February 14, 2010
In Al-Jazeera TV Debate on Obama's First Year, Former U.S. Senate Candidate Muhammad Said Al-Bourini, Says Obama 'Brought Zionist Jews Into His Administration... to Monitor Them Closely'; 'He Wanted There To Be Division Among U.S. Jewry – So That They Would Join Him and J-Street, and Confront... AIPAC'
On January 26, 2010, the first anniversary of the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama, Al-Jazeera TV held a debate on Obama's achievements in his first year of presidency. Participants in the oft-contentious "Opposite Direction" TV show were Kamal Chatilla, leader of the Lebanese "People's Popular Congress," and Muhammad Said Al-Bourini, a Palestinian-born doctor living in the U.S., who has run for the U.S. Senate several times and who was also a 2008 gubernatorial candidate for Washington State, under the name Mohammad Hasan Said.
Chatilla opined that Obama, "being black himself," had been brought to the presidency in order to topple the social and racial revolution that the U.S. was facing – a "color trick," as TV host Faysal Qassem phrased it. According to Chatilla, Obama could not be any different from his predecessor, George W. Bush, because "the decision-making in the U.S. is ruled by the oil cartels, the industrial powers, the large corporations, and... the Zionist lobby."
Al-Bourini pleaded Obama's case, saying that he "is a good man, down to the core of his being" and that "Obama has achieved things on the international front," in contrast to "some Arab leaders... surrounding Palestine." He took the opportunity to criticize Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, saying that he was "suffering from Alzheimer's." According to Al-Bourini, the reason Obama had brought Zionist Jews into his administration was "in order to monitor them closely, because he knew that they had tried to topple him from the outset," and that Obama wanted to sow division among U.S. Jewry, aligning himself with J-Street in order to confront AIPAC pressure. However, "as long as the Zionists control the media and Congress follows Zionism, Obama – or even ten Obamas – cannot do anything," he said, pleading to "give him a chance."
Following are excerpts from the debate.
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2375.htm.
