Posted on 27-5-2003
Middle
East Littered With Landmarks
By Alan Marston
Israel's war-criminal turned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
his cabinet has approved a U.S.-backed "road map"
for peace that is touted as formally committing Israel, for
the first time, to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Should the world rejoice? I think not. Spun as yet another landmark
for Middle-East peace, a jaundiced eye will see on the political
landscape of that tiny part of the world another floor added
to the monument to greed, perfidy and deceit, a blood-soaked
edifice that casts a shadow over all other `landmarks'.
I believe that Sharon deliberately provoked the Palestinians
in September 2000 in order to serve his own career and he has
many allies in maintaining the cycle of violence indefinitely
into the future, for one blindingly obvious reason, except to
those whose personal interests block their vision. Although
Israel would lose in any court of law in the world in respect
of its actions toward Palestine and it's people, it will never
be beaten in the field of military violence as long as every
US administration since WW2 continues to arm and finance the
Israeli army to carry out its role as the USA's corporate `enforcer'
over the Arabic countries of that oil-rich region.
In the world of violence, the USA is king. It has many loyal
subjects, none so more than Israel for without the US backing
Israel would have to do more than talk about peace and democracy,
it would have to live it.
Bush wants to be re-elected, he has that in common with every
politician in the world and Israeli politicians are ultra-sensitive
to any need manifested by any US President and any member of
his inner-circle. Covering the real needs and deals is a deep
layer of PR, which in the modern era is an acronym for bullshit.
Bullshit word #1, reservations. The Israeli cabinet decision
was accompanied by reaffirmation of Israeli `reservations' about
the plan, which the United States has said would be addressed
as it was being implemented, and rejection of any right for
Palestinian refugees to return to Israel. In short, business-as-usual
for Israel and the US and repression-as-usual for the Palestinians.
Even then the it required voting down right cabinet ministers
and members of Sharon's rightist Likud party, by a vote of 12-7
with four abstentions, after a stormy six-hour debate. In a
separate vote of 16-1, the cabinet rejected any influx of Palestinian
refugees into what is now the Jewish state, a proviso that shows
the true import of the so-called road map to peace.The `road
map' does not refer to a specific Palestinian "right of
return" but calls instead for a "fair and realistic
solution to the refugee issue" in the proposal's final
phase.
Bullshit word #2, realistic.
When one has a gun to one's head, then one must be realistic.
"This is a positive thing," Palestinian Information
Minister Nabil Amr told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television. "But
we believe that for there to be an effective implementation
of the road map, then Israel must help create a conducive environment
by freeing detainees, halting settlements and military raids
and closures." I believe this statement signals the fact
that Palestinians have bent over backwards so far, that all
but those who are `realistic' and have a rubber backbone, have
broken their back if they, by being unrealistic, haven't been
killed or exiled already.
The plan's initial steps include an end to violence, an easing
of Israel's grip on the West Bank and Gaza, the dismantling
of Jewish settlement outposts erected since March 2001 and a
freeze in settlement expansion. Any semblance of justice would
dictate that the borders go back to that pre-1967. But that
didn't stop the neo-realists like Russian representatives joining
others in the now discredited UN in `hoping Israeli reservations
would not hamper its rapid implementation'."We consider
it of fundamental importance that the government of Israel,
for the first time in history, has officially accepted Palestinians'
right to create their own viable, sovereign state," a foreign
ministry statement said.
Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a leader of the Islamic militant group
Hamas, surely some-one needing involvement in any peace-plan,
as it has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel,
responded to the cabinet move by calling the road map "a
conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinian cause and resistance."
Whose the realist?
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