It’s hard to remember the last time we had a Secretary of State as incompetent and ineffective as Condoleezza Rice. I’m sure there are several candidates who would give her a run for her money, but even they might be aghast at her latest ridiculous assertion that a peace settlement can still be achieved between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of this year:
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has said today she still believes a Middle East peace settlement and the creation of a Palestinian state to be possible by the end of the year, despite the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, warning yesterday that more fighting in Gaza was imminent.
Rice made her comments in Cairo on a stopover before heading to Israel this afternoon. Peace talks are in disarray after an Israeli military offensive killed more than 100 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Maybe it’s simply more Bushspeak. You know, like Newspeak, but more insane. Israeli forces kill Palestinians in Gaza, which then leads to rocket attacks by Hamas, which then leads to killing more Palestinians, ad infinitum. That doesn’t exactly sound like the ideal situation in which to be pitching an American peace plan which relies on – well what exactly it relies upon is not clear. Olmert agreeing to stop his military assaults on Gaza? Hamas deciding to end its retaliation for the “collective punishment” meted out by the Israelis? I don’t think so:
(cont)
More conflict appears inevitable. “We are in the midst of a combat action,” Olmert was quoted as telling a parliamentary committee. “What happened in recent days was not a one-time event … The objective is reducing the rocket fire and weakening Hamas.”
Hamas is just as defiant. The group won Palestinian elections two years ago and went on to seize full control of Gaza last summer after a near civil war with the rival Fatah faction, led by Abbas, which now controls the West Bank. “Invading one inch of the Gaza Strip means the battle and confrontation will continue and will expand even further than it has reached,” said Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior Hamas figure in Gaza. Palestinian rockets have killed 13 people in Israel since mid-2004, the most recent a civilian in Sderot last Wednesday.
Then again, perhaps Rice’s optimism can be explained by this story reported in Al Jazeera, the details upon which Secretary Rice and the State department have refused all but the most oblique comments:
Documents that appear to show that the US attempted to overthrow the Hamas-dominated Palestinian government have surfaced.
One of the documents from March 2007 details a plan to oust Hamas by force and install rival Fatah in power, by supporting fighters from the group with weapons and money.
. . . [Rice] justified the arming of Fatah, saying the situation called for it.
“It is very clear that Hamas is being armed. And it is very clear that they are being armed in part by the Iranians.
“So if the answer is that if Hamas gets armed by the Iranians and nobody helps to improve the security capabilities of the legitimate Palestinian Authority security forces, that’s not a very good situation,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
The problem here is that Hamas won the last election among the Palestinians, the one Bush was so quick to push for when he thought the faction he favored, the corrupt Fatah Movement led by Mahmoud Abbas would win, and so quick to disavow once Hamas was declared the victor. So its difficult to see how one can call Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority forces, the legitimate party. But since Hamas is presumably more radical than Fatah, Bush and Rice and Cheney (egged on I imagine by that little evil neocon troll, Elliot Abrams) likely devised a scheme to arm Fatah in the hopes of destroying Hamas’ authority and power. When that didn’t work they apparently gave Israel’s government carte blanche to do whatever it took to weaken and eradicate Hamas as a force among the Palestinians, even if that meant a blockade of Gaza which limited vital food, energy and medical supplies to Gazan residents. In effect Israel’s blockade, and the resulting violence, is a “collective punishment” of the Palestinian people for having voted Hamas into power, rather than the supposedly more compliant Fatah, whom the Bush administration in its infinite inanity believed would accept a settlement that gives Israel everything and the Palestinians nothing.
So maybe Rice’s faith in a negotiated settlement is dependent upon the elimination of Hamas and the re-installation of Fatah as an America and Israeli puppet government. Fatah is well known for its corruption, so I imagine Bush and Rice believe its leaders can be bought off and turned into the equivalent of Vichy France, a puppet regime who collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France in WWII. Based on the evidence uncovered by Vanity Fair and cited in Al Jazeera’s report, it certainly seems that way:
It appears that the US sought to bolster Mohammed Dahlan, the head of Fatah’s security forces.
Yet, this too failed as inter-faction fighting broke out in the Gaza Strip and Hamas took control.
Evidence suggests that Hamas was forced to act in order to pre-empt the US plot.
Fatah security forces were trained in Jordan and Egypt, from where they are sent to work in the Gaza Strip.
Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Ramallah, said that many Palestinians would be upset that Fatah appeared to have played into the hands of an American foreign policy that wanted to make an example out of Hamas, whom the US labels a “terrorist” organisation.
No doubt, Rice, Abrams, Cheney and Bush consider this a brilliant strategic move. Diplomacy by assassination, state sponsored murder and ethnic cleansing. Certainly there can be a “peace settlement” if Hamas is eradicated as a viable political and military force, and a grateful Fatah accepts American bribes to give Israel all that it wants in terms of increased Israeli encroachment upon Palestinian territory. It could happen. It wouldn’t bring peace for anyone, however.
