[wgscott]

The Wages of Corruption and Occupation

Welcome to "Palestine"

By ROBERT FISK

How troublesome the Muslims of the Middle East are. First, we demand that the Palestinians embrace democracy and then they elect the wrong party - Hamas - and then Hamas wins a mini-civil war and presides over the Gaza Strip. And we Westerners still want to negotiate with the discredited President, Mahmoud Abbas. Today "Palestine" - and let's keep those quotation marks in place - has two prime ministers. Welcome to the Middle East.

Who can we negotiate with? To whom do we talk? Well of course, we should have talked to Hamas months ago. But we didn't like the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people. They were supposed to have voted for Fatah and its corrupt leadership. But they voted for Hamas, which declines to recognise Israel or abide by the totally discredited Oslo agreement.

No one asked - on our side - which particular Israel Hamas was supposed to recognise. The Israel of 1948? The Israel of the post-1967 borders? The Israel which builds - and goes on building - vast settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land, gobbling up even more of the 22 per cent of "Palestine" still left to negotiate over?

And so today, we are supposed to talk to our faithful policeman, Mr Abbas, the "moderate" (as the BBC, CNN and Fox News refer to him) Palestinian leader, a man who wrote a 600-page book about Oslo without once mentioning the word "occupation", who always referred to Israeli "redeployment" rather than "withdrawal", a "leader" we can trust because he wears a tie and goes to the White House and says all the right things. The Palestinians didn't vote for Hamas because they wanted an Islamic republic - which is how Hamas's bloody victory will be represented - but because they were tired of the corruption of Mr Abbas's Fatah and the rotten nature of the "Palestinian Authority".

I recall years ago being summoned to the home of a PA official whose walls had just been punctured by an Israeli tank shell. All true. But what struck me were the gold-plated taps in his bathroom. Those taps - or variations of them - were what cost Fatah its election. Palestinians wanted an end to corruption - the cancer of the Arab world - and so they voted for Hamas and thus we, the all-wise, all-good West, decided to sanction them and starve them and bully them for exercising their free vote. Maybe we should offer "Palestine" EU membership if it would be gracious enough to vote for the right people?

All over the Middle East, it is the same. We support Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, even though he keeps warlords and drug barons in his government (and, by the way, we really are sorry about all those innocent Afghan civilians we are killing in our "war on terror" in the wastelands of Helmand province).

We love Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whose torturers have not yet finished with the Muslim Brotherhood politicians recently arrested outside Cairo, whose presidency received the warm support of Mrs - yes Mrs - George W Bush - and whose succession will almost certainly pass to his son, Gamal.

We adore Muammar Gaddafi, the crazed dictator of Libya whose werewolves have murdered his opponents abroad, whose plot to murder King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia preceded Tony Blair's recent visit to Tripoli - Colonel Gaddafi, it should be remembered, was called a "statesman" by Jack Straw for abandoning his non-existent nuclear ambitions - and whose "democracy" is perfectly acceptable to us because he is on our side in the "war on terror".

Yes, and we love King Abdullah's unconstitutional monarchy in Jordan, and all the princes and emirs of the Gulf, especially those who are paid such vast bribes by our arms companies that even Scotland Yard has to close down its investigations on the orders of our prime minister - and yes, I can indeed see why he doesn't like our coverage of what he quaintly calls "the Middle East". If only the Arabs - and the Iranians - would support our kings and shahs and princes whose sons and daughters are educated at Oxford and Harvard, how much easier the "Middle East" would be to control.

For that is what it is about - control - and that is why we hold out, and withdraw, favours from their leaders. Now Gaza belongs to Hamas, what will our own elected leaders do? Will our pontificators in the EU, the UN, Washington and Moscow now have to talk to these wretched, ungrateful people (fear not, for they will not be able to shake hands) or will they have to acknowledge the West Bank version of Palestine (Abbas, the safe pair of hands) while ignoring the elected, militarily successful Hamas in Gaza?

It's easy, of course, to call down a curse on both their houses. But that's what we say about the whole Middle East. If only Bashar al-Assad wasn't President of Syria (heaven knows what the alternative would be) or if the cracked President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad wasn't in control of Iran (even if he doesn't actually know one end of a nuclear missile from the other).

