The stepson of Huffington Post blogger
Queen Noor is stripping Palestinians of
their citizenship. You can read her latest
honoring World Refugee Day here.
The Jerusalem Post reports that the Jordanian government of King Abdullah is stripping Palestinians of their citizenship in order "to avoid a situation in which they would be 'resettled' permanently in the kingdom." The Jordanians claim they are acting "to prevent Israel from emptying the Palestinian territories of their original inhabitants," but the effect is to threaten both the Israeli government and the Palestinian authority with a massive influx of Palestinian refugees from Jordan. The move is what Barack Obama might call unhelpful. Yet there there isn't any noise from the "pro-peace" left. Most of the bloggers whom we typically rely on to highlighting the plight of the Palestinian people have yet to weigh in.
Where is Glenn Greenwald's perpetual outrage? Oh, that's right: He's a courtier when it comes to the Jordanian monarchy. Greenwald has in the past praised Jordan's Queen Noor for providing commentary that is "extremely insightful and articulate, virtually never heard (as the participants note) on American television, and underscores how unbalanced and incomplete is the debate most Americans hear concerning this issue of vital importance to American intersts (i.e.:virtually unquestioning American support for Israeli actions)." Queen Noor hasn't blogged at HuffPo yet on her stepson's decision to strip Palestinians of their citizenship, but we're guessing she supports it. Will Greenwald-- in the name of justice for the Palestinian people -- speak up?
How about Joe Klein? In just the last few weeks he's traveled to Syria, where he met with Hamas head-honcho Khaled Meshall (Klein said he asked a "good question" about whether the U.S. would bring enough pressure to bear on Israel) and to Iran to cover that country's elections (Klein was pleased to report that the country was "breezy with freedom). Despite his obviously deep interest in the Middle East -- and the success of the peace process -- Klein had nothing to say on reports out of Jordan, though he did claim on Monday that "Israel is the prime impediment to progress in the Middle East." Jeffrey Goldberg once wrote that Klein "derives great pleasure from criticizing Jewish supporters of the Iraq War -- the Wolfowitzes, Perles and Feiths -- in specifically Jewish terms." So maybe there's no pleasure for him in reporting on the mistreatment of Palestinians at the hands of the Abdullahs of the world.
No matter how deep the president's bow, the Saudis could not be convinced to make any concessions to the peace process. The Iranians have mocked and scoffed at every diplomatic overture from this administraiton. Hamas continues to hold Gilad Shalit. (This despite Klein's obviously premature celebration almost a month ago that "the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is a triumph of diplomacy" and Greenwald's claim that "the deal for Shalit's release was secured by some of the neocon's most despised enemies (Jimmy Carter and Syria), with the help of a President they insist hates Israel (Barack Obama), relying on tactics they have long scorned (diplomacy, negotiating with Terrorists, including Hamas)").
Despite everything, the president and his supporters remain focused on Israeli action and inaction, on settlements and checkpoints. These are the impediments to peace. And if Israel started stripping Arabs of their citizenship, there would be outrage -- as there rightly was at Avigdor Lieberman's suggestion of loyalty oaths for Israeli Arabs. But here the Arabs have done precisely what Lieberman threatened to do. So why is the response from the left so muted now?
