Obama Blasted For Radio Silence On Gaza Violence

Gaza is on fire - again - and Barack Obama is getting slammed for not speaking up.

Obama has been a hard-core proponent of "one president at a time," and, technically, of course he's right. George Bush is still the commander-in-chief and he should be calling all the shots and making official policy statements, despite having one door out the White House and back in Crawford already.

But the press, blogs and online sites not just here, but around the world, apparently expected more from the president-elect. While Obama's been golfing in Hawaii, the rest of the world hasn't been taking too kindly to the silence heard 'round the world on the latest violence in the region. After all, he made more than a few statements on the Wall Street bailout and other economic issues. They want him to say something, anything.

Some are wondering what exactly Obama will do on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once he takes office, while others say it's likely he will soon realize - if he doesn't already - why a solution to this persistent problem has eluded all those before him. It's also thought that by not saying much, Obama is keeping his options open for when the time comes that he can actually do something. Whatever the reason for the silence, it turns out that Joe Biden may just have been right and he wasn't just full of "rhetorical flourish." This could be Obama's first big test, to "test the mettle of this guy."

Here's a sampling of what I've found on Obama's near- silence:

"The man who, in 20 days' time, will become the most powerful man in the world has said nothing. Mr. Obama's silence is in keeping with his insistence that the US 'has only one president at a time.' But it is also a measure of just how intractable is the Middle East crisis that will face the incoming administration, and – many in the region believe – a sign his policies there will be less different from those of the departing Bush team than once expected." - The Independent, U.K.

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-"The truce Hamas had meticulously upheld was shattered when Israel attacked Gaza, killing six Palestinians, as The Guardian reported on 5 November. A blatant disregard for the facts, it seems, will not leave the White House with George W. Bush on 20 January. Axelrod also recalled Obama's visit to Israel last July when he ignored Palestinians and visited the Israeli town of Sderot. There, Obama declared: 'If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.' This should not surprise anyone. Despite pervasive wishful thinking that Obama would abandon America's pro-Israel bias, his approach has been almost indistinguishable from the Bush administration's." - Electronic Intifada

-"President-elect Barack Obama is getting whacked by the left for declining to comment on Israel's onslaught on Gaza, but his prudent silence is just as discomfiting to the Israeli government and its allies here in the United States. They wanted a ringing endorsement of their bombardment." - The First Post, U.K.

-"President-elect Barack Obama and Secretary of State-to-be Hillary Clinton were shamefully silent in the first hours after the attack. Bush's reaction, and the non-reaction by Obama and Clinton, underscores the point that Hanan Ashrawi made on Saturday. 'Israel has gotten used to not being held accountable and to being a country that is above the law,' said the Palestinian legislator and human rights activist. She called the bombings a 'massacre.'" -- The Progressive

-"But some fear that the US president-elect's reluctance to speak out on the Gaza raids could be sending its own message. 'Silence sounds like complicity,' Mark Perry, the Washington Director of the Conflicts Forum group, told Al Jazeera. 'Obama has said that Israel has the right to defend itself from rocket attacks but my question to him is 'does he believe that Palestinians also have the right of self-defence?'" AlJazeera.net

-"Former London mayor Ken Livingstone and rights activist Bianca Jagger joined campaigners who have staged a week of rallies, culminating in a demonstration Saturday which will include a symbolic shoe protest outside Downing Street. 'I would like to make an appeal to president elect Obama to speak up,' said Jagger. 'People throughout the world were hopeful when he was elected and we must appeal to him to ask for the immediate cessation of the bombardment of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.'" - AFP

-"This was the time for President Elect Barack Obama to make a strong statement. He has not said anything; he has failed his first test as incoming president abysmally. ...Obama has made several statements on the economy, and has even already devised a $750 billion stimulus of his own, in addition to all the programs that have been announced by the Bush Administration. Now when it comes to a vicious and disproportionate attack by Israel that has already claimed the lives of many children and women, the President Elect is not permitted to say a word because of some sort of protocol? What kind of nonsense is this?" - Black Star News

-"Obama and his aides should be openly counseling the Bush administration to use every diplomatic avenue to promote a ceasefire and, above all, to urge against an Israeli invasion and occupation of Gaza. Unfortunately, the president-elect is doing nothing of the sort. Some may imagine that this disengaged approach confirms Obama as a true 'friend of Israel.'" - The Nation

-"Obama has massive political capital, and could have injected himself into the crisis before it happened. He did so during the beginning of the economic meltdown, and could have lent his credibility to a situation that has spiralled dangerously out of control. Obama has stated that 'There is only one President at a time', abdicating responsibility and essentially passing the buck." - Huffington Post


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