Posted on 12/08/2006 7:02:05 AM PST by KeyLargo
Baker Group Over-Reaches With Israel Steve
In forming its recommendations for Israeli foreign policy, the Iraq Study Group has over-reached its mandate in the eyes of Israel, among others. Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the Baker Group’s calls for Israel and Syria to enter into peace talks. VOA News quoted Olmert as he dismissed the report’s many calls for Israeli concessions.
“In many parts of the region you see conflict, you see conflict, struggle and instability. But the idea that the reason there are problems in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon is because of Israel is an assumption that I believe is a bit far-fetched.”
What would make Prime Minister Olmert believe the Baker-Hamilton Commission sees Israel as the root cause of the region’s problems? Perhaps the litany of unilateral Israeli concessions it deems necessary to bring about peace in the Middle East. The Iraq Study Group Report went beyond calling for peace talks between Israel and Syria.
The ISG Report called for Israel to turn over the Golan Heights to Syria, just as Syria has demanded for years.
The ISG Report called for Israel to adhere to “the principle of land for peace, which are the only bases for achieving peace,” just as Palestinian terrorists have demanded (Gaza handover notwithstanding).
The ISG Report called for Israel to “consolidate the cease-fire reached between the Palestinians and the Israelis in November 2006.” “Consolidate” means to extend it beyond the Gaza Strip to include ending all policing actions in the West Bank, just as Hamas has demanded since the ceasefire took effect.
The ISG Report called for Israel to “address” the Palestinian “right of return,” just as virtually the whole of the Arab world has demanded.
For the Syrians, the ISG envisioned a somehow negotiated peace in which Bashar Assad’s Syria would voluntarily subject its leadership to international trials surrounding the Rafik Hariri assassination and fully implement UN Resolution 1701 “providing the framework for Lebanon to regain sovereign control over its territory.”
Syria would also cease arming Hizballah with Iranian weapons, which would coincide swimmingly with the Israeli concessions, as - according to the ISG Report - “This step would do much to solve Israel’s problem with Hezbollah.”
After Israel “consolidates” the ceasefire to include the whole of the West Bank as Hamas wishes, Syria would apparently naturally employ its influence over the Damascus-headquartered Hamas terrorists to “help obtain from Hamas an acknowledgment of Israel’s right to exist.”
Israel cannot possibly “adhere” enough to “the principle of land for peace,” as the land desired is not limited to Gaza and the West Bank, but rather “From the river to the sea.” And it’s not just Hamas who thinks this.
Consider a revealing interview from the Swiss Die Weltwoche with Al-Jazeera Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Sheikh in Doha, Qatar. (Courtesy of a translation from German to English by John Rosenthal.)
Who is responsible for the situation?
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important reasons why these crises and problems continue to simmer. The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems. The West should finally come to understand this. Everything would be much calmer if the Palestinians were given their rights. [Emphasis added.]
Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?
I think so.
Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?
The Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.
In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem? Exactly. It’s because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West’s problem is that it does not understand this.
The Baker Group clearly does not understand this.
Granting the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians, not to mention the Golan Heights to Syria, will not resolve the situation nor bring about peace. Remember, “The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems.” The day it hands over the West Bank and the Golan Heights will not resolve the basis for the Arabs’ problems, for Israel will still exist.
Yet, the recommendations for massive Israeli concessions are from the newly-crowned champions of the ‘realists’ in a report that is finding little traction beyond the Washington Press Corps.
The Baker-Hamilton Commission...I think I smell a fish 11/13/2006 KurdishMedia.com - By Gerald A. Honigman Gerald A. Honigman
James A. Baker III, close friend and confidant of the Bush family and Secretary of State under George the First, is back in the news again.
Lest we forget, this is the same Baker who, when Israel wasn't caving in to his State Department's demands fast enough (such as his promise to Hafez al-Assad, Saddam's twin butcher in Syria, of a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan--from which Syria regularly bombarded Israelis below), responded " _ _ _ _ the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway ! "
He regularly referred to his "Jew boys," whom he had do his bidding for him at Foggy Bottom. It's great to have a Jew stick it to other Jews in Israel. Keep in mind that, right from the getgo, the State Department opposed the rebirth of Israel in the first place and fought President Truman all the way on this.
And regarding Israel, Baker was quoted a while back as seeing it in the eyes of a hunter stalking a wild turkey.
Baker has been in the background for decades, especially since his close friends, the Bushes, gained ascendancy in American politics. His law firm represents Saudi Arab interests in this country and typifies how people move through the revolving doors of businesses tied to Arab interests back and forth into government positions--especially those in Foggy Bottom. Baker's law partner, Robert Jordan, was appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia by President Bush in 2001. Currently, among other things, his law firm is defending Saudis (who provided most of the suicide bombers) in a law suit filed by survivors and families of 9/11 victims.
Baker & Co. (including the Bush clan) have gotten very rich off of Arab oil wealth.
