Positions of Power
July 18, 2013 By Adam Turner
[Her husband is Cass Sunstein]
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The premiere example is her response to the “thought experiment” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2002, Samantha Power was asked: “Let me give you a thought experiment here …without addressing the Palestine – Israel problem, let’s say you were an advisor to the President of the United States, how would you respond to current events there? Would you advise him to put a structure in place to monitor that situation, at least if one party or another [starts] looking like they might be moving toward genocide?” She answered:
…what we need is a willingness to put something on the line in helping the situation. Putting something on the line might mean alienating a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import; it may more crucially mean sacrificing — or investing, I think, more than sacrificing — billions of dollars, not in servicing Israel’s military, but actually investing in the new state of Palestine, in investing the billions of dollars it would probably take, also, to support what will have to be a mammoth protection force, not of the old Rwanda kind, but a meaningful military presence. Because it seems to me at this stage (and this is true of actual genocides as well, and not just major human rights abuses, which were seen there), you have to go in as if you’re serious, you have to put something on the line. Unfortunately, imposition of a solution on unwilling parties is dreadful. It’s a terrible thing to do, it’s fundamentally undemocratic. But, sadly, we don’t just have a democracy here either, we have a liberal democracy. There are certain sets of principles that guide our policy, or that are meant to, anyway. It’s essential that some set of principles becomes the benchmark, rather than a deference to [leaders] who are fundamentally politically destined to destroy the lives of their own people…I do think in that sense, both political leaders have been dreadfully irresponsible. And, unfortunately, it does require external intervention.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, when Power was advising then Senator Obama, this hypothetical answer began to attract critical comment, so Power completely disavowed it: “Even I don’t understand it. This makes no sense to me. The quote seems so weird.”
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• In a 2008 radio interview, when Power answered concerns regarding Barack Obama and his views towards Israel, she stated, “So much of it is about: ‘Is he going to be good for the Jews?” A further clarification of this statement might be warranted. Perhaps she might say, “My appointment is good for the Jews. Did you know that I am married to one?”
This kind of strategy will likely get Samantha Power through the U.S. Senate. Whether it will serve our nation at the United Nations, a place where the United States faces determined foes and where political debates have real consequences, is another question entirely.
Positions of Power | FrontPage Magazine
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