On October 7th, Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper reported that Dan Kurtzer, who gets a check from the State Department to be America’s ambassador in Israel had “apologized to Sharon for talks he held with ministers over the weekend in which he criticized the prime minister’s comments. Sharon was apparently informed of these conversations and telephoned the ambassador and told him that he felt he had become too involved in Israeli affairs. An Israeli source said that Kurtzer apologized.”
It is one thing for the Israeli lobby and its many operatives in the American mass media machine to attack George Bush for not bowing to Sharon’s every desire. But, the American ambassador to Israel, at least in theory, is working for the government of the United States. If he can’t stand up as an American when addressing a terrorist war criminal like Ariel Sharon, he should resign. Kurzer, who is an orthodox Jew, needs to realign himself with his own country. He should disassociate himself from the Israeli lobby or give up his post in Jerusalem. Ariel Sharon and the Israel Firsters have spared no effort to destroy the emerging international coalition against terrorism. They have gone so far as to accuse Bush of appeasement. Kurzer should apologize for being careless with his apologies.
If Bush is serious about an Israeli/Palestinian peace, he should withdraw Kurzer immediately and send a real American envoy to handle Sharon. The United States should also instruct our ambassador in Belgium to take a greater interest in indicting Sharon for the slaughter at Qibya and Sabra and Shatila. To send an even stronger message, simultaneously indict Sadam for his use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in Halbja. And watch how quickly the attitudes in the Middle East will change. Once and for all, let us hunt down terrorists and war criminals and bring them to justice. In the coming years, nothing will provide more security than the universal application of International law. America will have to abandon its selective enforcement of Security Council resolutions. We need to prove that any war criminal, whether serving in the uniform of a regular army, a militia or a guerilla force must abide by the Geneva convention. The slaughter of innocents needs to be considered beyond the pale, no matter the political grievance of the assailant.
So far, Bush has indeed been guilty of appeasement. The president has consistently rolled over for that thug Sharon, with disastrous results. This administration is largely responsible for sanitizing a notorious war criminal, whose hands are every bit as bloody as Osama Bin Laden. If the American government continues subsidizing Israeli repression, they will be reinforcing the appeal of extremist elements on the Arab Street. Until September 11th, no one predicted how lethal such resentments could get. But the wizards at the State Department, an Israeli occupied branch of our government, determined that the risk of a carte blanche to Sharon was a ‘no cost option.’ Just now, the United States is realizing that the appeasement of Israel carries a much larger price tag than anyone ever imagined. The Likudnik Jewish Supremacists are every bit as demented in their visions as the extremist Islamic supremacists who labor for Bin Laden. They are just more clever in marketing their point of view with the able assistance of ethnic media marvels like the New York Times and FOX news.
Our political class, Bush and Powell included, continued to coddle the fascist Likudnik lobbyists because they are ‘our kind of supremacists’ and it was good for the polls. The incredibly stupid policies of the last few decades have created us many enemies out of thin air. When more Americans finally get around to how a phenomenon like “Bin Laden” and his “suicide cult” came knocking on our doors, they will arrive at the horrific conclusion that it has everything to do with a dangerous combination of campaign financing and foreign lobbyists.
Because of the pro-Israeli ethnics who dominate any discussion of the Middle East, Americans seem to have no idea of how the ‘Gulf War’ played in Arab homes. Even for those who championed the forcible expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait, the continued presence of American troops in the region, long after the battle was won, was seen as a cynical attempt to reinforce American domination of Arab lands. And these were no ordinary Arab lands. They held vast amounts of Oil, the one promise of providence for millions of impoverished Arabs and Muslims around the globe. They were also the home of Mecca and Medina and the strictly puritanical Wahabbis. And not a single Arab or Muslim failed to notice that while the occupation of Kuwait lasted seven months, the brutal military Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, South Lebanon and the Golan was actively supported and financed by eight American administrations.
Why did American policy makers act this crazy? Simple answer. They did anything they thought that they could get away with at a reasonable cost. Besides, they were constantly intimidated by the muscular Jewish lobby. On September 11th, we all paid for their serious miscalculations. Blame the terrorists first and last for their war crimes. But never forget that the apocalyptic assault on New York and Washington were not preordained and were certainly provoked by policies designed to humiliate and torment the people of the Middle East.
The autocratic corrupt governments in the Gulf, afraid of their shadows, were like puppets in the hands of their American handlers. The American handlers were, in turn, puppets in the hands of the Israeli lobby. The puppets responded as directed to the absolute delight of the puppeteers. When it came to the people of the Middle East, not a single American administration advocated democratic rule or freedom of the press or human rights. Israeli war crimes against the native Palestinians were routinely forgiven because they were administered by a government ‘democratically’ elected by Jewish supremacists. Begin was a terrorist. Shamir was a terrorist. Sharon continues to his long career as a war criminal. These were the men who introduced the language of terror to the Middle East.
The policies of the Clinton administration , which was owned and operated by the Israel Firsters, have diminished the United States to the stature of just another tribe in the Middle East. During the first 8 months of his administration, Bush decided to increase the dosage of contempt by giving Sharon whatever he wanted. One of America’s chief allies in the Middle East, the Egyptian government was reduced to pleading with the Bush administration to ‘play fair’ with the Palestinians. President Mubarak repeatedly advised the Bush administration that his continued support of Sharon’s provocative policies where inflaming the passions of people in the Middle East and fanning the flames of anti-American sentiments. The failure of intelligence was not just about a lack of information, it was about gross ineptitude in analyzing the information. One did not need a CIA agent to figure this out, it was just a matter of reading the daily papers in the Middle East. We arrived at this sorry destination, because the infiltration of our government by dedicated Likudniks has played no small part in reinforcing the blinders we have firmly placed on eyes wide shut.
Israel and its American lobby have spared no effort in ‘becoming too involved in American affairs’. They have become champion campaign financiers with entrenched influence at all levels of the American government, especially the Congress. Our foreign policies, especially in the Middle East, have nothing to do with our national interests but are a byproduct of the endless pressure of ‘special interest’ groups working in the service of a foreign state.
It is unbelievable that those who support a serial murderer like Sharon are considered eligible for government service at any level. If Ariel Sharon is not a terrorist, he is certainly indictable as a war criminal. That he has been so warmly embraced by the leadership of the American Jewish community should be cause for serious alarm. Especially when one considers that the considerable influence of these Yiddish supremacists on our mass media.
The atrocities of 911 will not soon be forgotten by the American public. While the vast majority of Americans have simply not paid attention to the conduct of our foreign policy makers, they will now. After all, these policies have caused a catastrophe on main street. The Israel Firsters will do everything within their powers to regain their monopoly on the boundaries of this debate. They will flood the media with ‘expert’ opinions and pundits who just landed from Chandrala. They will stifle debate and avoid asking the hard questions. Complicated convoluted answers will emerge where much simpler truths will do.
So in the days ahead, we all have a simple task. Get Americans to challenge the ‘experts’ with our native common sense. People should be encouraged to ask questions about how we ended up in this mess. The first question on the Agenda should be on the role of the Israeli Lobby and whether our mass media barons are integral parts of that ‘special interest’ group. The answers to that first question will clarify many minds and will allow Americans to figure out that they can answer many of the other questions without the benefit of an ‘expert’ from the lobby.
Mr. Ahmed Amr is Editor of NileMedia.com in Seattle and a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN).
