From Tragedy To Certain Catastrophe:
The Arab Peace Initiative with Israel is DEAD! As extensively reported in The Privateer, all the nationsin the Arab League (led by Saudi Arabia) had,
some weeks ago, placed before Israel the best offer for agenuine political peace since that nation was carved out of the Middle East in 1948. Had
Israel agreed to this offer, its own survival would have been assured. The initiative even dropped the demand that the Palestinians, displaced by the
fighting in 1948, should have the right to return to Israel. This was changed
to mutual efforts being made to find a “Just Solution”. A meeting was in fact held between Israel and theArab League through the auspices of Egypt
and Jordan which have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The Possible Peace Stalled - And Then Died:
Syria has gone through diplomatic convulsions trying to open a diplomatic door for peace talks withIsrael. It has been blocked at every turn. More
recently, in Gaza, the Hamas faction launched an all out ground attack upon the Fatah faction and swept it right off the field in a small, but very
real, military victory. Hamas now controls Gaza, guns in hand. The bedraggled leadership of Fatah fled in hot haste to the relative safety of the West
Bank which is under full Israeli military control. The “unity government” in Gaza which Saudi Arabia and the Arab League had brought into being
was fractured. That having been“accomplished”, Israel saw no requirement at all to negotiate with any Arabs.
Meanwhile - In Washington:
President Bush met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this week in a meeting which has to set new records for the vagueness of what was
accomplished behind closed doors. But this much is certain - had
the Bush Administration allowed Israel to go through the diplomatic side door and establish its own political peace with all (repeat - ALL) its Arab
neighbours, then the geo-political as well as geo-strategic
position of the US military deployment and occupation of Iraq would have been entirely undercut. Not only would Israel no longer have to be defended
by the US, but the US would lose its only regional
ally AND any semblance of a respectable reason for its occupation of the Middle East.
Countdown To War:
Across the capitals of the Arab world, there is a distinct sense of deep dismay as reflected by their official news agencies. The peace initiative was
so good, they thought, that Israel had to take it seriously. And
even if the peace talks had lasted years, at the end, a solution was in sight. When that solution came, the Arab nations and Israel would live in
peace. And then all those “foreigners” would leave. That optimism
has evaporated. This week, after a stunned pause, there is a new drumbeat across the Arab official news agencies. It has one central theme - WAR -
protracted war, endless war, war for as long as it takes and at whatever the human cost, war until the entire Arab world is free of foreign
intrusions.
Countdown To War - From Israel:
Israel, it must be recognised, is caught in a real political nutcracker. Its only real ally is the USA. By shying off from the Arab League’s peace
initiative, Israel has signed itself up for another war in the
Middle East, this time with Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon as the obvious targets. The Israeli Army wants to redeem its shield, its (previously)
undoubted supremacy on the battle field. That reputation got badly tarnished in the recent Israeli invasion of Southern Lebanon. The Israeli Air
Force could not retrieve the situation even with a massive, though ultimately futile air campaign. What is built into this, of inherent strategic
necessity, is that coincident and parallel with a ground/air war where
Israel is engaged - the US will have to make its attack upon Iran to remove the last enemy it has there.
© 2007 - The Privateer
www.the-privateer.com...
[email protected]
(reproduced with permission)