Update - The US-Israel Axis of "Peace" for the Middle East
Less than a week after US President Bush held the Aqaba Summit with Israeli PM Sharon and Palestinian PM Abbas to get the Road Map going, Sharon sent in his assassins into Gaza to kill Rantizzi, the Hamas leader. The assassination bungled, Rantizzi survived, but a mother and a five-year old child were killed instead.The tit-for-tat violence escalated that almost tore the Road Map to pieces.
On hearing the news, Bush said he was "troubled" by the attempted assassination of Rantizzi. As a devout Christian, Bush could only "regret the loss of lives" and he was more concerned, saying " I also don't believe the attacks help the Israelis' security," no matter that a mother and a child were murdered in the process.
After
a dinner with some 100 Jewish leaders at the White House on June 11, Bush regretted for his "troubling" comments.
By
June 15, Bush came out to publicly announce that Middle East violence was due solely to the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, implying that Israel was not to be blamed for the escalating violence. He then wanted the rest of
the world to "deal harshly" with Hamas.
This week, just as Colin Powell was arriving into the Middle East to restart the Road Map, Sharon's assassins finally succeeded in
killing another Hamas leader, Abdullah Kawasmeh . Sharon announced the kill as "
successful and very important".
It is a
familiar pattern of response by Ariel Sharon to have "peace" with the Palestinians and with Hamas.
As for the Bush Administration, it is too scared of the
Israeli lobby in his Administration and in the Congress to be an honest broker of Middle East peace.
See the following: Click on the links to read the articles:
Justin Raimondo's article -The campaign to criminalize criticism of Israel: Any other country that separated out the majority of the population on the basis of ethnicity, and subjected them to draconian controls, controlling their movements, and keeping them penned up in special ghettos, would long ago have been declared an international pariah. How has Israel managed to get away with it?... When the President of the United States can be forced to make an abrupt about-face, is it a "hate crime" to point to the power of the Israeli lobby?.... The tactics of the pro-Israel crowd are bound to backfire. Americans don't like to be told what they can read, or hear, and they aren't easily intimidated.
After the successful Israeli assassination of the Hamas leader, Abdullah Kawasmeh, Powell told reporters. "I regret that we continue to find ourselves trapped in this action and counter-action, provocation and reaction to provocation. I regret we had an incident that could be an impediment to progress." Another "regret" from the Bush Administration.
Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, will travel to the Mideast this weekend to help maintain momentum for a U.S.-backed peace initiative, the White House announced Monday. Her visit follows one by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was returning to Washington on Monday after spending three days in the region.
Israel threatened on Sunday more attacks on Palestinians it regards as 'ticking bombs' after killing a senior Hamas militant in the West Bank on the eve of an international meeting to try to save a battered peace plan. Hamas, a group dedicated to Israel's destruction, vowed to avenge Abdullah Kawasme's death.
Top Israeli security officials on several occasions discussed the possibility of killing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israel's military chief has revealed. Those discussions did not reach any practical planning stage, the Haaretz newspaper reported Monday.
Ariel Sharon said that Israel could continue building settlements in the occupied territories - but keep quiet about it. An unnamed cabinet official was quoted as saying that Mr Sharon was asked whether building could continue in the large West Bank settlement of Ariel, and he replied that there was no need to make a big deal every time a building permit was issued. "We just build," the cabinet official quoted Mr Sharon as saying.
Colin Powell told Palestinian leaders yesterday to take on the militant group Hamas and urged Israel to pull out of the Gaza Strip and curb assassinations of Palestinian militants.
Israel's foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that no progress can be made on a U.S.-backed peace plan unless the Palestinian Authority decides to dismantle the violent Hamas group.
In the West Bank,Israeli contractors are building a 25-foot wall - twice as high as the one in Warsaw ghetto in the 1940s - as part of an elaborate barrier that eventually will stretch more than 200 miles and restrict Palestinian movement into Israel. A Jewish British member of Parliament dared put into words what others have only thought ."No government should be behaving like that - least of all a Jewish government," British MP Oona King says.
The road map and the rest of the plans based on "separation" are simply dreams perpetuating the status quo. But the only choice left is between a regime of a Jewish minority over an Arab majority without civil rights, or a multi-cultural governmental framework, usually referred to as a "binational state."
Charlie Reese's article : The president's "road map to peace," is blowing up in his face. It does not recognize the basic facts of the conflict. It ignores the rule of law. It turns normal human behavior upside down. The basic facts of the conflict are that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip is illegal. There is nothing to negotiate. Israel must simply withdraw.
The road map is a hoax. Read HERE other comments on the Road Map.
Sharon has succeeded for now in diverting pressure on himself to dismantle outpost settlements and freeze other settlement activity, as called for by the roadmap, and has placed the ball back in the Palestinian court. In fact, the Palestinians have already lost this game.
Anyone who has followed this conflict from any distance and possesses a minimum sense of history can only view the latest declarations (of acceptance of the Road Map) from the Israeli government as nothing more than a stalling tactic necessary given the circumstances.
ISRAEL'S TALIBAN- The rising tide of Israeli extremism: The Israeli version – with the help of Christian "Zionists" in the West – may pose a deadlier danger in the long run. For the Afghan Taliban never even came close to acquiring nuclear weapons: the Israelis are already nuclear-armed. The Israeli Taliban could easily be reined in, and nipped in the bud by US policymakers – but for the exertions of Likud's American supporters. Ensconced in both parties – allied with the Christian Right and the New Republic liberals – uncritical supporters of Israel dominate the national discourse on the Middle East. Wrapped in a protective shield, and subsidized to the tune of $3 billion a year by US taxpayers, the worst elements in Israeli society are coming to the fore, and pose a direct danger not only to US interests, but to the whole region.
Read HERE Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRNEA)'s " Financial Aid To Israel:Figures, Facts, and Impact. "
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