And they know full well, in the Arabs' own words, that the latter would view the long overdue birth of Kurdistan as "another Israel"-- i.e., how dare anyone else but Arabs claim political rights in "their" region.
So, pardon me if I smell a fish when I hear that Baker is back on center stage regarding plans for a future Middle East.
The man is tied up to his eye balls to Arab interests.
In other words, Jim is an Arab's dream.
In the wake of America's problems in Iraq, George II has sent Baker there as part of the Baker-Hamilton Commission. Their main goal will be to find a way out for the United States without totally losing face.
America's overthrow of one of the worst of the Arabs' all-too-many Hitlers was noble...even if it came a bit too late. George the First earlier told the Shi'a and Kurds to revolt and then, along with Baker, did nothing while tens of thousands of them were slaughtered.
But America never learned the Brits' earlier lesson over a half century ago, when millions of native Kurds, who lived in the area millennia before the Arabs' own conquest of it, were denied independence and forcibly tied to a newly created Arab Iraq to appease British petroleum interests and Arab nationalism...causes close to Baker's own heart.
The Arabs revolted against them anyway--as foreign imperialists. Of course, without the Brits help, they never would have gotten the oil wealth in the Kurdish north. But, as Janet Jackson's song asks,"What Have You Done For Me Lately ?" And, after all, if it's not the Arabs' own particular conquering and subjugating brand, imperialsim is nasty.
So, America is in a similar pickle barrel now, reaping what was sown after World War I when a united nation was formed that never should have been.
Iraq is the Yugoslavia of the Middle East, with hostile groups thrown together largely for others' interests. And it will likely follow Yugoslavia's same fate. As the latter's days were numbered after the death of its strongman, Marshal Tito, Iraq's days are numbered as well with Saddam out of the picture. And that's not a bad thing...
By the way, America led that dissolution of Yugoslavia--which was undergoing at the time much the same as what we're seeing happening right now in Iraq.
As for potential problems with the Turks, read this author's own "Talking Turkey About Turkey," "State Department Math," Horsefeathers," and/or "So What's Your Plan B?" for that response.
So, what does this all have to do with Baker?
Well, if the early reports I've seen about the recommendations of Baker's Commission are correct, it's going to be, "_ _ _ _ the Kurds, they don't vote for us anyway ! "
A recommendation to divide Iraq into three highly autonomous federal states looks good on the surface. But, as Dr. Rashid Karadaghi points out in the Kurdish Media ( " The World According To Baker," 11/5/06), it appears that oil-rich Kirkuk will be handed over to Baker's Sunni Arab buddies to insure their economic position.
To hell with the fact that Kirkuk is as Kurdish as Mecca is Arab, and Kurds lived there and ruled there since Biblical times, thousands of years before the first Arab arrived during the Arabs' own imperial caliphal conquests.
To hell with the fact that many Arabs only live there now because of a forced Arabization policy in that economically important and strategic area...while they were slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Kurds over the past century.
America has acted this way too often before when non-Arab interests were involved--especially those of the Kurds and Jews. Both have too often been expected to cave in to Arab interests and demands, despite the predictable bloody consequences. Almost two dozen states on over six million square miles of territory is still not enough for Arabs. They have to deny everyone else any piece of the pie...no matter how small.
Thirty million Kurds in the region remain stateless and victimized by those in whose countries they now live.
It's their turn now for center stage.
The economic viability of that newly-proposed Kurdish federal state needs the oil wealth of its own lands to succeed. Perhaps a way to share the oil from the south and the north can be arranged. That would be acceptable.
But make no mistake about it...Kirkuk is as Kurdish as London is English. Many other folks may live in Great Britain now--including lots of Arabs and other Muslims--but that doesn't change the fact any.
While representing Arab interests has made Baker a very wealthy man, this gives him no right to wield such power over the fate of a people far more in tune with American values and interests than any of his Arab clients are.
While Arabs blow each other apart to the south, the Kurdish region is the one example of pride and success that America can point to right now.
America has shamefully used and abused these people too often in the past.
It's time to atone for those sins...not to repeat them.
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=13583
They not only wanted all the US to join them in being Surrender Monkeys but also Israel. There is nothing Israel can give to these terrorist that would make them happy short of every Jew being wiped off the face of the earth.
In the past few years, Baker Botts--which employs about 700 lawyers, has had annual revenues of about $365 million and operates offices in Austin, Baku, Dallas, London, Moscow, New York, Riyadh and Washington, DC.
In 2005, the firm expanded its presence in the region by opening an office in Dubai to complement the existing office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As Secretary of State in the first Bush Administration, Baker was a regular visitor to the House of Saud.
George H.W. Bush and Baker helped convince their pal and hunting buddy Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States to invest in their companies.
When two of the most powerful members of the House of Saud--the Saudi defense minister, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, and his brother, Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the governor of Riyadh--needed lawyers to defend them against a lawsuit brought against them and other Saudis by survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Sultan and Salman hired Baker Botts.
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