councilor.org
| Source | Mid-East Realities |
| Date | 99/05/01/21:46 |
| /* Written 11:08 AM Jun 5, 1998 by jshell@netcom.com in igc:labr.all */ /* ---------- "Summer of Hate Ahead" ---------- */ > From: Mid-EasT RealitieS > Subject: Summer of Hate Ahead > Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 15:28:17 -0400 > > _ __ ___ ____ ______ > / |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S > / /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East > /_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\ > www.MiddleEast.Org EXPLOSION OF HATE AHEAD > > THE ARABS WILL BE BLAMED, NO MATTER WHAT > ___________________________________________________________________ > News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups, > and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know. > ___________________________________________________________________ > > > S U M M E R O F H A T E > > MER - Washington - 3 June: > No matter what happens "the Arabs will be blamed" writes > Robert Fisk in The Independent. How true. Indeed, Arab > diplomats have proven to be as outclassed in their forums as > have the Arab generals on the battlefields. Be it politics, > technology, or military affairs, the whole Arab world has > not yet fully recovered from its subjugation and dismemberment > by the Western powers earlier in this century; nor from its > numerous defeats by little Israel for the past 50 years. > Fisk's article is an insightful overview of today's > Arab-Israeli-U.S. predicament. And tomorrow read MER's > Editorial about all this titled "BIG DEAL!" > > > MIDDLE EAST BUILDS TO A SUMMER OF HATE > > NEW OIL IS BEING POURED ON THE SMOULDERING > FIRES OF OLD EMNITIES, WRITES ROBERT FISK > > [THE INDEPENDENT, 6/1/98] > > IN JORDAN and Egypt, they are predicting an explosion by the autumn. In > Lebanon, the betting is the detonation will occur in mid-summer. In > Jerusalem, the Palestinians - and a large number of Israelis - fear the > worst on an almost hourly basis. Palestinian-Israeli confrontations now > occur several times daily - with almost the same frequency as they did > during the intifada uprising that preceded the now-dead Oslo agreement. > And still, incredibly, oil is being poured upon the fire. > > The latest provocation against the Arabs has been the work of United States > House speaker Newt Gingrich, whose flirtation with Benjamin Netanyahu, the > Israeli prime minister, has included a motorcade past the proposed site of > an American embassy in Jerusalem - anathema to any peace-maker who > believes that Jerusalem's future must be decided under the terms of the > Oslo agreement - and an insistence that Israel, and only Israel, can decide > how much occupied land should be returned to the Palestinians. Yasser Arafat, > according to Mr Gingrich, is to blame for the virtual collapse of the > "peace process". > > This, of course, is news to the Europeans who are warning with ever more > desperation that the Middle East is approaching disaster. The European > Union itself is considering whether Israel should be blocked from all > future trade concessions with Europe because of its settlements policy - EU > diplomats were outraged to find that produce arriving in Europe from the > ever-growing Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza was being > labelled "made in Israel" - while President Jacques Chirac has been > infuriated by Mr Netanyahu's rejection of his offer of a "Saviours of Peace" > conference, launched with Egyptian President Mubarak in Paris two weeks ago. > > The Israeli army has already staged a computer projection of the violence > which could soon break out on the West Bank and Gaza. Another wicked > suicide bomb by a Palestinian might provide the Netanyahu cabinet with a > reason to re-take West Bank towns - in a search, no doubt, for > "terrorists" - where they would be confronted by Mr Arafat's armed policemen. > Already, Israeli "intelligence sources" (for which read the Israeli army's > chief of staff) have been telling the Jerusalem Post that Mr Arafat may have > been smuggling rocket-propelled grenades - "even missiles" - through a > series of tunnels linking Gaza to Egypt. > > This fantasy - all the odder since Israel itself insisted on controlling > the Palestine-Egyptian border beneath which this subterranean burrowing has > supposedly taken place - helps to set the stage for the battle to come. > Even history is being re-written with this apparent aim. When in 1996, > Israeli artillerymen slaughtered 106 Lebanese refugees sheltering in a United > Nations position at Qana in southern Lebanon, they claimed they were shooting > at Hizbollah