If only Lebanon was a home-grown democracy like our own little back-lawn countries - Belgium, for example, or Luxembourg. But no, those pesky Middle Easterners vote for the wrong people, support the wrong people, love the wrong people, don't behave like us civilised Westerners.

So what will we do? Support the reoccupation of Gaza perhaps? Certainly we will not criticise Israel. And we shall go on giving our affection to the kings and princes and unlovely presidents of the Middle East until the whole place blows up in our faces and then we shall say - as we are already saying of the Iraqis - that they don't deserve our sacrifice and our love.

How do we deal with a coup d'état by an elected government?

[Ninong]

Hey, wait a minute. I thought Bush said he was spreading "freedom and democracy" throughout the Middle East? Wasn't that the game plan after we discovered that there were no WMD in Iraq?

Look what a good job we've done. We now have two separate Palestianian Prime Ministers and two de facto Palestinian governments. We kept pushing the Palestinians to hold free democratic elections. They did. It's just that they elected Hamas instead of our guys, Fatah. Condi Rice said that was "unexpected." Condi's our brilliant foreign policy expert. She not only speaks Russian but she can even play some Russian music on the piano, but not the Rach 4.

Condi was shocked that the Palestinians elected Hamas. No one at the State Department saw that coming. That was almost as shocking as the fact that our chosen puppet for Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi, received less than 2% of the vote. Our track record in choosing puppets isn't what it used to be, especially when the people get to vote. We're used to choosing the dictator of our choice without having to resort to those unpredictable elections.

So now we have a corrupt Palestinian administration in the West Bank and a terrorist Palestinian administration in Gaza. No doubt this will make matters more difficult for our friends and allies, the Israelis. Maybe they will be so busy that they will stay out of Lebanon for awhile? Did you see the news conference where that reporter asked Condi about all the innocent children who were being slaughtered in the massive Israeli bombing of Lebanon and Condi replied that we were witnessing "the birth pangs of a new Middle East." It's comments like that that endear us to the Arabs.

Think of how much we have accomplished in the past four years. Saddam is gone but Iraq is a disaster. Iran is much more powerful now than it was four years ago and their new president is much more radical than the guy he replaced. There is no peace between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel continues to build new settlements where we asked them not to. Israel doesn't seem to pay much attention to George W. Bush.

Not to worry, our current problems will fade into obscurity as soon as Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney manage to talk President Bush into bombing Iran. Then things will really get interesting.

[wgscott]

The Israelis have always wanted to unload Gaza. They want the West Bank settlements and water. Hence the outcome.

[Ninong]

Do you think this will turn out to be a de facto solution to the Hamas problem? Letting them keep Gaza and then dealing with Mahmoud Abbas and the West Bank?

I don't think Hamas will rest until they control the West Bank, too. I think we're making a mistake trying to isolate Hamas. We should have tried to deal with them. They were elected by the Palestinian people. It's obvious that the majority of Palestinians don't really like us all that much.

[wgscott]

Hamas was originally funded by Israeli intelligence to undermine Fatah and the communists (who were once a factor in Palestinian society). Now they are primarily funded by Saudi (not Iran).

The US should make Israel withdraw from the West Bank and rebuild their stupid wall on their side of the Green Line if we are serious about peace.

Then they should put the UN in to keep the peace.

[Ninong]

Just what we needed, another fundamentalist Islamic state in the Middle East. I wonder how long Israel will continue to supply them with all of their water and electricity? If they resume attacks on Israel, Israel will cut them off. Then what? In fact, I suspect that Israel is just waiting for the next rocket attack as an excuse to launch a full-scale military assault against Hamas. Israel is still smarting from their botched incursion into Lebanon so they'll want to use this opportunity to show the Arab world that they can still destroy their opponents at will. Any more rockets launched from inside Gaza or any new suicide bombers traced to Hamas will trigger a massive invasion of Gaza by the IDF with the goal of destroying Hamas militarily.

I don't see how Gaza can survive as a stand-alone state. Too many people in such a tiny strip of desert with no means to sustain themselves. I doubt that Israel will let them move freely in and out of Gaza. Unemployment there is even worse than in Iraq. I believe it's around 70% in Gaza; it's only 40-50% in Iraq, where we now see "astonishing signs of normalcy" thanks to the "wonderful progress" we have been making.

