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The following are the comments made on the Middle East by President Barack Hussein Obama in commenting on the appointment of George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East. The comments appeared in the March 22 Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012202550.htm l - Basically, his comments reiterate the main themes of imperialist policy over the years. Noticeable is his evasion of the issue of the Palestinian state, in favor of a generality about peoples living together. This doesn't mean an end to proposals for a "two-state solution", but it is a reminder of how the supposed "two-state solution" assumes and is founded exclusively on the complete statelessness of the Palestinians anywhere (including any assertion of sovereignty and independence even in tiny Gaza. However, the comments do reflect a slight but significant diplomatic shift, reflecting the fact that the Palestinian political position is a bit stronger morally because of the international wave of outrage over the grisly criminality of the Zionist state. "Obama stated: As part of a lasting cease-fire, Gaza's border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regime, with the international and Palestinian Authority participating .... Not a call for an immediate end to the blockade by both Israel and Egypt, not a call for an end to the blockade, and certainly not the defiance of the blockade and calls for international condemnation that a US President who was a genuine moral leader would feel obliged to make. And certainly no defense of Gaza sovereignty, despite UN resolutions that claim to guarantee the ultimate sovereignty of this and other Palestinian territories. The US rulers, Obama included, see Gaza independence and sovereignty as a threat to the Israeli settler colonialist and apartheid structures, just as the independence and sovereignty of neighboring Angola. But a shift nonetheless. I note this in part because the Palestinian solidarity movement in the US is taking note of it as I think they should. I think that, as the now quasi-and-long-fully Zionist Shlomo Avneri has noted, changes in US politics that include the election of Obama are creating initial traces of a rift between the US and Israeli governments and, to some extent, societies. Actually, I first saw signs of a gap opening when Bush refused to give Israel weapons for attacking Iran's nuclear-energy plants a few months ago after beating the drums for this over years. How far this will go and, even more, how quickly, noone can tell. But Israel is beginning to face a trace of the isolation that eventually brought down South African apartheid with the US and other imperialist powers painfully pulled along. It's easy to forget the days when the US rulers were pretty open supporters of apartheid in South Africa. Of course, it's hard to submit such posts as this when a certain witch-hunting attitude has come to prevail on the list toward noting anything the Obama administration does or says that offers opening to our side, or reflects where we are getting stronger. The statements of Artesian, Louis, and others have made it clear that Walter was unsubbed, removed, expelled, or lethally ejected from the list on the political ground that he was supporting, defending or apologizing for Obama's continuation and evident plans to deepen the wars in Pakistan or Afghanistan, and opposing protests against them.?This is pure witch-hunting in my opinion, no matter now much professional factional prosecutors (and I know quite a bit from more than one side about that profession) can twist this or that hurriedly written quote for purely factional scandal-mongering places. Those who have followed Walter on the list know that he has never supported any military campaign of imperialism, by whatever president it was launched. This stuff is just part of the sectarian hard-factional gotcha game. If I was any longer interested in it, I know enough how to play it to have any denouncer of Walter by the short hairs in no time at all. I also note the view of a small but significant group of list members that the basis of the Marxism list should be modified to exclude "Cubaphilia", anything but the hard line on Obama, unconditional opposition to every government held to be capitalist in every country, etc. Further I note that though Louis makes much of Walter's use of characterizations like Obama-phobic, he has not a word to say against the use of the term "Obama-philiac" (meaning "Obama-lover," no less!)to characterize all but the most feverish expressions of what the new administration represents historically and in US and world politics. He is absolutely uncritical of his own characterizations or of Artesian's, as long as Artesian is more or less politically in agreement. The strictures seem to me always to be for the language of those who are disagreeing with him at the moment. (Personally, I suggest that Louis appoint Artesian as the list's Witchfinder General, should he decide we need one.) General. Of course, I would be against unsubbing him for any of his comments including his repugnant and untrue characterizations of Lippmann. Yes, I think Walter s

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