The
Palestinian Cause:
A Routine For Deception
By Ghali Hassan
19 October, 2006
Countercurrents.org
It
is becoming a routine for Western leaders to use the “Palestinian
cause” as a way to further their own interests at the expense
of Palestinian lives and Palestinian struggle to self-determination.
The main objective is to manipulate public opinion and serve U.S.-Israel
Zionist agenda.
For decades and whenever
there is a crisis in the region, the Palestinian cause has been used
as the preferred dog bone by the U.S. and its allies. Once the crisis
was over, every one forgets the Palestinian people.
In 1990, just before the
criminal war on Iraq, the Palestinian cause was adopted to mean that
a defeat for Iraq will be followed by a peaceful resolution to the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian land. The Arab despots – “moderate”
Arabs, as they are called – who often used the Palestinian struggle
to further their own interests, were bribed to participate in the war
against a follow Arab nation. The so-called “Gulf war” proved
to be a deliberate and calculated genocide against the people of Iraq,
and disastrous for the people of Palestine. Since 1990, Israel’s
has occupied more Palestinian land, killed thousands of innocent Palestinians
and enhance its image around the world.
In 2002 and just before the
unprovoked and illegal invasion and Occupation of Iraq by the U.S./British
armies, the Palestinian cause was again adopted to manipulate public
opinion and enlist the support of the “moderate” Arabs for
the U.S.-Britain war crimes against the Iraqi people. The so-called
Dick Cheney and Colin Powell “diplomatic movements” presented
the Palestinian people and their struggle against Israel as the main
beneficiaries of the war on Iraq. The criminal war against Iraq planned
not only to destroy Iraq as a united nation but also to inflict maximum
damage on the Arab people and legitimise Israel’s terror against
the Palestinian people.
In her recent visit –
the sixth in a year and a half – to occupied Palestine, the U.S.
secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice said, the U.S. was very concerned
about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the West Bank and
Gaza, and promised to “redouble our efforts to improve the conditions
for the Palestinian people”. Note the criminal hypocrisy. The
U.S., Israel and their European allies have imposed collective punishment
– including harsh economic sanctions – on the Palestinians
in order to reverse the Palestinian people’s democratic choice
and destabilise the democratically elected Hamas-led government. The
policy is being carried out through illegal and unconstitutional methods,
including the incarceration of Hamas leadership and serious efforts
to foment civil war among the Palestinians by arming and training militias
loyal to Mahmoud Abbas – the U.S.-Israel collaborator –
and his corrupt clique. The policy is criminal, because the Hamas government
was elected by the Palestinian people through fair and democratic elections
despite Israel’s illegal and brutal military occupation, and that
the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian people are against the
U.S.-Israel policy.
The shameless Rice said that
she and Abbas had discussed ways to “make possible a life for
the Palestinian people that is not subject to the kind of daily humiliations
that we know have been associated with the occupation”. It is
important to remember that for nearly forty years, the U.S. has been
the major supporter of the illegal and brutal occupation. Without the
billion of dollars in U.S. military aid to Israel and the pressure exerted
on U.S. politicians by the pro-Israel Jewish lobby (the Neocons), the
occupation would have disappeared long time ago. Like her predecessors,
Rice is serving a U.S.-Israeli Zionist agenda at the expense of the
Palestinian people and Arabs in general. The U.S. and its allies need
the Palestinian cause to garner support for their next war, possibly
against Iran or Sudan.
Meanwhile, Gaza – the
newly “liberated” Concentration Camp – is under Israeli
siege and U.S.-EU sponsored economic sanctions. Since the evacuation
of the illegal Jewish settlements, Israeli forces have terrorised the
1.4 million Palestinians. Hundreds of Palestinians, a large number of
them small children have been deliberately killed by the Israeli occupation
forces (IOF). According to the Palestinian National Initiative; “sustained
Israeli military attacks, including 112 air strikes, and the firing
of 4,251 artillery shells and 5 naval shells into the Gaza Strip during
the period of 29 March to 27 June 2006 alone. During the same period,
a total of 94 [Palestinians] were killed, including at least 35 civilians,
14 of whom were children and 6 of whom were women”. According
to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at least “287
Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 60 children and 13 women,
have been killed by [the] IOF since June 25, 2006”. Israel’s
terror and war crimes against the Palestinians is continuing with the
full support of Western powers.
