Publication: ViewPoint
The Show Goes On---And On – by Ali Abunimah | |
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VIEWPOINT
"Exploring The Powerful Issues & Emotions of The Middle East"
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Editor's Note:
Is the upcoming "Peace Conference" a show or real?
Here is one interesting viewpoint.
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Video Clip Of The Week
U.S. Soldier Mocks Iraqi Troops Fighting
In this clip, a US soldier mocks the fighting style of the
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The Show Goes On---And On – by Ali Abunimah
The "Middle East Peace Process" is like one of those big
budget Broadway extravaganzas; they go on for years, but
with each revival the cast changes. What may seem like a
tired production to some nevertheless manages to remain
fresh to the gullible throngs willing to hand over the
price of admission.
Unlike a few hours of theatrical escapism, however, the
producers of the Middle East Peace Process hope that the
audience will actually believe that what they are viewing
on stage, whether performed in Madrid, Oslo, London,
Washington or Sharm al-Sheikh is real-life and even has
the potential to end the conflict caused by a century of
western-supported Zionist colonization in Palestine.
In the latest revival, Condoleezza Rice plays the US
secretary of state determined to bring the long-running
conflict to a close with skilful diplomacy designed to put
in a place a "process" eventually leading to a two-state
solution. George Bush, tired of being typecast as a
warmonger, tries on the role of lame-duck president who
spent years enabling Israeli colonization, but who, with
an eye on his legacy, is now committed to peacefully ending
the conflict once and for all.
Other key actors include Mahmoud Abbas, a colorless
quisling whose only power base is the American and Israeli
guns that keep him installed in his Ramallah Green Zone -
filling in for the late Yasser Arafat as leader of the
Palestinians, and Ehud Olmert, understudy to Ariel Sharon
who left the stage unexpectedly.
Special guest star Tony Blair, who just completed a long
and controversial run as prime minister of a marginal
European power, hopes that by joining the peace process
cast as "Quartet special envoy" he can breathe life into
a flagging career.
Once in a while, reality bursts on to the stage to disrupt
the show - and that has happened again just as the
producers are getting ready to take it on tour to
Annapolis, where President Bush plans to hold a meeting
of key leaders some time this autumn.
Last week, just after Abbas's representatives met with
Israeli counterparts to try to hammer out a "declaration
of principles" to unveil at the Annapolis meeting, the
Israeli army announced the expropriation of almost 300
acres of Palestinian land near occupied East Jerusalem for
the purpose of expanding the already massive Jewish-only
settlements which bisect the West Bank and render a
contiguous Palestinian state impossible. Since the peace
process began in 1993, Israel has confiscated an area
equivalent to the size of Washington, DC, for the
construction of Jewish-only colonies fully confident that
none of the actors on stage will lift a finger to stop it.
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Rice feigns frustration: "Frankly it is time for the
establishment of a Palestinian state," she said at a press
conference with Abbas. "We frankly have better things to
do than invite people" to the Annapolis meeting "for a
photo op". Yet she will be lucky if she even gets that.
Already the meeting date is likely to be pushed back, not
only because of accelerated Israeli colonization, but
because despite the spin there is no fundamental agreement
between the Israelis and Palestinians on the details of
what a two-state solution would look like. As I have
argued elsewhere and in my book, One Country, peace
through partition is an unachievable fantasy.
What's more, none of the players has the credibility or
strength to negotiate on behalf of those whom they purport
to represent. Abbas and his unelected cronies are seen by
many Palestinians as petty collaborators determined to do
all they can to retain their place at the master's table.
Despite an overwhelming desire among Palestinians for
unity, Abbas, blackmailed and bribed by the EU and US,
refuses to talk to Hamas to heal the rifts caused by the
efforts of Fatah militias armed and supported by Israel
and the US to overturn the results of the January 2006
election won by Hamas. There can be no serious peace talks
without Hamas on board.
Olmert, who is fending off multiple criminal corruption
probes, heads a coalition that depends for its majority
on Jewish racists who cannot countenance peace and equality
with Palestinians under any circumstances. Last week, Tony
Blair met with one of those coalition leaders, deputy prime
minister Avigdor Lieberman who heads the proto-fascist
Israel Beitenu party. According to Ha'aretz, Lieberman told
Blair that any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
"has to include Israel's Arab citizens as well, when the
basis for an agreement should be a land swap and a
population transfer." In other words, there can be no peace
without the expulsion of over one million Palestinian
citizens of Israel. Lieberman has repeatedly promised to
bring down the government if Olmert even discusses "core
issues" at Annapolis such as borders, settlements and the
rights of Palestinian refugees expelled by Israel.
Ha'aretz did not record Blair's reaction to this renewed
call for ethnic cleansing from a senior Israeli official.
(How would Blair have reacted if Ian Paisley had publicly
declared that there could be no peace in Northern Ireland
without the expulsion of all Catholics from the Six
Counties so that Protestant supremacy could be
perpetuated?) But it is a measure of how bankrupt the
process is that EU and US officials meet willingly with
avowed ethnic cleansers of Lieberman's caliber (presumably
on the basis that he is elected) and yet refuse to deal
with Hamas, the democratically-elected representatives
of Palestinians under occupation. Hamas leaders have
repeatedly offered Israel a long-term ceasefire and
negotiations exactly on the Northern Ireland model that
led to the Belfast Agreement of which Blair is so proud.
Blair is apparently unable to understand that what ended
the conflict in Northern Ireland was not his charm, but
the acceptance by all parties of the fundamental principle
of equality among all people regardless of ethno-religious
identity and the progressive reform of state institutions,
like the police, that had been nothing more than sectarian
militias in official uniforms, just as the Israeli police
and army that steal land for Jews are nothing more than
thuggish sectarian militias with uniforms.
In Palestine-Israel, this means abrogating all laws in
Israel that systematically privilege Jews and harm non-
Jewish citizens, ending Israel's military tyranny in the
Occupied Territories, and allowing refugees to return home.
Nothing like that will be on the agenda in Annapolis which
is why the effort will fail.
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Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and
author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-
Palestinian Impasse
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