Desertpeace

As prospects of true peace in Palestine look as bleak as ever, mainly because of Israeli intransigence and American complicity with the Zionist state, peace-loving  people in the Middle East and around the world are once again affronted by yet another disingenuous visit to the region by US Secretary of State.

Rice has made numerous visits to Ramallah and occupied Jerusalem ever since she became Secretary of State more than three years ago.

However, the overall situation pertaining to the Palestinian plight  has more or less remained unchanged. In fact, one can safely contend  that the Israeli occupation and apartheid are now much worse than they were three years ago.

Hence, it is highly unlikely that  Rice’s current visit is going to make any difference.

It is really not difficult to pinpoint the causes and reasons for the failure of American  “peace efforts”  in this part of the world.

The US knows very well that Israel will not move even one centimeter toward peace without  serious American pressure. But the US government lacks both the inclination and the willingness to do so. The Jewish-control of Congress and the virtual complete subservience of Bush administration to the powerful  Jewish lobby, known as AIPAC,  as well as to pro-Israeli neocons, make any breakthrough, even any genuine progress in peacemaking , extremely unlikely.

Rice knows that very well, despite the artificial optimism she often tries to foster, mainly to give a false impression that the moribund peace process is still alive.

The Israelis, too, know well that, when it comes to Israel,  American officials  don’t always mean what they say, nor say what they mean.

Take,  for example,  the issue of  Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints dotting the map of  the West Bank, which really  render any normal economic activities outright impossible. US officials, from Bush himself, to Rice, to other US and Quartet envoys, have on numerous occasions urged Israel to remove the estimated 600 roadblocks,  often manned by trigger-happy Nazi-like Israeli soldiers.

However, instead of heeding American and international demands, the Israeli government decided to erect more roadblocks and checkpoints to make Palestinian daily life even more miserable and unbearable.

Why does Israel fly in the face of the Bush administration, which has asked Israel for the umpteenth time to relax its harsh and crippling measures against ordinary Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip?

The answer is very clear? Israel thinks, rightly or wrongly, that it controls the United States of America, that it controls American politics and policies, that it controls congress and media and major financial institutions in the US.

A few years ago, it was rumored that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Shimon Peres, who was then Foreign Minister, that “we control America and the Americans know it”

One Jewish settler leader in Hebron, whom this reporter met a few years ago, was even blunter. He said that “the Jewish people could bring America to its knees in less than 24 hours.”

I asked the apparently arrogant settler leader, who himself had immigrated to occupied Palestine from Florida,  how a few million American Jews could bring  the most powerful country on earth to its  knees. “We don’t directly control the 300 million Americans,” he said rather ostentatiously. “We control those who control them.”

Many Israel apologists may dismiss such remarks as “nonsense.” However, there are a growing number of Americans who have come to the conclusion that American foreign policies, particularly toward Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, even toward Europe, are made in Israel, not in Washington.

Two months ago, I met with a group of American Christian leaders at a restaurant in West Bank town of  Hebron. One lady, I think from Illinois, told me the following. “I am sorry to tell you that you will languish under the Israeli occupation for many years to come.” Baffled by her remarks, I asked the nearly 65-year-old retiree how she could be so sure about this bleak assessment. Her answer was even more baffling. “Today the only country that is able to pressure Israel to end its occupation of Palestine is the United States. And Israel controls our government and our country, I would say very tightly.”

In short, it would be futile to really expect the US to bring peace to the Middle East since peace would depend nearly entirely on  the US government exerting real pressure on Israel, something that is highly unlikely at least in the foreseeable future.
Yes, the US  tries often to  have the appearance of a peace maker and honest broker. But it is a disingenuous appearance since everyone knows that the eternally barren talks between Olmert and Abbas have got nowhere and will get no where.

Today, with Israel having created irreversible facts in the occupied West Bank, especially in East Jerusalem, the prospect of the so-called Two-State Solution is dead, despite all the empty babbling we keep hearing from Israeli, American and even Palestinian officials.

Hence, it is imperative that the Palestinian people and their true leaders and representatives stop letting the United States of Israel …yes, the United States of Israel, to dupe them endlessly toward the liquidation of their enduring cause.

Hence, it is vital that the Palestinian people and their uncorrupted leaders and representatives find an alternative salvation strategy based on the one-state solution.