It’s still the OCCUPATION, stupid!

It’s still the OCCUPATION, stupid!

Award winning journalist David Rose, reporting in April”s Vanity Fair, dropped “the Gaza Bombshell: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush”s secret Palestinian intervention backfired in a big way. After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.

“There is no one more hated among Hamas members than Muhammad Dahlan, long Fatah’s resident strongman in Gaza. Dahlan, who most recently served as Abbas’s national-security adviser, has spent more than a decade battling Hamas. Dahlan insists that abu Dan was tortured without his knowledge, but the video is proof that his followers’ methods can be brutal. Bush has met Dahlan on at least three occasions. After talks at the White House in July 2003, Bush publicly praised Dahlan as “a good, solid leader.” In private, say multiple Israeli and American officials, the U.S. president described him as “our guy.”

Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. The State Department declined to comment.” [1]

On March 5th, this civilian journalist received an email from Jerusalem issued from Ramallah, Palestine on 3 March 2008: “In response to the Vanity Fair article (appearing in the April 2008 edition) authored by David Rose, Palestinian Legislative Council Member and former National Security Advisor Mohammed Dahlan states the following:

“1. During my tenure as the National Security Advisor, the US Administration failed to provide any support to the Palestinian Authority. Despite the claims of support, the US Administration failed to offer material or political support to the Palestinian Authority (“PA”). Rather, the US continued to support Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestine while paying lip service to the Palestinians.

“2. Neither Fatah nor the PA received money from the United States in order to carry out a “coup” against Hamas.

“3. The only “plan” to which the US extended its support was a Palestinian plan to reform the Palestinian Authority’s security services in order to make these services responsive to the needs of all Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Moreover, this Palestinian-created plan to reform the PA’s security forces was both presented to and approved by the Hamas leadership (in particular deposed PM Ismail Haniyeh). Accordingly there was (and remains) no secret plan to carry out a coup against Hamas. Although the US offered its financial support for the plan to reform the PA’s security forces (by offering assistance for non lethal equipment as requested by the PA), financial support was never received.”

Every right thinking person comprehends that the PA is just another layer of The OCCUPATION and that every government lies and all politicians are FOXES, meaning they only care about gaining and keeping power and control.

In September 6, 2005, political analyst Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi, wrote for the Palestinian National Initiative regarding the aftermath of the Gaza “disengagement,” and the facts on the ground and bottom line was that more illegal Jewish settlers, more apartheid walls, and more corruption in the PA ensued.

Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi, wrote, “Ninety percent of security violations in Palestine are committed by security forces and intelligence. These forces must be disciplined; the rule of law and an independent judiciary must be installed. [And] it is estimated that 30 percent of the 160,000 salaried government employees do not attend work of any kind. This kind of corruption and nepotism must be ended.’

On February 8, 2005 Bargouthi wrote: “seventy-five Palestinians, including seventeen innocent children, and fourteen Israelis, including two innocent children, were murdered. Two thousand Palestinians had been arrested and 2,306 checkpoints imposed. 8,700 acres of Palestinian land had been confiscated by the Israeli government and while the Palestinians honored the cease-fire, they were attacked 394 times. The so called disengagement from Gaza was just redeployment for the Israeli government maintained controls and all access to Gaza by land, sea, and air. Bargouthi documented that only 25 of the over 150 settlements would be dismantled, and only 8,475 of over 436,000 settlers [less than 2 percent of settlers] were evacuated and 12,800 new settlers moved into the West Bank — 50 percent more settlers than were evacuated.” [2]

Reported by If Americans Knew by March 2008:

119 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 982 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000.

1,031 Israelis and at least 4,528 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000.

6,845 Israelis and 31,815 Palestinians have been injured since September 29, 2000.

During Fiscal Year 2007, the U.S. gave more than $6.8 million per day to Israel and $0.3 million per day to the Palestinians.

Israel has been targeted by at least 65 UN resolutions and the Palestinians have been targeted by none.

1 Israeli is being held prisoner by Palestinians, while 10,756 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel.

0 Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians and 18,147 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967

The Israeli unemployment rate is 9%, while the Palestinian unemployment is estimated at 40%.