The Camp has no electricity
and no drinking water. The cuts to electricity and water supply have
affected the healthcare services, food supply and the treatment of sewage.
In addition to indiscriminate military attacks, the Palestinian living
conditions have deteriorated with widespread starvation and disease.
The situation can only be described as a “comeback to the times
of the Nazis”. The pretext for this deliberate genocide is Hamas
refusal to “recognise” the Israeli occupation. While the
genocide of Palestinians continues in full view of the “international
community”, no Western leader has the courage and moral principles
to defend the Palestinians and their noble cause seriously.
I have lost count of how
many times Britain’s Tony Blair used the Palestinian cause to
inflict more misery not only on the Palestinian people but also on the
people of Iraq and recently on the people of Lebanon. “The most
obvious examples are Blair's visits to Palestine [before and] after
the war against Iraq and, again, after the war against Lebanon. Whenever
there is a lull between Western military campaigns in this region you
know its Palestinian cause time again. It is a fleeting season, for
after a brief flurry of activity and displays of earnest concern, the
cause is again put on hold until the next crisis”, wrote Azmi
Bishara, the Palestinian member of the Knesset. Blair’s visit
coincided with the ongoing siege and starvation of the Palestinians
which the Blair’s Government is promoting.
According to the BBC, the
global Zionist propaganda, Blair said: “From now until I leave
office I will dedicate myself, with the same commitment I have given
to Northern Ireland, to advancing peace between Israel and Palestine.
I may not succeed. But I will try because peace in the Middle East is
a defeat for terrorism”. This is the same Blair who refused to
back an immediate ceasefire to end Israel’s indiscriminate attacks
on Lebanon and Gaza. It is difficult to understand how the British PM
allows himself to behave in such hollow and criminal way. For all these
years, the Blair’s Government provided unconditional diplomatic
and military support to Israel Fascist regime. It is important to remember
that it was the former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who instead
of presenting the report – that criticised Israel for its brutal
policies and terror in Palestine – to EU members, ordered for
it to be buried and for no measures to be taken to prevent the continuation
of Israeli violations of international law. Britain’s policy has
always been to enhance the U.S.-Israel Zionist agenda and has nothing
to do with the Palestinian people and peace in the region.
As the Israeli journalist
Gideon Levy wrote recently; “Countless trips by presidents and
secretaries of state, peace initiatives and peace plans aplenty, from
the Roger's Plan to the Road Map, via ‘reassessment,’ fruitless
talks and flowery declarations, pressure and promises, discussions and
decisions – and nothing has happened. And in the background, a
fundamental question echoes, without a response: Is America at all interested
in bringing about a solution in the Middle East? Is it possible that
it does not understand how crucial it is to end the conflict”?
It is the U.S. official policy in the Middle East.
The policy is funded by billions
of American taxpayers’ money and enforced by powerful pro-Israel
Jewish lobby. Its aim is to produce ongoing stalemate and conflict to
serve U.S.-Israel interests. The U.S. is not in the business of solving
problems; the U.S. is the problem. If the US wants peace, peace is and
has always been within easy reach.
Hence, it would be overly
naïve to conclude that the current interest in the Palestinian
conditions is a sign of a change in the policies and moral principles
of the U.S. and its allies or that the U.S. and its allies prefer peace
to violence. The U.S. is not seeking peaceful solution and is pursuing
only one objective, that of ongoing U.S.-Israel domination.
For the U.S. and it allies,
including the Arab despots, the Palestinian cause is a convenient tool
used and abused to serve U.S.-Israel interests at the expense of the
Palestinian people. We should remind everyone not to forget that the
Palestinian struggle is for just and noble cause, to free their land
and people from the illegal Israeli occupation.
Ghali Hassan lives in Perth, Western Australia.
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