THE UGLY NEW FACE OF THE NATION

It was the same cold and conniving Hillary Clinton who testified for five hours at a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday. She may very well be one of the most unlikable people in the history of US politics. As I've said before, the prominent role she will play as Secretary of State in Barack Obama's administration is unfortunate to say the least.

For some inexplicable reason, there are some hopeful observers. During the hearing, I spoke to a fellow journalist who works on Capitol Hill. She was impressed by Clinton's remarks on Gaza, interpreting them as a sign of encouragement. Apparently, other news organizations also got it wrong... But despite all the unwarranted praise, there was nothing new in what Mrs Clinton had to say:

"The president-elect and I understand - and are deeply sympathetic to - Israel's desire to defend itself under current conditions and to be free of shelling by Hamas rockets. However, we have also been reminded of the tragic humanitarian costs of conflict in the Middle East, and pained by the suffering of Palestinian and Israeli civilians."

When Western politicians equate the struggle of the people in Gaza to that of Israeli citizens, they are showing just how unsympathetic they truly are. Afterall, there is no comparison between sporadic rocket fire and a hailstorm of bombs and other brutal weapons - there is no comparing three dead Israeli civilians to the 1000+ who have lost their lives in Gaza. As long as Washington continues to view the Middle East from a Zionist perspective, there is no hope for any meaningful change in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

As long as US foreign policy is rooted in an air of arrogant infallibility, change is equally unlikely in other sensitive arenas. On Iran, Clinton paid lipservice to Obama's stated desire to engage, but in addition to reiterating that "no options are off the table" she promised much more of the same:

"We will do everything we can pursue through diplomacy, through the use of sanctions, through creating better coalitions with countries that we believe also have a big stake in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon power."

This obsession with Iran's nuclear capabilities is hauntingly reminiscent of what happened five years ago with the country on its western border. Iraq has been laid to waste under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction. Even before the US invasion, Iraqis were dying in the hundreds of thousands from the types of sanctions Clinton hopes to use with Iran. Nuclear weapons cannot and should not be a pretext to enact policies that will kill innocent people; whether that happens through military campaigns or starvation is only a question of form.

I saw absolutely no signs of hope in Clinton's confirmation hearing, except for the expectation that she will have to submit her will to that of Barack Obama. Whether she actually does that remains to be seen, but since she is still likely to have her sights on the presidency, she will probably do as she is told. I don't expect her marching orders to bode well for the international community, particularly in the Middle East. I sincerely hope that I am wrong.