Open Letter to President Obama by Ray McGovern

Salem-News

For the passengers and crew of 'The Audacity of Hope' to Gaza.

(NEW YORK CITY) - This is an open letter by Ray McGovern for the passengers and crew of “The Audacity of Hope” to Gaza.

Dear Mr. President:

Your speech on the Middle East earlier today emboldens us to claim your protection as we set out to put flesh on your rhetoric. Fifty of your fellow citizens will be sailing on “The Audacity of Hope” to Gaza next month.

You spoke eloquently today about “times in the course of history when the action of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has been building up for years.” And you lamented “failure to speak to the broader aspirations of ordinary people.”

We, the passengers and crew of “The Audacity of Hope,” sailing to Gaza in June together with the International Flotilla 2011, represent ordinary Americans determined to speak to the aspirations of the 1.5 ordinary Gazans yearning to be free. We will be delivering thousands of letters of support from other ordinary Americans who are persuaded, as Dr. King put it, that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

We write you for assurance of your support and protection as we try to embody your rhetoric. You emphasized that “the United States supports a set of universal rights,” and that this U.S. support is “not a secondary interest.” It is, rather, “a top priority that must be translated into concrete actions.”

Bold words. With respect to the situation in Gaza, though, perhaps you will agree that it hardly suffices to bemoan the fate of one “Palestinian who lost three daughters to Israeli shells in Gaza,” who, as you put it, has a “right to feel angry.”

That Palestinian and his dead daughters are four, but 1,400 Gazans were killed by Israeli forces in December 1998-January 1999 — and 1.5 million Gazans remain deprived of the universal rights of which you spoke. Gaza is a sequestered, crowded open-air prison, in which Israel keeps inmates at a subsistence level of existence. This amounts to the kind of collective punishment banned by international law and is enforced by an equally illegal blockade.

We have long been puzzled that you choose to exempt Gazans from your concern about universal rights, and have tired of waiting for a cogent explanation. So we ask you to look upon our voyage to Gaza as our attempt to implement your rhetoric about what ordinary citizens can do — not only to “speak” but also to act to meet the broader aspirations of the ordinary people of Gaza.

Tomorrow, you will have an opportunity to inform Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of our intention to sail to Gaza next month. You have probably already been briefed on Israel’s far-flung diplomatic offensive to prevent our boat and the other boats of the international flotilla from embarking for Gaza. Indeed, the Israelis may be emboldened by your lack of response to the killing of nine passengers, including an American citizen, on the 2010 relief flotilla. This year you have a golden opportunity to speak up for us beforehand. We expect you to use it.

And please do not try to pretend that $3 billion of our taxes — our annual gift to Israel — cannot be translated into the kind of leverage that will spare “The Legacy of Hope” from harm at the hands of the “Israeli Defense Forces.”

Finally, allow us to suggest talking points not likely to be included in your briefing papers. These points transcend rhetoric, and spring from a faith heritage you share with Netanyahu. They deal with the doing of justice, the preoccupation of the prophets of the Judeo-Christian tradition:

Before your meeting, have a look at what Isaiah says about “proclaiming liberty to captives and release to prisoners” and how Jesus of Nazareth repeats that, word for word, eight centuries later. Think about it, and be prepared to put justice above politics.

Please let us know how the discussion goes.

Yours truly,

Ray McGovern (for the “ordinary” citizens on “The Audacity of Hope”)