Well, except for the peace of the grave granted all those who have died or will die as a result of the Bush administration’s heinous and deceitful policy of war against Hamas by proxies. I suppose in those terms Rice could be right.
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As head of the Gazan PSS, Dahlan was responsible for restraining those Palestinian militants, specifically Hamas, who rejected the Oslo process and hoped to sabotage a negotiated settlement through strategically-timed attacks on Israeli targets. Dahlan is believed to have drawn up a plan for containing Hamas, in a meeting in Rome in January 1994 with senior IDF and Shin Bet officials, and until 2001 he met regularly with Israeli (and U.S.) defense officials to coordinate security issues.
In 1995, following a spate of Hamas suicide attacks on Israeli buses, intended to push the Israeli electorate to the Right and away from the Oslo-friendly Labour government of Shimon Peres, Dahlan cracked down hard on Hamas’ infrastructure. On orders from Arafat, Dahlan disarmed and jailed about 2,000 known Hamas members, shaved them of their beards (and allegedly tortured some).
His police also raided and closed Islamic charities, schools and mosques. Israel Hasson, deputy head of Shin Bet and former Israeli negotiator, assessed that the PA’s 1996 actions against Hamas were extremely effective, and Uri Savir, former director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and current head of the Peres Centre for Peace recalled that, “After the series of bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in 1996, Dahlan was very effective in fighting Hamas and its infrastructure.”
Where in the world is Fatah’s strongman Dahlan? | Jerusalem Post
● How Hamas turned on Palestine’s ‘traitors’
● Israel to let Presidential Guard train near West Bank city of Jericho | Force 17
≈ Cross-posted from my diary — Israel’s Gaza Strategy ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Secret papers showed up in Vanity Fair Steven. But, once again, no names! Just like “unnamed sources”.
Now, your post is on target however- Why start with ” Isralie kill Palestinians and then rockets”? Isn’t it more a -Chicken-egg situation. They are all crazy. However- if the above mentioned papers have any accuracy then once again, we find ourselves looking at a US program being run by the likes of a Elliot Abrahams! That fucking piece of pardoned piece of shit is just like that punching bag toy that you knock down and it pops up again and again. It would also show just how corrupt and disgraced this latest administration is and to what lengths it is willing to go to enrich thier friends.
Finally, rice is simply playing out the chimps cards with respect to dumping the whole mess on the next administration. She wants that ship to be renamed again!
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By Mustafa Barghouti
RAMALLAH, West Bank (IHT) June 8, 2007 – Since September 2000, more than 400 Palestinians have been murdered in extrajudicial executions. Nearly half were innocent bystanders and at least 44 were children. These extrajudicial executions are war crimes.
The Palestinian unity government has offered to end all forms of violence, provided Israel reciprocates and ends its violence against Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Our own security forces are challenged, and we face acute internal political differences. But we are committed to halting all attacks – including by Qassam rockets – as long as Israel respects its obligations under international law and stops murdering Palestinians.
We have no hope of succeeding in this goal if Israel will not meet us half way. Palestinians would rightly reject a government that protected Israeli lives while failing to protect Palestinians, who have been slaughtered at 30 times the rate of Israelis over the last 17 months.
Israel has responded with escalating attacks against Gaza and extrajudicial killings in the West Bank. Is its political objective something other than peace? Israel’s assassinations over the past seven years have repeatedly shattered unilateral truces by Palestinians and scuttled any prospect of negotiations.
Why has Israel consistently re-kindled violence? Is it possible that our willingness to negotiate our differences is more dangerous than any military threat our beleaguered population could ever muster against the sixth most powerful military in the world?
Israeli “Hits” On Terrorists
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
I swear this woman could fly into Switzerland and have a conflict stirred up by brunch.
Vanity Fair’s April issue:
The Gaza Bombshell
Now with named sources.
“Israeli forces kill Palestinians in Gaza, which then leads to rocket attacks by Hamas, which then leads to killing more Palestinians, ad infinitum. “
There must be a typo here. This should read: “Rocket attacks by Hamas, lead to Israeli attempts to defend themselves, which lead to more attacks by Hamas, and so on.”
It’s kinda important to remember who started this war, who’s responsible for keeping it going, and who keeps turning down offers of peace. It’s convenient to blame Palestinian violence on the Israelis, but the historical facts rather conclusively prove that it’s the other way around.
Violently driving people off their own land isn’t considered starting violence? Or are you going back thousands of years?
Please!
Go here: Link
So even using the conservative figures provided by an Israeli organization, the Palestinians have suffered deaths directly caused by the violent conflict between Israel and Palestinians at a rate 439% greater than that incurred by Israelis. When you add in deaths caused by the consequences of the Occupation, such as those Palestinians who have been unable to get timely and adequate health care in Gaza and the West Bank, I suspect that the disparity is much larger.
To go from a vigorous ethnic cleansing that borders on genocide to peace in less than a year is delusional.