will say. And when the most powerful authority in the world responds with lack of principle and spine, injustices are perpetuated and tyrants go unpunished.

My return letter, (if it is ever read by him,) will tell President Barack Obama just this. He has won the admiration and support of many peace and justice-loving people around the world. He has the power. Now he must deliver.

From where will come the solution to the consuming hatreds of the Middle East? Earlier today our Synod turned its attention to "the Charter for Compassion" a document gaining favour among leaders of the three Abrahamic traditions around the world. The premise of the document is that compassion is a fundamental component of each tradition, and if peace and justice are ever to prevail in the powder keg of the Middle East, each of the respective faiths must search the depths of its own ethos to find the heart for compassion, one for the other. In a future Connections article I shall pursue this potentially global-changing initiative.

-- Ken Russell.

First printed as a Connections article in the Parish Weekly bulletin, 13th June, 2010.