Nader the Best Antidote to American Imperialism

[mary rizzo]

The One Candidate Worth Our Vote
By KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON

We want to express our strong support for Ralph Nader's presidential candidacy.

There are several reasons. The first is a response to the many who say that, because Obama cannot be seen to sympathize with the Palestinians or criticize Israel during the campaign, we should all lie low for now, not even press him on the issue, get him nominated and elected, and then work on him to change after he becomes president. With all due respect to this position, which we recognize as legitimate, and to those who believe this, we feel it is a pipe dream to expect that Obama will ever change after being elected on a platform of unquestioning support for Israel and its oppression of Palestinians. He will have huge debts of gratitude to the Jewish community, and particularly to his very pro-Israeli political endorsers as well as huge monetary debts to pro-Israeli contributors, that will keep him from ever looking honestly at what Israel is doing to the Palestinians and particularly from ever speaking out forthrightly against this oppression.

Secondly, Obama has taken an extremely immoral stand on the Palestinian-Israeli issue by, among other positions, actually applauding Israel's siege and starvation of 1.5 million innocent Gazans, and by mourning Israel's losses to Palestinian rocket fire (12 people in seven years) without bothering even to mention the approximately 2,600 Gazans killed by Israeli rocket fire, airstrikes, and assassinations in those same seven years. He made one reference last year to Palestinian suffering, was immediately dumped on by Jewish leaders, and has since said nothing honest about the occupation -- not even expressing support for the two-state solution.

This is so distasteful that it ought to be totally unacceptable to anyone who works for peace in the Middle East, not just in Palestine-Israel but also in the broader region. Many responsible people have said that Israel is committing or is nearing the commission of genocide against the Palestinians. How in God's name can we just sit back and wait for the Israel lobby to work its will before we complain to Obama about his silence?

There might be some mitigating factors here if Obama were truly committed to really ending the Iraq war, but his position on this is ambiguous and uncertain enough to make us believe that here too he is at least partly in the pockets of Israel and its supporters. Anything short of an immediate withdrawal from Iraq constitutes, in our view, a perpetuation of the militarism initiated by the Bush/Cheney/neocon/Israel conglomerate and backed by the centrist DLC. This is horrifying. We also see little hope elsewhere: although Obama is not bad on Iran, he wants to attack Pakistan!

Our concern about Palestine-Israel, and about the way that oppression of the Palestinians is always put on the back burner in the interests of not antagonizing a key voting bloc, is not overdrawn. U.S.-supported Israeli oppression of the Palestinians is the principal root cause of anti-American terrorism and of hatred of the U.S. around the world, particularly the Arab and Muslim worlds. However often Mubarak and the Kings Abdullah and Abbas assure us that there is nothing to worry about, that it does not really matter if Palestinians are oppressed, we should never forget that their people, the proverbial "street throughout the Arab world, do care and care very deeply. One day, the U.S. will pay dearly -- again -- for our obliviousness to Palestinian suffering. And that is quite apart from the hatred that Iraq and Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo arouse.

We feel that Ralph Nader offers an alternative for anyone who longs for a candidate with principles, and we urge those who simply hope for the lesser of evils please not to interfere to limit our choices by denying him the right to run for election. Nader spoke very directly about Palestine-Israel and Iraq when he announced his candidacy on February 24, 2008, and we applaud him heartily. It's about time we saw a candidate with the courage of his convictions, the honor to speak out against injustice no matter how politically risky, and the guts not to sell his soul for the Jewish vote -- to say nothing of a readiness to speak out against the corporate interests that strangle us and limit our democracy.

As Nader himself said, if the Democrats can't win this election in a landslide, then they should fold their tent and reassess. He will not win the election, obviously. But if enough of us who care about the Middle East were to vote for him because he stands for a set of principles that greatly concern us all, then maybe we could send a message that cow-towing to Israel in order to get elected is not good enough. Some of us want some principle in the U.S. political scene, and only Nader offers this.

We will vote for him if he stays in the race. If he does not, we will probably -- and very deliberately -- not vote for president at all.

Kathleen Christison is a former CIA political analyst and has worked on Middle East issues for 30 years. She is the author of Perceptions of Palestine and The Wound of Dispossession. She can be reached at [e-mail].

Bill Christison was a senior official of the CIA. He served as a National Intelligence officer and as director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis.

They can be reached at [e-mail] .

http://www.counterpunch.org/christison03012008.html
http://www.votenader.org/

[Crystal Robert]

I saw Ralph Nader on TV yesterday evening and it would be wonderful if he could get elected. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Obama has a lead on Clinton and I would be surprised if anyone besides Obama, Clinto or McCain would become the next US president. Let's face it, no one the Jews don't want will get elected because they rule the US.

[mary rizzo]

Well, Crystal, one thing that I notice again and again is that the activists get channeled into supporting candidates who are just other examples of power, as the "lesser of 2 evils approach". Then, they rally to march in Anti War demos and they just kind of "forget all about it" because the attention span of the average American is from one "event" to another, i.e. superbowl to Oscars..... If those who are anti-War were at least mobilised for voting a true alternative, which is indeed Ralph Nader, if NOTHING else, it would make those who are working on the campaign outspoken on the issues, they would also create a kind of watchdog for the future president.... It would be very important for the activists themselves. NO PRESIDENT is going to bring change, this is a fact, because change happens with the masses, at the bottom, and this is where the people have to wake up and act. If I were in America, I would be campaigning for the man, this is a fact!

