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September 19, 2006
JINSA Report #604
Hiding Behind Israel
In a speech this week, State Department counselor Philip Zelikow said
the Bush
administration has linked Iran and the Arab-Israel conflict, and that an
international coalition against Iran depended on "progress" in
Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. "For the Arab moderates and for the
Europeans, some sense of progress and momentum on the Arab-Israeli
dispute is just a sine qua non for their ability to cooperate actively
with the United States on a lot of other things that we care about."
This, he added, is in Israel's interest. "If Israel, for example, is
especially worried about Iran and sees it as an existential threat, then
it's strongly in the interest of Israel to want
the American-led coalition to work and an active policy on the dispute
with the Palestinians that begins to normalize that situation more that
dampens that down is important. So it's an essential glue that binds a
lot of these problems together."
So Israel, victimized by attacks across her borders from terrorist,
non-state actors ideologically committed to its destruction, is required
to engage in a "peace process" with them in order to secure the
Administration's attention to a state actor ideologically committed to
its destruction and ours? And the Arab states, concerned as they should
be with Persian Iran's hegemonic designs on the region, are telling the
Administration that they won't cooperate in the defense of their own
interests unless Israel makes new promises to the Palestinian
"push-me-pull-you"?
The crux of this is that no one, repeat no one - not the United States,
not the Arab states, not the Europeans, not Israel - no one is ready to
deal directly with Iran's quest for a nuclear capability that includes
weapons. They are hiding behind the "peace process" to avoid facing
their nakedness in the mirror. Israel is too small a country to cover them.
But OK. Iran is, in fact, the problem of our age, so we accept the
challenge of fashioning an Israeli-Palestinian modus vivendi (not peace,
not for a long time) in order to bring the planets (including Pluto)
into alignment. We will save the rest of the world on the back of the
"peace process." Here is the prescription: Get the Palestinians to agree
that Israel not only exists as an object to be erased as soon as
possible, but that it is legitimate and permanent. Get the Palestinians
to stop teaching their children (and broadcasting to their adults) that
Israel is illegitimate and the highest expression of Palestinian
nationalism would be to blow it up, or blow one's self up in the
attempt. Get the Palestinians to create one, just one, of the
transparent institutions of government that President Bush called a
prerequisite for American support for a Palestinian State.
Then you might have the conditions under which a positive form of
Palestinian nationalism might emerge and produce a state that serves its
people economically, socially and politically. Then you will undoubtedly
find an Israeli government willing and able to support Palestinian
development wholeheartedly. And the world will be one big, happy circle.
But then what will you do about Iran?
To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3541
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Al-Bayan, September 11, 2006 (Qatar) 