- The Arctic cold spell that has frozen Palestine for a
few weeks apparently departed with President Bush, leaving us to ponder
why this strange man came here at all. Some incorrigible optimists expressed
belief that Bush had called the Annapolis conference and departed on his
present journey in order to achieve peace in the Middle East and to improve
his image for future generations. "He does not want to retire with
the blemish of Abu Ghraib and the Iraqi war, he dreams of being well remembered",
they say. The same optimists used to say the same things about General
Sharon during his much publicised withdrawal from Gaza .
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- It took a year or two for even the dumbest optimists
to understand that (as we wrote in real time during the withdrawal) this
act allowed the Jews to inflict more suffering on Palestinians and at a
cheaper price. Now they can bomb Gaza at ease, without worrying about the
stray Jew who might be hit as well. Now they can starve Gaza and make billions
by selling their goods to the besieged while the price tab is paid by international
community. That was Sharon 's nature: if he'd give you a piece of bread,
look for a needle in it; if he'd give you a glass of water, check it for
poison. Like the scorpion in the Middle Eastern tale, he could not behave
differently. Bush is an American twin of his vegetable friend Sharon who
is now stuck in a comatose limbo reacting to pain. These guys simply can't
do good. If you see Bush doing a good deed, run to the optician! Our friend
Jack Graham wrote recently that America is not the Great Satan. True, but
under Bush, it will fill the bill until the real Satan comes along.
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- A psychologist might try to unravel the mystery of Bush's
deep connection with the Neocons -- we won't go into his motives (Is he
zombified? Blackmailed? Bewitched?), we'll just accept it as a fact. For
Neocons, Israel/Palestine is the most important core issue. But they are
not satisfied with full control over Palestine ; whatever it is they conspire
towards requires securing the entire East from India to Ethiopia . They
will come back to deal with Palestinians later, when the rest is secured.
Now they wreak havoc and let slip the dogs of war to run free. They intend
to undo Pakistan and seize its nuclear assets, they want to bring Russia
and China under control, but their immediate desire is to subdue Iran.
For this purpose, Bush needs some Arab stooges standing by. The Masters
of Discourse claim that the Arabs "are trembling with fear of the
alleged 'nuclear ambitions' of Iran and might even be willing to sell out
the Palestinian people if the United States were to 'take out' Iran on
their behalf", says John Whitbeck, correctly describing this claim
as "psychedelic". (In reality, "[t]he [Arab] street would
be thrilled if any Muslim state within reach of Israel (even a non-Arab
and Shiite one) were to acquire nuclear weapons and establish a ''balance
of fear" in place of the unilateral terror of the past four decades,"
Whitbeck avers.)
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- It is possible to convince Americans that this psychedelic
claim is correct: The Masters of Discourse can convince the majority of
US citizens of anything at all, even of Gray Aliens. Americans were convinced
that the Vietcong were soon to land in California, that Saddam Hussein
has WMD and that Iraqis would embrace the US Marines as their liberators,
so they can be convinced again and again, until such time as they undo
the brainwashing yoke of the Masters. But the Arabs won't take it, just
as the Iraqis did not. For the next move, Bush must deliver some progress
in Palestine . It can't be true progress of course, because Palestine is
the core, the final goal; it will be enough if it just looks like a step
forward.
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- That is why Bush went on with the futile farce of Annapolis
. If you believe Annapolis and Bush's visit have moved the notorious "peace
process" forward one inch, you do not need an Electric Monk, the device
described by Douglas Adams as a machine created to believe anything people
find hard to believe you can beat this machine at its own game! The
soon-to-retire Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem , Msgr Michel Sabbah correctly
explained in his Christmas talk: "A new peace effort was begun these
last few weeks. In order for it to succeed, there must be a firm willingness
to make peace. Until now, there has been no peace, simply because there
has been no willingness to make it" and he pointed out "the strong
party, the one with everything in hand, the one who is imposing occupation
on the other". Indeed Israel does not want a peace acceptable to Palestinians,
but it [along with President Bush] wants peace on its own terms.
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- The Arabs understand this as well as anybody. Even the
most pro-Western Arab mainstream paper, the Gulf News of Abu Dhabi , wrote
a "Letter to George W. Bush" saying: "You said that your
current tour aims to realise the long neglected peace in the Middle East
. Regional peace will not be achieved by escalating tension and threatening
to change regimes. And most importantly, it will not be achieved by supporting
Israel , which continues to defy international law, occupy Arab lands,
oppress the Palestinians and rebuff peace initiatives."
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- Al Jazeera says referring to 'analysts' that "the
US president is too late in his calls to Arab allies to confront Iranian
'extremism', as key American allies in the Arab world have thrown their
weight behind a growing rapprochement with Iran American fumbling in the
Middle East has pushed Arabs to adopt dialogue with the Islamic Republic".
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- Russia 's rejection of the sanctions against Iran was
also instrumental in creating the weather change, and it is possible to
say that Bush missed his chance for building an anti-Iranian coalition.
However, Western anti-Iranian propaganda did influence many Arabs; even
the relatively friendly site of Iraqi resistance, <http://www.uruknet.info>www.uruknet.info,
publishes terrible diatribes against "the Persians". Dr Theodor
Reik wrote that people and cultures always trip on the same rake: the Arabs
were tricked once into supporting England against the Ottoman Empire .
The result was sad; but will this experience keep them from repeating the
error, or will they support the US against the Iranians, if offered some
convincing performance by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas? Palestine
is still the key.
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- http://www.israelshamir.net/English/Eng27.htm
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