-Caveat Lector-
Israel is rapidly running out of friends
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
By ERIC MARGOLIS
Contributing Foreign Editor
May 27, 2001
http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis.html
ROME - Only a few short months ago, Israel's then opposition leader, Ariel
Sharon, stormed Jerusalem's Al-Aksa Mosque at the head of 1,000 police,
igniting the second Palestinian "intifada" that now rages out of control.
Sharon's coup won him election as prime minister but plunged the region
into chaos.
In North America, Palestinians are blamed by the usually pro-Israel media
and politicians for the current wave of violence and terrorism. But here
in Europe, and around the world, there is a rising wave of anger and
condemnation against Israel's repression in the Occupied Territories. Only
the U.S. stands behind Israel, and less so by the day.
The European Union is debating imposing trade sanctions on Israeli
exports from the Occupied Territories. Senior EU officials charge Israel
with violating the Geneva Convention and international human rights laws.
The Convention, signed by Israel, expressly forbids military action
against the population of the occupied territories.
A top official of the Swiss-based International Red Cross charged
Israel's campaign to assassinate Palestinian officials and its increasing
employment of heavy weapons against civilians was tantamount to "war
crimes." Israel's use of tanks against Palestinians is being compared to
the Soviets' brutal crushing of the 1956 Hungarian uprising in Budapest.
Israel rejects all such criticism, insisting it is merely combating
"terrorism."
Last week, Israel tried to assassinate one of the most senior Palestinian
officials, Jibril Rajoub, a moderate and possible successor to PLO leader
Yasser Arafat, by pouring tank fire into his home. This, the second
attempted murder of a PLO leader in the last weeks, caused the U.S.
Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, a former high-ranking official of the
U.S. pro-Israel lobby, to accuse the Sharon government of trying to block
any chance for peace by assassinating moderate Palestinian leaders who can
stop the violence.
Sharon's unleashing of Israeli hit squads has produced a new spiral of
revenge attacks. Palestinian extremists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad lobbed
mortar fire at Israeli settlements and staged bloody human bomb attacks
against Israeli civilians. Israel retaliated by blasting Palestinians with
artillery, gunboats, tanks, helicopter gunships and, last week,
U.S.-supplied F-16 fighters.
Attacks by Palestinians on Jewish civilians are criminal, and militarily
useless, as is Israel's shooting at Palestinians.
They provide Israel with the excuse to unleash its military might against
a defenceless civilian population, and have silenced Israel's pro-peace
moderates. Palestinians who believe they can duplicate the victory of
Hezbollah guerrillas over Israel in Lebanon are dangerously deluded.
Still, Israel's continued colonization of Arab land remains at the heart
of the current conflict. Sharon made clear Israel will not stop expanding
settlements on occupied Arab land, though many are only partly inhabited.
Sharon has repeatedly urged settlers to grab as much Arab land as possible
to create "irreversible facts" on the ground.
Israel continued to build settlements during the decade of the Oslo Peace
Accords, in spite of pledges to stop. Each settlement had to be protected
by an army base, a cleared security zone, and Jewish-only "security
roads," all built on expropriated Arab land. The strategically-sited
settlements carved up Arab territory into a patchwork, making any
coherent, viable Palestinian state impossible. This relentless
expropriation, including the bulldozing of Arab villages and precious
olive groves, which take a century to produce fruit, was the main element
that ignited the current "intifada."
Israel's moderates and left have long demanded settlement-building cease
and the settlers, mostly from the U.S. or Russia, be relocated to Israel.
No real peace will be possible as long as they remain. Many of the 200,000
settlers came for subsidized housing; others because they believe God gave
them the Arabs' land. Israeli moderates say these fundamentalist colonists
should not hold the fate of Israel and the Middle East in their hands. The
American Mideast scholar, Edward Said, puts it even more harshly, calling
the settlers "heavily-armed, fanatical religious cultists."
A decade ago, George Bush Sr. tried to pressure Israel to cease expanding
settlements by threatening to withhold some of the US$3-5 billion the U.S.
gives Israel annually. Bush and his secretary of state, James Baker, were
immediately accused of anti-Semitism and scourged by the media. Campaign
funds poured into the coffers of a little-known Democratic candidate, Bill
Clinton.
So President George W. Bush is being extra cautious. Instead of leaning
on Israel, he is hiding behind the international Mitchell Commission
Report, which called on Palestinians to cease violence and terrorism and
on Israel to halt settlements and stop using deadly force against
civilians.
Behind the scenes, Secretary Colin Powell is gently pressing Israel to
halt its blitzkrieg. But Sharon again refused to stop settlements. Arafat
agreed to everything, but is powerless to do anything. The Palestinians
are leaderless.
Ariel Sharon appears increasingly brutal and irrational, almost as much a
menace to Israelis as he is to Palestinians.
Arafat is comatose. The only person who can restore order to the region
is Bush, but he can't forget the Mideast minefield his one-term father
stumbled into.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric can be reached by e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