Israel currently has 223 Jewish-only settlements and “outposts” built on confiscated Palestinian land. Palestinians do not have any settlements on Israeli land. [3]

On June 20, 2007, the AP in Dublin reported on Ireland”s eighth annual Forum on Human Rights where Nobel Peace Prize laureate President Jimmy Carter stated, “The Bush administration”s refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas was “criminal” and that Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate should have been entitled to lead the Palestinian government.

When Hamas fighters routed Fatah in a violent takeover of the Gaza Strip that preceding week, the split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamasand set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank. Carter comprehended that the American-Israeli-European consensus to reopen direct aid to the new government in the West Bank, but to deny the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, represented an “effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples.”

Empires throughout history have always used the very same tactic.

Carter also observed the 2006 election in which Hamas won 42 percent of the popular vote and a majority of parliamentary seats and affirmed that the election was “orderly and fair” and that Hamas triumphed, because it was “shrewd in selecting candidates,” whereas Fatah was divided and corrupt and ran multiple candidates for single seats.

Carter also said the US and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas in order to assist Abbas in keeping the reins of political and military power and, “That action was criminal. The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah.”

Carter also said, that the United States and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would “conquer Hamas in Gaza… [and that] this effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples was a step in the wrong direction. All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there was no effort from the outside to bring the two together.

On June 20, 2007, Omar Barghouti wrote: “When I saw some of the images coming out of the infighting in Gaza last week, I suppressed my anguish and steaming anger, recalling the wise, almost prophetic, words of the great Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, who wrote, “The central problem is this: How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation?…The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization.”

“There is no doubt that a faction within Fatah — overtly funded, trained and steered by the US and Israel — is the primary suspect behind the flare-up of this bloody internecine strife, which many observers view as a thinly veiled attempt to destabilize Hamas”s democratically-elected government, coercing it into accepting Israeli dictates that it had so far balked from.

“While the corruption, lawlessness, profiteering and even betrayal of sections of Fatah have been known and well documented for some time now, the brutal, reckless and in some cases criminal tactics used by armed groups within Hamas were fresh reminders to neutral bystanders who were willing to give the group the benefit of the doubt that it, too, contains a strong, power-hungry faction that is eager to sacrifice principles and human rights to reach its political objectives. Hamas cannot be exonerated from the accusation that, by participating in the legislative and municipal elections according to laws and parameters set by the Oslo agreements, it has already contributed to legitimizing the products of those agreements and forsaken its claim to being a resistance movement that is primarily dedicated to realizing the main tenets of the Palestinian national program of liberation and self-determination…

“In the short term, the political vacuum that will inevitably result from the growing rift between Ramallah and Gaza and the steady collapse of the PA structures and remaining authority on the ground is most likely to be filled by an all-out Israeli reoccupation of the entire West Bank and Gaza. This would announce the official death of the so-called Oslo peace process, which actually collapsed long ago under the weight of Israel”s incessantly expanding colonies, apartheid wall — declared illegal by the International Court of Justice — and intricate apparatus of oppression and humiliation of the Palestinians under its control.” [4]

Whether Rose is guilty of any “bad bad journalism” [Bill O”Reilly] and Dahlan is just trying to cover his ass, Carter”s and Barghouti”s voice were not the only ones raised before the leaked “End of Mission Report” by UN Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto came out.

After 25 years at the UN, Alvaro de Soto, stepped down after he exposed American pressure that he argued damaged the impartiality of the UN”s peace making efforts. In Mr de Soto”s “End of Mission Report”, he delivered a devastating criticism of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the international community.

“The Quartet of Middle East negotiators – the UN, the US, the EU and Russia – has often failed to hold Israel to its obligations under the Road Map, the current framework for peace talks, he argues. Over the past two years, the Quartet has gradually lost its impartiality. “The fact is that even-handedness has been pummeled into submission in an unprecedented way since the beginning of 2007,” he writes. [5]

He blamed overwhelming influence exerted by the US and an “ensuing tendency toward self-censorship” within the UN when it came to criticism of Israel.

