Palestinian misgivings, By George S. Hishmeh

Opinion, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info

Palestinian misgivings

By George S. Hishmeh

Jordan Times, 6/27/03

WASHINGTON — The attempts by the Bush administration, as was often the case with past US governments, to “balance” their comments on the Arab-Israeli conflict have more often than not backfired with the result that neither Arabs nor Israelis are satisfied. But more importantly, the Israeli side escapes scot-free, and the Arabs, particularly the Palestinians, are weary of accepting the US as an “honest broker” in the conflict that has spanned more than half a century.
Consider what happened a few weeks ago, when Israel was publicly rebuked — a rare American development — for its attempt to assassinate a prominent Hamas leader, Dr Abdul Aziz Rantisi. Admittedly, the Israeli bus bombing the following day by a Hamas fighter did not help; consequently, President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice were subjected to enormous pro-Israel pressure and effective lobbying by senior Israeli officials here.

The day after the American criticism on June 11, Bush was hosting for dinner at the White House over 100 Jewish leaders, officially marking a new exhibit at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum — an occasion, in the words of The Washington Post, for “damage control”. In other words, “an unofficial chance for Bush to reassure the attendees, many of them political donors, that he remained pro-Israel and that his complaints about an Israeli attack on a Palestinian activist were an aberration”.

Four days later, the paper continued in the prominently placed front-page story, “Bush was putting sole responsibility for Middle East violence on the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, leaving Israel blameless and asking the world to `deal harshly' with Hamas”.

This “very, very small blip”, as one Jewish leader described the Bush episode, is but one sample of the hurdles the Bush administration will have to avoid or overcome, should it decide to come down hard on Israel and if it were to listen to criticism of Israeli practices — some voiced by prominent Americans and Israelis. American friends of Israel, be they congressmen or neoconservatives, will not shy away from resorting to any measure, even distortions, to maintain the pro-Israeli line of the Bush administration.

As an example, Corinne Whitlatch, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), cited a recent broadcast by the Christian Broadcasting Network of pro-Israel evangelist Pat Robertson that claimed last month's damaging tornadoes “were a repercussion of US pressure on Israel”. The broadcast said straight-facedly that a researcher has proven that “when Israeli settlements are touched, there are also occurrences of hurricanes, tornadoes, and major problems in the American economy”.

She wrote: “This forecast may seem foolish to most Americans and irrelevant to the serious business of crafting foreign policy. However, the Christian-evangelical community along with its Christian Zionist wing is a significant constituency for the Bush administration and the Republican-majority Congress.”

Whitlatch reported (www.cmep.org) that some hardline Jewish groups and Christian Zionists have launched a campaign to stop the “roadmap” and its goal of a two-state resolution of the Palestinian conflict.

She continued: “It is crucial for all advocates of a political and diplomatic solution — based on applying the rational elements of international law and negotiation — to counter the message of the Christian Right. For those of us, including CMEP, whose political activism is also grounded in a faith-based commitment to justice and peace-making as Christians, there is an additional responsibility to say publicly that there is an alternate Christian perspective to that of Christian Zionists.”

In fact, Robertson and two other prominent pro-Israel evangelist — Jerry Falwell and Tim Lahaye — have launched an Internet petition decrying the roadmap and asserting that “the State Department has been giving Israel's land to the PLO for more than a decade”. Some State Department officials reportedly believe that “there is a campaign by conservatives to accuse the diplomatic corps of being disloyal to Bush”.

On the Israeli side, several prominent Israeli leaders and organisations have exposed the charade promoted by the Israeli government over the dismantling of “illegal outposts”. The Peace Now Settlements Watch has reported that since the evacuation of illegal outposts, Israeli settlers have succeeded in putting up no fewer than 12 new outposts. Yossi Sarid, a former Cabinet minister, described the so-called “evacuation” of outposts “a great fraud”. Uri Avnery, a prominent peace activist, saw the well-publicised events as “a well- produced show for TV”. Compared to the frequent demolition of Palestinian houses, he noted that at these outposts, no tanks, bulldozers, rubber-coated bullets and even live ammunition were used.

The point that Avnery was making: “The conclusion is self-evident, both in Israel and throughout the world. If such tumultuous battles take place for a tiny outpost inhabited by hardly a dozen people, how can one expect Sharon to remove 90 outposts, as promised in the roadmap?”

And now comes word from Israeli army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon that Israeli security officials had in the past discussed, on several occasions, the killing of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Any wonder that Palestinians have misgivings about American and Israeli promises even if Rice arrives in the Middle East next weekend, probably tugging along Eliot Abrams, the pro-Israeli hawk on her staff, to be given as expected a little trophy from the Israeli leadership which, in turn, has once again failed to accommodate Secretary of State Colin Powell despite his labelling of Hamas as “the enemy of peace”?

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).