gunmen at least 600 feet from the UN barracks. Last month, > however, Israel's representative at the UN, Zvi Cohen, claimed, > untruthfully, that the Hizbollah had been using the UN position as "their > headquarters". > > This astonishing and mendacious statement went unchallenged. If Mr Cohen > actually meant what he said, however, the implications are appalling - that > Israel deliberately fired at the UN compound, something it has hitherto > always denied. What will happen to the UN soldiers north of the Israeli border > if the expected conflict spreads to Lebanon? > > Israeli officers involved in the end-of-peace computer projection in the > West Bank say that there would be massive bloodshed, with hundreds, perhaps > thousands, dead. Yet Mr Arafat is still, according to Israel, not doing > enough to "crack down on terrorism", even though the PLO leader has detained > at least 70 Hamas members since 29 March (the day on which the Hamas > leader Muhi al-Din al-Sharif was mysteriously killed) - most of whom, > according to Amnesty International, were cruelly tortured by the PLO in > prisons in Ramallah and Jericho. > > At least 12 men have been murdered in Palestinian custody - all held for > questioning about "threats to Israel's security" - though not a word of > criticism of this appalling abuse of human rights has come from the US. Nor > about Israel's now overt decision to hold 22 Lebanese as hostages in return > for information about the fate of missing Israeli servicemen. Of these 22, > one has been held for 12 years; originally imprisoned in the notorious > Khiam jail by Israel's proxy Lebanese militia allies, Ali Hussein Ali Ammar > was then secretly - and illegally, under international law - transferred to > Israel where he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for "membership of > an illegal organisation" and military training inside Lebanon. > > When he was due for release in 1991, he was put under "administrative > detention" and Israel admits that he and the other 21 Lebanese are now held > solely as "bargaining chips". > > American cowardice - in the face of the immensely powerful Jewish lobby in > the US - has produced a situation in which Washington remains supinely > silent while Mr Netanyahu, according to the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronot, > threatens to "burn Washington", should President Bill Clinton attempt to > force Israel to accept a 13 per cent withdrawal from occupied Arab land. > > All the while, the State Department and the US press talk about "putting > the peace process back on track", the tiredest and most untruthful metaphor > in recent Middle East history. And still American journalists refuse to > explain how or why the "peace process" has collapsed. Indeed, only last week, > Richard Cohen was telling Washington Post readers that "on any given day, > it looks as if a deal can be reached". > > Could anything be further from the truth? Subconsciously, perhaps, the > world is beginning to understand the nature of the nightmare scenario > confronting the Middle East. > > Hitherto, it has been a habit to distance Arab populations from their > dictators when attacking Arab countries - before bombing their cities, > Presidents Reagan and Bush respectively assured Libyans and Iraqis that > Washington had no argument with them personally. It was an acknowledgement > of the lack of democracy in the Arab world. Now, oddly, this same practice > is being applied to Israel; we are repeatedly told how many Israelis > disagree with Mr Netanyahu, how many American Jews dissociate themselves > from the Israeli government's policies - as if the Netanyahu cabinet is an > Arab-style dictatorship rather than the much-trumpeted democracy Israel > always claims to be. > > In this way, the West, too, may be preparing itself for another conflict in > the Middle East, one from which the Israeli people are already absolved. In > the Arab world, the fear is simpler: that Mr Netanyahu and his government > are trying to provoke a war that will prove Oslo is dead, and that the Arabs > will be blamed. They can be sure of the second. > > ___________________________________________________________________________ > TO RECEIVE MER regularly Email with subject: SEND MER > To stop receiving MER email with subject: Stop MER > __________________________________________________________________________ > MID-EAST REALITIES is published a number of times weekly and the > MERTV Program shows weekly on Cable TV. > > M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S > MER@MiddleEast.Org / Fax: 202 362-6965 / Phone: 202 362-5266 |
Copyright (c) 1998, Joongpil Cho