Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Sharon & Bush : Some People Never Learn

The prime minister of Israel Ariel Sharon visited President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas on April 11, 2005. The photo-op that was seen round the world only reinforced the fact that Israel has America on a short leash. The staged meeting was to support Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. Suffocating security required for Sharon's safety had him spending the night in Waco,Tx. He spent only an 1 1/2 hours with W. It seems that more than a few thousand Israelis are suspected of wanting to assasinate him. That would be the same fate that Prime Minister Rabin received some years ago when he signed a peace deal(Oslo Accords) with the Palestinians. Right wing Israelis are as rabid as Al Qaeda militants when it comes to property rights- no matter how they got it.

The Israeli's parlayed the meeting for additional aid for new settlements in the Negev and Galilee regions and for moving expenses in Gaza. The reality of the Gaza evacuation was the relentless resistence of the occupied Palestinians. Simply Israel could no longer defend the position.

Ominously W reiterated his support for Israel not to be bound by 1949 borders because it would be" impractical". Also W barely quibbled over the inflammatory expansion of Maale Adumin by the Israelis. This expansion will only further isolate and partition what is left of Palestine. What did America get in return for these considerations? Nothing-such a deal.

The new Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, who is already hemorrhaging in the polls will certainly lose more ground to the militants like Hamas because of Abbas's ineffective approach. More trouble lies ahead.

America has spent over $300 billion in fighting the war on terror and persuing another redrawing of the map of the middle east. The creation of Israel out of Palestine, a legal land swindle and the continued settlement activity of the Israelis has only continued to inflame the region.

Sharon is demanding disarmament of the militants as the price for normalized Palestinian relations. Why would anyone disarm in the occupied territories. That would only invite more Israeli expansion.

America should cut its ties with Israel. Let Israel survive or not based on it's own demographic strengths and not the leveraged U S influence.

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