Posted on 12/17/2001 9:30:48 AM PST by ouroboros
To understand what’s going on in the Middle East, you have to understand Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister.
Sharon does not now and never has wanted a peace with the Palestinians. He is the father of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and he will never consent to dismantling even one of them. In fact, he is committed to expanding them.
He said soon after taking office that he would never sign a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. He has refused to meet with the Palestinians. He himself started the intifada by invading Islam’s third-holiest site and arrogantly calling it Jewish property.
But Sharon had two problems. One, he was being pressured by the United States to make peace with the Palestinians. Two, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority president, was winning sympathy in Europe for the Palestinian cause, which is simply an end to Israeli occupation.
So Sharon’s problem was thus: How do you wreck the peace process without being blamed for wrecking the peace process? The short-term solution was to set the absurd condition that seven days had to go by without a violent act before he would even consider talking.
There are 3 million Palestinians there, and Arafat’s authority is limited basically to the boundaries of a few cities. It is literally impossible for him to prevent one individual from taking a potshot at an Israeli. Especially is it impossible when Sharon himself is ordering the Israelis to commit acts of violence and other provocations.
No country in the world could systematically assassinate more than 27 political opponents without being branded a terrorist state. Of course, Israel gets a free ride in the United States. At the same time this is going on, Sharon is discrediting Arafat by blaming him for any and every act of violence, even those directly provoked by Israel.
When Israel assassinated the leader of a Palestinian group, the man’s followers promised vengeance. A few days later, they assassinated an Israeli cabinet member. They publicly took responsibility for it.
Sharon’s response was to attack Palestinian Authority police stations and to blame Arafat. But Sharon’s biggest stroke of luck was the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and President Bush’s declaration of war on terrorism. Now he had Bush where he wanted him, so the Israelis began to put tremendous pressure on the administration to include Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations. And they succeeded, as the Israeli lobby so often does in Washington.
Still, Sharon needed one spectacular terrorist attack to justify his coup de grace to the peace process. And he knew how to get it. He ordered the assassination of a prominent and popular Hamas leader. Sharon knew that Hamas would retaliate, and it did, with three suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa. Now he had what he wanted: an excuse to kill the peace process once and for all.
By branding the Palestinian Authority as an organization that harbors and sponsors terrorism, and by declaring two PLO organizations as terrorist organizations, the Israeli government has announced its intention to destroy all three. Then there will be nobody to negotiate with.
Bush is snookered. Sharon can say: “Look, I’m only following your example. The Palestinian Authority is my Taliban, and the PLO organizations are terrorists. You yourself said, Mr. President, that terrorists and people who support them must be destroyed.”
I’d like to be wrong once in a while about the Middle East, but, alas, I’m right. If you wish to look back, you will see that when Sharon became prime minister, I said the peace process is dead. Later, I said the United States’ one-sided support of Israel would bring Middle East terrorism to the United States. That was in August.
Now I suggest we all hunker down. Because of Sharon’s shrewdness and ruthlessness and our stupidity and naivete, the dogs of war have been let loose. Our newborn grandchildren will probably grow beards before the blood stops flowing.
No such luck there, Slappy. Reese only retired from his corporate job at the Sentinel. He now writes his column from his home and will continue to do so until at least 2004. Happy happy, joy joy ;)
Guess he got sick of having to socialize with so many Jews and minorities. Now he can spout his lies from the comfort of his own cave.
Slappy? Maybe you're confusing me with this guy.
I don't question his right to say what he thinks. But what he thinks is largely immaterial. This piece is bereft of reason and blatantly one-sided. How can you write "Islam's 3rd Holiest site" without mentioning that it is Judaism's #1 and only Holy site? He is clearly propegandizing. Reese makes it seem as if Sharon went there to provoke the Islamics. Nonsense, he went there to gain support from the Jews in his election. He wanted to show the voters that, unlike Barak, he was not willing to sell-out Jewish interests on their Holy mount. It is, after all, their #1 Holy site and they still can't go visit it!
If he bothered to look at the facts, the facts about the Paletinian policeman who shot his Israeli partner in the head a week before, about the rocks that were pre-positioned in piles days before Sharon's visit, about Sharon GETTING PERMISSION from Arafat before he went to the site, he would know that Sharon did not start the intifada. Do you think the mount just has tons of rocks laying all around ready to be thrown? Nonsense. It's their 3rd Holiest site. They keep it clean and rock-free. They had to import these rocks in order the "stage" their protest, which of course took place 24 hours AFTER Sharon's visit -- hardly a spontaneous "uprising at outrage". Arafat had walked out of Oslo and was preparing to start the Intifada in an effort to gain negotiating leverage. Sharon's visit just gave them the PR cover to start it. Reese is buying into and reselling their propeganda hook line and sinker. He's either a total moron or a cheap propegandist for terrorists.
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What is Jewish policy? You mean the Kosher laws, or the 10 commandments?
OH, I get it. You probably meant Israeli policy. Funny how you confused the two. But then, the source of your confusion probably addresses your concerns better than anybody else can verbalize.
You're right, of course; I did confuse the two.
Unfortunately I have the bad habit of trying to do several things at once, in this case posting a message and working.
Working; you know, so that I can pay taxes to support Israel's existance and that Israel can, in turn, send some of my money to U.S. PR firms to brainwash people into opening up their pocketbooks even wider (while reducing their critical thinking to a cipher).
Do you mind paying taxes to support Egypt's existence? Or China's? Or Kuwait's? Or Bosnia's? Or any other nation that receives aid from the U.S.? If Israel ceased to exist do you think you would get a tax cut?
But I've got little complaint with the idea of cutting off foreign aid as long as we do it across the board. Seems wrong of us to arm Israel's enemies and leave her in the lurch. Of course, there is the singular problem of renegging on our committments. I'm not one who thinks that it's fine to go back on my word whenever I want to. We did sign a deal with Israel and Egypt, and I wouldn't unilaterally reneg on our deal without all parties agreeing. That's just plain wrong. As a nation we should stand behind our committments. The bigger problem is getting politicians with the ability to restrain themselves from taking our money and handing it off to all their pet projects both domestic (mostly) and foreign.
Yes, yes, yes, and a very emphatic yes. I do mind.
If Israel ceased to exist do you think you would get a tax cut?
Of course not. My point, if it wasn't already clear, is that there is way too much whoring afoot between the Israeli Lobby and our government. Other governments/countries might have our leaders by the short hairs, but in terms of magnitude, no other country comes close to Israel's domination of our governmental policy(ies), both foreign and domestic.
Fortunately, despite Hollywood's best efforts, there still exists an America that isn't horizontal inferior in all matters Israeli.
When did killing radicals who purposefully kill innocents make you a "political opponent"???
Yes, I find it a pisser.
But the best part is that some folks are actually speaking to me as if I am Rubin!!!
Inbreeding abnormality perhaps...
Yes, I find it a pisser.
But the best part is that some folks are actually speaking to me as if I am Rubin!!!
Inbreeding abnormality perhaps...
Stories like this.
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