Same
Old, Same Old –
Israel Wins Again
By
Jim Miles
30 November,
2007
Countercurrents.org
As
I sit and read the announcements from today’s first discussions
from Annapolis, all I can see is another dismal failure for peace and
another year long “negotiation” process that like Oslo,
Camp David, the ‘road map’ all lead to the same place. That
place, as so clearly denoted by the late Tanya Rinehart, is nowhere.
Today the
leaders – Omert and Abbas – “have agreed to re-start
negotiations to reach a comprehensive peace deal by the end of 2008.”
Bush it was noted in the article “did not stay for the rest of
the conference, leaving Annapolis as soon as the speeches were over.”
He too is obviously quite happy with the status quo in Israel’s
favour.
In the past,
the Israelis have quite willingly agreed to negotiations, going even
further at times as with the Gaza “withdrawal” as another
smokescreen to continue with their settlement policy of both expanding
existing settlements, allowing more illegal outposts, declaring more
and more of Palestinian lands as military areas, and continuing with
their house demolitions, roadblocks and detention of the Palestinian
people. Nothing has changed, still going nowhere.
Bush is quoted
a saying, "The time is right because a battle is under way for
the future of the Middle East - and we must not cede victory to the
extremists." This statement indicates that regardless of what is
occurring with the negotiations, which is very little but buying more
time for the Israelis, more war is inevitable, either ongoing in Iraq
and Afghanistan, and as the majority of observers are saying more and
more positively, soon to include Iran in the mess. If the war on terror
is still ongoing, it is obvious that the Palestinians can only be losers
in the process, either by having to be subjugated by their own coterie
of leaders, or by having a mini civil war between the Hamas-Fatah factions,
or more broadly, as is often the case at the higher political level,
simply being used as rhetorical fodder while the same old game continues,
or at worst having the war on terror deteriorate through attacks on
Iran such that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine can be force fed and
hurried up.
As for the
ethnic comment, Bush also said, “"the United States will
keep its commitment to the security of Israel as a Jewish state and
homeland for the Jewish people." So why is it that a theocratic
non-democratic state is encouraged for Israel, but a similar theocratic
non-democratic state in Iran – that does not have nearly the nuclear
capacity as Israel – is such a big problem? Perhaps because it
is modelled more on what has become of the United States, a near theocratic
state where democracy is being eroded in small but rapidly encroaching
increments?
Abbas’
claim that there is “overwhelming Palestinian and Israeli public
opinion in support of Annapolis” makes him a believer in his own
rhetoric and the Western media rhetoric that does not reflect the alternative
and foreign news media that the Palestinians at least are fully ‘underwhelmed’
by the negotiating process. The Palestinian street do not seem to be
fooled by the process, having seen it fail on an ongoing basis, as their
territory becomes smaller and more segmented with each passing day.
For his part,
Olmert provided the same familiar Israeli line, “"We want
peace. We demand an end to terror, incitement and hatred. We are willing
to make a painful compromise, rife with risks, in order to realise these
aspirations." Echoes of Israeli leaders who have walked this path
before him come through clearly. If their would truly be “an end
to terror, incitement and hatred” the Israelis would pull out
of occupied Palestine, remove the wall, and allow Jerusalem to become
the global centre for the three religions that have much of their history
centred in the city.
What the
actual outcome of all this is of course an unknown, but my best guess
is – not much. Israel is where it has liked to be over the past
several decades, allowing itself to be perceived as the victim of terror
while at the same time occupying and terrorizing the citizens of Palestine.
While negotiations drag on, while more land is settled, while the brutality
of the occupation continues, the Palestinians lose, Israel wins.
Jim
Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist
of opinion pieces and book reviews for The Palestine Chronicle. His
interest in this topic stems originally from an environmental perspective,
which encompasses the militarization and economic subjugation of the
global community and its commodification by corporate governance and
by the American government. Miles’ work is also presented globally
through other alternative websites and news publications.
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