BUSH
ADMINISTRATION ACTS LIKE ISRAEL'S PUPPET
http://archive.showmenews.com/2002/feb/20020207comm003.asp
by CHARLEY REESE
My biggest disappointment
in President George W. Bush has been in how he
has allowed himself to be
manipulated by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon.
He has followed
the same failed policy that his predecessor did.
That policy can be
summed up as "the Israelis are always right, and the
Palestinians are always
wrong." That's a very convenient policy for
politicians who don't want the
powerful Israeli lobby on their case. But
if the goal is peace, the policy is
a failure. If the goal is to protect
America's interests, the policy is a
failure. If the goal is to bring
stability to the Middle East, the policy is
a failure. If the goal is to
eliminate terrorism, the policy is a
failure.
Now, when people pursue a policy that has not achieved the goals
it was
supposed to, there are three possible reasons. One, the people
are
stupid. I think we can eliminate that. Nobody in the White House
is
stupid. A second reason is that they are afraid to change the
policy
because of domestic political pressure. A third reason could be
that
their goals are not the ones they publicly espouse.
I never
thought I would feel sympathy for Yasser Arafat, but he's been
put into an
untenable position. Imagine a football game. Imagine that
you take the coach
away and lock him up in a room. Imagine that you
shoot half his team. And
then imagine how silly it sounds for you to
demand of the coach that he win
the game.
Arafat is under house arrest. He can't walk outside without
chipping his
teeth on the muzzles of Israeli tanks. For weeks, no matter who
did
what, the Israelis have bombed and shelled the Palestinian
Authority
police stations - along with their equipment and files. The
Israelis
have killed and injured numerous PA policemen. Yet Sharon continues
to
demand that Arafat stop terrorism, and no matter what Arafat says
or
what he does, Sharon scoffs at it.
Now, to our international shame,
the Bush Administration has adopted the
same pathetic line. Like a flock of
parrots, Bush and his people repeat
whatever Sharon says. It's not just
people in the Arab countries who see
this sorry spectacle. People all over
the world are wondering how it is
that a little country like Israel can jerk
the chain of a powerful
nation like the United States.
A few facts:
The Palestinians are right. The Israeli occupation of East
Jerusalem, the
West Bank and Gaza is illegal. When the occupation ends,
peace follows. As
long as the occupation continues, so will the
resistance.
Sharon has
no intention of ending the occupation or of negotiating in
good faith.
Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is a brutal record of
human-rights
violations, violations of the Geneva Accords and violations
of United Nations
Security Council resolutions.
It ought to make every American angry that
our politicians tell us U.N.
Security Council resolutions are worth the lives
of Americans to enforce
against Iraq but are to be vetoed and spit upon when
directed at Israel.
Our policy is an insult to anyone who supports the United
Nations, and,
frankly, people in Europe are getting sick of it.
Israel
has hired two public-relations firms, in addition to its American
lobby,
because it is scared to death that Americans are going to wake up
and see the
connection between the Israel First policy and the attacks
that occurred
Sept. 11. It need not worry about the Bush Administration
or most of the
Israel First journalists, but I hope the American people
have not all lost
their ability to think and to reason.
In the meantime, the Bush
Administration ought to replace the American
eagle with a parrot clutching an
Israeli flag in one claw and a tin cup
in the other.
[Former Orlando
Sentinel columnist Charley Reese writes for King
Features
Syndicate.]
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