by Ahmed Amr
George Bush is not a subtle man. When he gets infuriated, he takes it out on the Palestinians. So, this week he threw a temper tantrum. He released the Osama tapes planted by Bin Laden operatives in some Afghan villa for the CIA to conveniently stumble upon. He made a big show of holding up the tapes for translation. I guess the 'Arab Street' was in desperate need of an English translation. By the end of the week, the state department had realized the necessity of translating the tape back into Arabic. I called my sources, who live on a very busy Arab Street in the heart of Cairo. They said 'Who needed the tape? We knew Osama did it. We know his agenda. Are the Americans going to take it out on us?' . Sure looks that way. The tapes were obviously meant to antagonize an already angry America. And this time, George Bush wanted to give Osama a little lift in the ratings by publicly endorsing the release of the tapes.
As any red-blooded Texan can tell you, those tapes did exactly what Osama intended. The anti-Arab bigots at FOX and CNN aired nothing but the Osama tape all through the weekend. They also had all kinds of suspect experts 'explaining why the Arab street disbelieved their eyes'. For some reason, our well-informed sources in Cairo have had trouble locating anyone who doesn't believe Osama did it. And that was before the release of the tapes. All the rubbish about the Egyptian media denying Osama's role is fabricated outright lies manufactured by Arab-hating specialists at CNN and FOX who can't read a line of Arabic. In one CNN interview, a young man was talking about the Jewish domination of the press in America. But the CNN translator had other ideas about what the man said. I have always considered the boys at CNN to be rank amateurs, but this was a gem. These losers must be getting money under the table from the Mossad. When Ad revenues are down, maybe a little foreign aid helps.
To prove the point, I challenge CNN to finance a project to fully translate the works of Al-Ahram over the last ninety days. Of course, we can't use their translators, because they should be sent back to Arabic 101. The real story is that Egyptian journalists have done nothing but damn Osama. What they haven't done is endorse American foreign policies in the Middle East. Bush wants the Arabs to accept the ongoing liquidation of the Palestinian cause. He wants them to warmly embrace the war criminals he embraces. He wants them to accept Israeli repression with more grace. Bush wants Arab leaders to act with more humility and shut the hell up while Sharon goes about his thuggish business. These days, the president gets a lot of mileage by mugging for the cameras. Like Clinton, he has chosen to conduct Middle East foreign policy by taking polls. And the Yiddish mass media bigots are willing to handle all the expenses of taking the polls.
The cable network morons, who gained all their experience chasing Condit in Chandrala, bit on the Bush line and started covering how the 'Arab Street' would respond to the tape. Of course, the Arab street was following the latest Al Jazira tape of Israeli carnage in the West Bank and Gaza. Afghanistan and Bin Laden are a distant secondary concern to the Palestinian struggle for independence. Bush knew that and wanted more attention for his exploits in liberating Afghanistan. 'What about the liberty of Palestinians?' came the loud chorus from the Arab Street? Bush has a pat response: 'that will have to wait till Afghanistan becomes more like Sweden. I am not about to start chewing gum while walking'. To prove his intentions, the Pentagon released the Osama tape just in time for the Israelis to use the American veto at the United Nations Security Council. Sharon put it to good use by denying international monitors access to report on what his brutes are doing in the West Bank and Gaza. As for Bush, he was too busy raising a 5,000 man UN peacekeeping force in Afghanistan to show any concern for the security of the Palestinians. Powell came up with a lame excuse about the language of the resolutions not sufficiently slandering the Palestinians. In the absence of such slander, in diplomatic language crafted by none other than the French, Powell concluded that the Palestinians would be denied international protection.
Also this week, Colin Powell told Zinni to come home and share some wet noodles. Indeed, a new brand of wet noodles is now being marketed under the Zinni name. Sharon warned that he would fire Arafat if he did not follow the new IDF rules of belligerent occupation. Left uncovered by our media mavericks, was the sixty man Israeli spy ring and the FBI's foiling of planned attacks by Jewish extremists against an American congressman and a Mosque in Los Angeles.
If the people of the Middle East are confused about the Bush strategy, then they have failed to grasp the essence of this very simple man. He likes the CNN camera, he likes his poll numbers, he is grateful that the Yiddish supremacists have stopped questioning his IQ, he loves operating that all powerful military tools at his disposal, he wants to dance in the rain in downtown Kabul come the next monsoon season. Further, he will not risk any of his political marbles playing games with the favorite war criminal of the United Yiddish of America.
Bush set out to be a do nothing president with a unilateral foreign policy agenda. All this sudden flurry of foreign policy work requests is a bit too much for him. The last thing he ever intended was to pay any attention to the Palestinians. Now, more than ever, he buys into the popular Yiddish theory that the continued repression of the Palestinians is an important tool in the continued humiliation of the Arabs and Muslims. It is unclear how such humiliation serves American national security interests, but that is beside the point. Bush is buying into Sharon's game plan and that is not a very difficult thing for young George. Bush does the things that are easy for him to do, no matter how hard they will be on Americans or Palestinians. The long term to him is next week's poll numbers. The most pressing issue is the continued threat from the Yiddish media titans to re-count the Florida vote, again and again. He knows that will happen if he tangles with Sharon.
George Bush will play it safe and keep his poll numbers high no matter what Sharon does to the Palestinians. The President of these United States is sending a message to the American people that the Palestinians deserve continued repression because Osama's fanatics attacked the WTC. Of course, in the other Osama tapes, Osama says it is because Bush senior put a permanent garrison on Saudi soil. But, who are you going to believe, Osama's confession or your lying eyes?
Mr. Ahmed Amr is Editor of NileMedia.com in Seattle and a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN).
THE END
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