P.S. -- An Israeli Cabinet minister, Meir Sheetrit, told Israel Radio that Israel would not move in to confront Hamas. "There is no intention to re-enter that swamp, Gaza, in this situation. At this point, Israel has no reason to intervene." Translation: We will invade Gaza and destroy Hamas as soon as they provide us with an excuse.

P.P.S. -- Hamas is a version of what much of Iraq may become in the near future whether we like it or not. Radical fundmentalist Islamic governments seem to be gaining favor in the Middle East since we invaded Iraq four years ago. Our mere presence in the region seems to have given new strength to most radical elements that hate us the most. Who knows where it will all end? What if the secular governments of Jordan and Egypt fall to Islamic extremists? What if the corrupt monarchies of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, that are presently our friends, should fall? What if Pakistan falls into the wrong hands?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Just what we needed, another fundamentalist Islamic state in the Middle East. I wonder how long Israel will continue to supply them with all of their water and electricity? If they resume attacks on Israel, Israel will cut them off. Then what? In fact, I suspect that Israel is just waiting for the next rocket attack as an excuse to launch a full-scale military assault against Hamas.

Looks like Israel is determined to move sooner rather than later. I think they will try to provoke an 'incident' that will provide the excuse to invade Gaza. Ehud Olmert is meeting with Bush at the White House right now.

SHOPS in the Gaza Strip are reported to be running low of essential goods as a result of an Israeli blockade imposed following last week's defeat of former ruling party Fatah by the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Long queues formed at bakeries and supermarkets yesterday as the Palestinian enclave's 1.3 million residents stocked up in anticipation of a lengthy siege. Some petrol stations had already run out of supplies, prompting fears of an imminent collapse of essential services such as sewage, sanitation and ambulances.

The Gaza Strip has been sealed off from the outside world since last Wednesday, when the Israeli Government shut border crossings for goods and people.

An Israeli ministerial committee is to meet tomorrow to discuss shutting all electricity and water supplies to Gaza Strip, which come through Israel under the terms of the Oslo Accords.

[Irvine]

Originally Posted by wgscott

The US should make Israel withdraw from the West Bank and rebuild their stupid wall on their side of the Green Line if we are serious about peace.Then they should put the UN in to keep the peace.

Ehh, no! how 'bout the US stays out of it....for once. Their are almost 1/2 million Israelis living in Judea and Samaria (what most call the West Bank) you think if Israel pulled out, they'd be safe? then I suppose you'd support a massive expulsion of Jews, like what they did to those living in Gaza (that worked out well, did'nt it?) all that agriculture, produce, they left, and the Arabs destroyed it all, and now they're hungry.

Not all Palestinians see a Jewish presence as a bad thing. many Palestinians have the Jews to thank for having a job at all.
If the Israelis pull out of Judea it will only turn into another Gaza, only larger, another terrorist State. Then Israel will only be forced to 'retake it' cause we all know the Palestinians will see that as Israeli weakness and resort to rocket barrages into Israel, suicide bombings etc.
Lets face it, they wont be content 'til all the Jews are gone, and thats not going to happen.

As for the UN......what a joke! they've been in southern Lebanon for 30+ years and look how well they did there, Hezbollah even today are constantly recieving weapons shipments from Iran via Syria, and the UN 'peace keepers' do absolutely nothing to stop it. The Israelis have satelite shots of trucks constantly coming across the Lebanon/Syria border unchecked.

The UN is sorry that Israel was ever re-established in 1948, and see them as the main cause of instability in the mid-east. they'd be happy if Israel was dismantled.

No, the US needs to stay out of it, they've lost all credibility in the region anyway, thanks to Bush.

[Irvine]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...414753,00.html

Quote: "Christians can only continue living safely in the Gaza Strip if they accept Islamic law, including a ban on alcohol and on women roaming publicly without proper head coverings, an Islamist militant leader in Gaza told WND in an exclusive interview.

The militant leader said Christians in Gaza who engage in "missionary activity" will be "dealt with harshly."

The threats come two days after a church and Christian school in Gaza was attacked following the seizure of power in the territory by the Hamas terror group.

"I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza," said Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza."

Where's the condemnation from the UN and human rights groups?

[wgscott]

Originally Posted by Irvine

Ehh, no! how 'bout the US stays out of it....for once.

Great, that will save us between $4 and $12 billion/year, depending on how you count the subsidies.