US Elections Bad for Arabs By Paul J. Balles

US Elections Bad for Arabs

By Paul J. Balles

Al-Jazeerah, November 13, 2006

Paul J. Balles argues that the Democrats' gains in the US mid-term elections will not lead to a change in US policy in the Middle East. He cites Democrat leaders' unconditional support for Israeli crimes and for possible aggression against Iran.

Anyone who believes that the election of a Democratic majority in Congress will make a difference in US foreign policy has either been playing ostrich or supporting the poppy fields.

The Democrats not only choose to cow-tow to the Israeli lobbies, but they fail to resist the "end-time" evangelists, eliminating any possibility of a Democratic majority making a difference in Congress.

Anyone watching the post-election speeches by the new speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, would have heard her mention that she was raised a catholic, and from that developed her moral values.

That speech sounded like an appeal for support from the larger population and not the 40 million evangelicals who support everything that Israel says and does. It also momentarily side-stepped her earlier pronouncements of support for Israel to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee).

That Pelosi had been lured into the snake pit became unequivocally clear when she attacked Jimmy Carter for writing a book mentioning Israeli apartheid. Jewish organizations in Washington heaped praise on her for her straight-A record on Israel.

Addressing AIPAC, the largest lobby in the US representing a foreign country, last year, Pelosi boasted of how "America's commitment to the safety and security of the State of Israel is unwavering. America and Israel share an unbreakable bond: in peace and war; and in prosperity and in hardship."

She complained that Palestinian National Authority President Mahmud Abbas "has not removed Arafat's corrupt cronies from positions of power, nor has he moved to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure".

There's no record of any praise by Pelosi for the democratic election of Hamas to replace "Arafat's corrupt cronies".

During the same speech, Pelosi labelled any reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict being about Israel's occupation of Palestine as "absolute nonsense". She added, "In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist."

The most daunting thing that she said during her presentation to AIPAC was "The greatest threat to Israel's right to exist, with the prospect of devastating violence, now comes from Iran."

To make matters worse, Representative Henry Waxman, in line to chair the House Government Reform Committee, said, in an online chat with Zionist supporters, "There will be some Democratic chairmen who may not share all my views or have as clear a perspective on Israel as I do, but they will not be chairing committees dealing with Israel and the Middle East."

America needs more than just a shift from Republicans to Democrats in Congress if it hopes to move toward peace in the Middle East. The Palestinians are no better off than they were; and there's no less danger of a military confrontation with Iran, unless...

American voters need to make it perfectly clear to their congressional representatives that the recent vote was a mandate to end its warmongering in the Middle East.

That means an end to the American contribution to the carnage in Iraq. It means an end to blind support for Israel's massacres in Gaza and destruction in the West Bank. It means an absolute refusal to entertain military action against Iran in order to mollify Israel and its lobbies in America.

http://www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/pjballes38.htm

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*Paul Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for 38 years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

Apartheid Wall


The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

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