After Geneva vote, Obama policies blasted in Jordan - Feature

Amman - US President Barack Obama, at pains to improve his country's worsening image in the Arab and Islamic worlds, received a major setback at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council when the US opposed Judge Richard Goldstone's report about war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, two prominent Jordanian politicians said Saturday. The politicians also rebuked European countries for failing to support the report, saying their credibility as independent peace brokers and advocates of human right in the world would be substantially undermined.

"Obama's moves to improve the US image has hit a major snag at Geneva. He has now proved that his policies are nothing more than an extension of those of George W Bush," Mahmoud Mhaidat, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at Jordan's lower house of parliament told the German press agency dpa.

"Obama, who is trying to slaughter people in the region with a smooth hand, is now restoring the role as leader of the world's most oppressive and criminal nation," he said.

His comments came after the United States opposed the Goldstone report, saying it could jeopardize current efforts aimed at resuming the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The report, written by Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor, and three additional international experts, concluded that both Israel and the Hamas movement likely committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip in December and January.

The 47-member UN body adopted the report with 25 votes, while the United States and five European countries - Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovakia and Ukraine - opposed it. Britain, France and three other countries did not vote, while 11 nations abstained.

Arab media said that several countries had come under US and French pressure not to support the report, the adoption of which was considered by many Arab circles as a "legal victory" because it set the stage for further action against Israel possibly at the UN Security Council and International Criminal Court.

Mhaidat said it showed once again that the US and European countries were not in charge of their own decision-making, "which instead lies with the Jewish lobbies." He then asked what they had done so far "to stop Israel's building of settlements and judaizing of Jerusalem."

Meanwhile Hamman Saeed, leader of the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement, said that by opposing the Goldstone Report, the US was defending Israel's crimes in Gaza and the rest of Palestinian lands.

"Obama's cosmetic attempts to improve the ugly face of the United States turned out to be a failure at Geneva. His steps now fall in line with those of Bush," Saeed told dpa.

"It is high time for the Arab and Islamic worlds to stop relying on the United States and Europe for regaining their usurped rights and to resort to their own resources for restoring missing justice," he said.

The Obama administration has been leading an effort to achieve a resumption of peace talks between Israel and Palestinians.

However, a series of shuttle diplomacy trips by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has so far failed to achieve a breakthrough in face of a refusal by the Israeli far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze construction of settlements in occupied Palestinian lands.

The way the United States and European countries voted at the Human Rights Council was also condemned by the chief editor of the independent Alarab Alyawm daily newspaper Taher Adwan.

"The vote revealed the ethical collapse in the so-called democratic governments of the United States and Europe," Adwan said.

"While Washington's decision lay in the hands of the Zionist lobby, the governments of the European Union, particularly France and Norway, reflected a degree of opportunism that cannot be tolerated," he added.