[Crystal Robert]

I agree Mary! I believe the poor attention span is partly due to heavy chemtrailings, food additives, etc. This is how they keep the average American mentally too numb to take a real stand. Talking to these masses is like screaming in the desert. They don't wake up!

[mary rizzo]

I am an American citizen. And, even if I wasn't, I have a right to express any and all criticism of any party, candidate or political system that has some bearing on how my country of residence (and where I have obtained citizenship) is required to act in the international scene.

If you are able to, read the analysis on Black Agenda Report, where the writer expresses his views that Obama is getting all the Black votes on a racial card, without promising anything at all to the Black agenda. It is right to express this, because Obama may get all that support without having to give anything in return. If that is not voting according to racial criteria, I don't know what is. If one stops being critical, one deserves everything they get, whatever it is.

[Crystal Robert]

Absolutely Mary! We certainly have the right to say what's on our minds since the US wars affect us all! And yes, critical thinking is crucial during such times as we live now. We cannot turn a blind eye to anyone or anything.

What? We cannot criticize Israel and the US after all their war crimes? I don't think so.

[Crystal Robert]

Well, if people campaign and vote for people such as Ralph Nader or Ron Paul in the US, maybe people would stop criticizing... The warmongering so dear to the US administration affects us all...

As for getting a US citizenship, I wouldn't do it even if it was given to me! It's bad enough that now we have the same problem in Canada; when I leave, it won't certainly be to live in another Zionist-ruled country! We have no real choice of candidate because the Zionist system has its paws in the Canadian government too!

[Einar Schlereth]

I agree fully with the analysis of K.&B. Christison. Obama has sold his soul to the Zionists and his letter of support for the attacks on Gaza was disgusting. On top of that he is wavering concerning the Iraq war and the Bush intention to attack Iran. So it makes no sense at all to support him.
Nader is one of those persons who have principles as Kucinich too.
I guess that the most urgent task would be to build a new movement from the bottom up and not the other way round. How often want the American people make the experience that whoever will be elected the outcome will always be the same. Because those billionaires don't and will never care about the people.

[Crystal Robert]

It makes no sense to support any of the three candidates in the lead. They all have sold their souls to the Zionists. If not, they would never have gotten so far in the campaign. They rule America.

[Crystal Robert]

Yvonne, it doesn't matter what we may or may not think about Obama... It is up to you Americans to elect the next president. I admit that Obama is almost too good to be true... It's the almost that is a little scary. Of course, besides Clinton and especially McCain, Obama seems to shine like a diamond... It is up to you, people, to decide on your next leader. Mary lives in Italy, and I am in Canada, so it's not our election. Good luck with your choice sis!

[mary rizzo]

Yes, I live in Italy, but as a dual citizen, I hypothetically could vote if I wanted to. The fact is, in the ballots they provide for me, which are a different version of what you guys get, I have only the choice of R or D! It's a "simplified" vote that does not even get counted unless there are cases of dispute. Seeing that my precinct is in Chicago, it's difficult to imagine there will be any kind of dispute, so this is YET another reason to not vote.

However, I don't think there is such a difference between R and D, in fact, there is little to none, and I believe people are cowed into thinking there is some kind of difference. I have never seen great progressive change in the country I was born in, (and things are just as bad here, and I refuse to vote in the elections coming up in 2 weeks, because I will not give consent to any of them).

I am still reading Naomi Klein's Shock Economy, for instance, and it is turning my stomach and opening my eyes to the enormous deception all of us are under. For instance, I believed the S Africa ended Apartheid. In name they did, but in fact, all the economic power is still in the hands of the Whites and things have actually gotten worse with the embracing of the liberal economic system. I don't believe there is any hope for any country if we continue to give consent to people and parties that do their own bidding. I believe the power of "no" still exists. It is an untapped power, so we don't know what it can do.

I have lost any kind of hope for change by big leaders. I believe all the power lies in the economic and propaganda lobbies, and they are the ones who rule and continue to do so. This means, for me, to simply jam my stick in their wheel, as often and as hard as I can. I do not delegate any of them to speak for me when they aren't even on the same page. I reserve my right to tell them to go to hell and to deny them the "legal" verification of the power they have taken.

It's not anarchy, it is active citizenship and this means that they will not have my number to justify them doing what they want, but they will have to recognise that a sizeable majority is not giving them support.

I would love to be wrong about it all. I would really like to think that voting is fair, that campaigning is for any person with strong ideas, and has no relation to money or empty promises, that a new approach to the middle east can happen, that God isn't called into the picture (would an atheist EVER survive in America? No, they would skin him alive) that colour and sex don't matter, that every vote counts, that promises are maintained and "change" isn't for the worse.

But, I don't believe any of them, except the eternal loser, Nader, who should have gotten support, but never will, because he is not part of the power system. Anyway, what makes me sad is, no matter where we live, all of us in the world are forced to be ruled by the US president, and this is really intolerable!

[Iqbal Tamimi]

That IF the voting was running in an honest way, I happen to know that many governments tamper with the numbers and the end product of any election. It is a swelling of propaganda, not a healthy democratic action.

[EshaAmeena]

Salaam Mary! How are you? Miss you! (( ))...................yes would be nice if Nader got elected wouldnt it-but-the power is not in the ppls hands...election is a farce and whoever the powers that be- want-will be-it is my understanding that this is not the america that was created........things are most assuredly controlled by a select few and as I am learning more and more-it seems to be hopeless situation here with the esculation of wars and mergers and genocidial minds controlling everything........
love you Mary-hope u are well!
love Esha