“At almost every juncture a premium is put on good relations with the US and improving the UN”s relationship with Israel. I have no problem with either goal but I do have a problem with self-delusion,” he writes. “Forgetting our ability to influence the Palestinian scene in the hope that it keeps open doors to Israel is to trade our Ace for a Joker.”[IBID]

De Soto revealed that after Hamas was democratically elected in 2006, it sought to form a broad coalition government with moderate rivals, including Fatah. But the US discouraged this.

De Soto wrote, “We were told that the US was against any “blurring” of the line dividing Hamas from those Palestinian political forces committed to the two-state solution…There is a seeming reflex, in any given situation where the UN is to take a position, to ask first how Israel or Washington will react rather than what is the right position to take.”[IBID]

De Soto opposed the international boycott placed on the Palestinian government after Hamas was democratically elected and argued that it was wrong to use pressure and isolation alone, and proposed an open dialogue with Hamas as equals in the process towards peace which requires justice; equal human rights for all and that all states and nations would uphold international law.

But, what he came up against was a “heavy barrage” from US officials.

The boycott of Hamas and the siege and blockade of Gaza resulted in gravely serious damage to the Palestinian economy and has resulted in promoting militant radicalism, for hopeless people will vent their frustrations and violence is the way chosen by of the most hopeless.

Clear thinking people condemn all violence as they also comprehend that USA and Israeli policies have fueled the flames of Palestinian militancy. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth violent retaliation only begets more violence and the USA and Israeli politicians need to wake up and realize that, season after season, they are reaping what they indeed sow, for they are the ones arrogantly and systematically perpetuating the violence and repression cycle to the point of self-propel.

ONLY by seeing the other as a human being who desires what every human being has a RIGHT to; for it is self evident to right thinking people “That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.” -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence

Gaza is less than 6 percent of the occupied territories, and 94 percent of the Palestinian territories are under the boot of the Israeli Occupying Forces and the ethnocracy of Israel is aided and abetted by America”s blind allegiance and tax dollars.

This civilian journalist wonders what”s it going to take to wake up the international community to the facts on the ground that the corruption in the PA government and hot tempers from those under occupation are a powder keg that’s getting ready to blow up.

This civilian journalist wonders what it is going to take to wake the world up to the fact that most of our problems with radical Islamist fundamentalist militants lead us back to the conflict in Israel and Palestine and all Americans should be inflamed at the silence of the presidential candidates and corporate media on this topic!

All roads do indeed lead to Jerusalem and as a woman of hope [-but not in my USA elected officials-] I contend that the International Community [-if only they get their act together!] and insist in unity to the upholding of the gold standard of international law as the rule of law all we the people of the world honor and uphold; will we ever change the world as we now know it; into a world of sister and brotherhood.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Law [and the Sermon on the Mount!] are the way to lead our dysfunctional world to the reconciliation of all nations and states.

This civilian journalist hopes and prays that the misery inflicted upon our sisters and brothers in Israel and Palestine- the so called Holy Land- the cradle of civilization will indeed begat the birth pangs of a new Middle East; a new America, and a new world, and Common Sense tells us that “the world is [our] country, all mankind are [our] brethren, and to do good [should be our] religion.”-Tom Paine

Blind allegiance to the Israeli government has allowed America”s “best friend” in the world to become a big bully and if we truly love our friend we will rise up and tell our friend they have crossed the line of common sense and the time is now to WAKE UP and reconcile with the “enemy” for only then do we “have it in our power to begin the world again.”-Tom Paine

This civilian journalist reiterates and persists to contends in a slight paraphrase of Mahatma Gandhi, what difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, the refugees, the homeless, the voiceless the occupied and oppressed whether the mad violent destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism, Islam, Zionism, Christianity or the holy name of security and democracy?

1. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804?printable=true&currentPage=all

2. Palestinian National initiative Report of September 6, 2005, pages 137-138, KEEP HOPE ALIVE, by Eileen Fleming

3. http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

4. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7043.shtml

5. http://image.guardian.co.uk/sysfiles/Guardian/


documents/2007/06/12/DeSotoReport.pdf


documents/2007/06/12/DeSotoReport.pdf


Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor http://www.wearewideawake.org/ Author KEEP HOPE ALIVE and Memoirs of a Nice Irish American Girl”s” Life in Occupied Territory, Producer “30 Minutes With Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”