{"id":9927,"date":"2014-07-16T14:33:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T14:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=9927"},"modified":"2014-07-16T14:33:49","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T14:33:49","slug":"president-obama-voices-support-for-israel-at-white-house-iftar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/president-obama-voices-support-for-israel-at-white-house-iftar\/","title":{"rendered":"President Obama voices support for Israel at White House iftar"},"content":{"rendered":"

An American Muslim organisation has criticised Barack Obama for using a White House iftar on Monday as an opportunity to voice his support for Israel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Muslim Public Affairs Council, which attended the event along with many other US Muslim leaders, said it was appalled at the president\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

At the iftar the President said \u201cno country can accept rocket fired indiscriminately at citizens\u201d and \u201cIsrael has the right to defend itself against what I consider to be inexcusable attacks from Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement MPAC said: \u201cAs an organization that champions the principle of engagement, MPAC Washington DC Director Haris Tarin and National Policy Analyst Hoda Elshishtawy seized the opportunity to raise pressing policy concerns with President Obama and his senior staff regarding Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cTarin and Elshishtawy directly stressed to the President and his senior staff that the disproportionate Israeli military response is a deeply concerning reality for innocent Gazans. They also stressed the need for the US to push for an immediate ceasefire\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past eight days, nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes. In his remarks last night, Obama supported Israel\u2019s right to defend itself. Given the growing international outcry calling for an immediate ceasefire and a halt to Israel\u2019s military assault on Gaza, it is appalling that the President continues to give Israel a green light to resume their assault on Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obama remarks<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the White House iftar President Obama said: \u201cthe pictures we are seeing in Gaza and Israel are heart wrenching.\u00a0 People here in the United States care deeply about what\u2019s happening there, and I know there are strong views, as well as differences, about how we should move forward, which is part of American democracy.\u00a0 We welcome that debate.\u00a0 That makes us stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal has been and continues to be peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.\u00a0 And I will say very clearly, no country can accept rocket fired indiscriminately at citizens.\u00a0 And so, we\u2019ve been very clear that Israel has the right to defend itself against what I consider to be inexcusable attacks from Hamas.\u00a0 At the same time, on top of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that we\u2019ve worked long and hard to alleviate, the death and injury of Palestinian civilians is a tragedy, which is why we\u2019ve emphasized the need to protect civilians, regardless of who they are or where they live.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe further escalation benefits no one, least of all the Israeli and the Palestinian people.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to continue doing everything we can to facilitate a return to the 2012 cease-fire.\u00a0 We are encouraged that\u00a0Egypt<\/a>\u00a0has made a proposal to accomplish this goal, which we hope can restore the calm that we\u2019ve been seeking.\u00a0 More broadly, however, the situation in Gaza reminds us again that the status quo is unsustainable and that the only path to true security is a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, where differences are resolved peacefully and in ways that respect the dignity of all people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boycott call<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the iftar The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) had urged all Arab and Muslims in the United States to boycott the Obama administration\u2019s celebration of the holy month of Ramadan, arguing the president has condoned the killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the spying on some Americans based on their Muslim identities.<\/p>\n

The ADC, the nation\u2019s largest Arab American group, issued a statement saying: \u201cWe ask that all government iftar invitees stand together on behalf the community and reject the normalization of the continuous breach of our fundamental rights. Political engagement is important and having a seat at the table is crucial \u2014 but only when that seat is intended to amplify our voice as a community, not tokenize or subdue it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The custom of celebrating Ramadan in the White House dates back at least to 1996, when then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted a dinner during Eid-al-Fitr, the three-day festival marking the end of Ramadan.<\/p>\n

National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan noted in an e-mail Monday that the tradition may go back two centuries, according to accounts from the nation\u2019s early days.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome consider President Thomas Jefferson to have hosted the first Iftar by a US president, as he hosted a sunset dinner with an envoy from Tunisia over 200 years ago,\u201d Meehan wrote. \u201cThe invited guests tonight include elected officials, members of the diplomatic corps, religious and grassroots leaders in the Muslim American community, and leaders of diverse faiths.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday night, Obama said the ceremony offered him and others the chance to celebrate the freedom of religion and highlight the achievements of Muslim Americans who had worked to advance and contribute to their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us are deserving of an equal opportunity to thrive \u2013 no matter who we are, what we look like, what we believe, or how we pray,\u201d the president said. \u201cAnd all of us have an obligation to do our part \u2013 to help others overcome barriers, to reverse the injustice of inequality and to help more of our fellow citizens share in the promise of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: 5pillarz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An American Muslim organisation has criticised Barack Obama for using a White House iftar on Monday as an opportunity to voice his support for Israel. The Muslim Public Affairs Council, which attended the event along with many other US Muslim leaders, said it was appalled at the president\u2019s actions. At the iftar the President said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[331,1089,136,1425,1090,163,1429,1091,314],"class_list":["post-9927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-islamic-research","tag-gaza","tag-iftar","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-president-obama","tag-ticker","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9927"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9930,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9927\/revisions\/9930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}