BUSH'S SPEECH DEMANDS PALESTINIAN SURRENDER
By Richard Becker
Western Region Coordinator, International Action CenterJuly 2, 2002--Even by U.S. presidential standards, it was a speech of astounding imperial arrogance. As one headline put it, "Speech Stuns Palestinians and Thrills Israelis."
While President George W. Bush's June 24 Middle East speech unsurprisingly offered no "road map" for the creation of a Palestinian state, it very much pointed in the direction of a new, wider war in the region.
Not only did Bush issue dire warnings to the long-suffering Palestinian people if they didn't toe the U.S. line, he at the same time threatened Iran, Iraq and particularly Syria, which was given a virtual ultimatum.
At the same time, Bush ordered the Palestinians to get rid of their elected leadership and replace it with one acceptable to Washington.
Bush blamed not the Israeli occupation but Palestinian resistance to that occupation for the crisis in the Middle East.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon responded to the long-awaited speech by accelerating the full reoccupation of the West Bank. As of this writing, all the major cities and towns, with the exception of Jericho, are reoccupied. Two million Palestinians are confined to their homes under a 24-hour, shoot-to-kill curfew. At least 11 Palestinians have been killed, including several children, for violating the lockdown.
Speech reeks of colonialism
It would be hard to make up a statement more reeking of colonialism than the June 24 speech, as a few of Bush's quotes illustrate:
"Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born. I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror." "I call upon them [the Palestinians] to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty." "Reform must be more than cosmetic change or a veiled attempt to preserve the status quo. True reform will require entirely new political and economic institutions based on democracy, market economics and action against terrorism." "Today, the elected Palestinian legislature has no authority, and power is concentrated in the hands of an unaccountable few. A Palestinian state can only serve its citizens with a new constitution which separates the powers of government." "The United States, along with the European Union and Arab states, will work with Palestinian leaders to create a new constitutional framework and a working democracy for the Palestinian people. And the United States, along with others in the international community, will help the Palestinians organize and monitor fair, multiparty local elections by the end of the year, with national elections to follow." "Today, the Palestinian people lack effective courts of law and have no means to defend and vindicate their rights. The United States and members of the international community stand ready to work with Palestinian leaders to establish, finance and monitor a truly independent judiciary." "Today, the Palestinian people live in economic stagnation, made worse by official corruption. A Palestinian state will require a vibrant economy, where honest enterprise is encouraged by honest government." "The United States, the international donor community and the World Bank stand ready to work with Palestinians on a major project of economic reform and development. The United States, the EU, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are willing to oversee reforms in Palestinian finances, encouraging transparency and independent auditing." "Today, Palestinian authorities are encouraging, not opposing terrorism. This is unacceptable. And the United States will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure. This will require an externally supervised effort to rebuild and reform the Palestinian security services. The security system must have clear lines of authority and accountability and a unified chain of command." "When the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions and new security arrangements with their neighbors, the United States of America will support the creation of a Palestinian state, whose borders and certain aspects of its sovereignty will be provisional until resolved as part of a final settlement in the Middle East. ... As new Palestinian institutions and new leaders emerge, demonstrating real performance on security and reform, I expect Israel to respond and work toward a final status agreement. With intensive effort by all of us, agreement could be reached within three years from now. And I and my country will actively lead toward that goal." In other words: Get rid of your elected leader, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat (this from a leader who was himself appointed by an appointed body, the Supreme Court). Let us write you a new constitution, set up your courts and police force, and reorganize your economy, and then maybe, in three years or so, we'll support you having some kind of undefined "provisional state." There never has been, by the way, a "provisional state" before, nor is such an entity recognized under international law.
Bush stated in very general terms that Israel should end the 35-year occupation--but only after the Palestinians had met his many demands. There was no call to stop the relentless repression of the Palestinians. Only statements like, "As we make progress towards security, Israeli forces need to withdraw fully to positions they held prior to Sept. 28, 2000."
While Bush insisted that the Palestinians must reform their legislature, cabinet and other governmental institutions under conditions of military occupation, no similar demands were made on the royal monarchies and police dictatorships of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates or Egypt, which are U.S. "friends" in the region.
On the other hand, Bush made menacing new references to three states in the region not under U.S. control--Iraq, Iran and Syria.
"I've said in the past that nations are either with us or against us in the war on terror. To be counted on the side of peace, nations must act.
"Every leader actually committed to peace will end incitement to violence in official media and publicly denounce homicide bombings. Every nation actually committed to peace will stop the flow of money, equipment and recruits to terrorist groups seeking the destruction of Israel, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah.
"Every nation actually committed to peace must block the shipment of Iranian supplies to these groups and oppose regimes that promote terror, like Iraq. And Syria must choose the right side in the war on terror by closing terrorist camps and expelling terrorist organizations."
By "terrorist organizations" Bush was clearly referring to all the Palestinian resistance organizations that have offices in Syria.
Israelis & Palestinians respond
No wonder that the head of Israel's Shinui party, Yosef Lapid, said, "Bush's speech is the most favorable to Israel ever delivered by an American president addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Israeli cabinet minister Dan Naveh, speaking on behalf of the government, said that the speech represents "the end of the Arafat era and the victory of Israel's position."
"Tonight, the president announced the official political death of Yasser Arafat," said an unnamed "senior Israeli official," according to the New York Times.
Many Palestinian officials denounced Bush's statement. Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator during the Oslo negotiations and considered a "moderate," said: "I cannot find President Bush's statement acceptable. ... The problem is the Israeli occupation, which represents the highest form of terrorism.
"Palestinian leaders don't come from parachutes from Washington or anywhere else. Palestinian leaders are elected directly by the Palestinian people. President Yasser Arafat was directly elected in a free and fair election. ... The world and President Bush must respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people."
Mostafa Bakri, editor-in-chief of the weekly El Osboa, said that in the speech the Palestinian state "is just a temporary promise, an illusion without borders, without identity." Bush's speech "means giving Sharon the green light to get rid of Arafat. Arab countries, especially Egypt and Jordan, have a major role to play in implementing this initiative, including working on expelling the Palestinian leader."
Ismail Abu Shanab, a leader of Hamas-Islamic Resistance Movement in Gaza City, responded: "I hope the Palestinian Authority will now understand that it should support resistance and not chase after the West." President Arafat, he said, "has lost the support of the American administration."
How disastrously this loss of support is viewed by the PA president may explain the official statement from Arafat's office, which said in part: "President Arafat and the Palestinian leadership have welcomed the ideas presented by President Bush. The president [Arafat] and the cabinet view the ideas as a serious contribution to pushing the peace process forward."
The statement from Arafat's office eased the way for the Egyptian and Jordanian governments--both highly dependent on the U.S.--to praise the Bush speech as "balanced."
How could the PA president praise a speech that called for his own ouster?
Since the start of what came to be called the "Oslo peace process" a decade ago, the Arafat leadership had pinned its hopes for the emergence of a Palestinian state on the intervention of the U.S. Only the U.S., this line of reasoning went, had sufficient influence to force an Israeli withdrawal from all or most of the West Bank and Gaza.
In the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union--the Palestine Liberation Organization's key ally--the idea that "the American train was passing through the region and it was the only one to catch" gained support among leaders of Arafat's Fatah party.
But now the "engineer" is throwing not only President Arafat, but all the PLO leaders, off the U.S. train. It comes at a time when Arafat's standing in Palestinian opinion has sharply declined due to a number of recent concessions extracted from him by the U.S.-Israeli team.
The turnover of the widely respected leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmed Saadat, to the custody of U.S. and British jailers as part of a deal to release President Arafat from Israeli captivity in April caused widespread Palestinian anger toward the PA president.
The U.S. and Israel have worked together to weaken Arafat's position as a prelude to attempting to destroy him altogether.
On June 25, Arafat, speaking at a press conference in Ramallah, did not criticize Bush's speech but said that is up to the Palestinians to decide who their leaders will be. "This is what my people will decide. They are the only ones who can determine this."
The attitude of many Palestinians was captured in the words of Mohammed Hussein, a computer engineer living in Gaza. "I am for reform. But I'm against change and reform imposed by an external force."
Referring to the new puppet Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, Hussein continued, "We don't have a Karzai here, like America imposed on Afghanistan. We would refuse such a thing."
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: mailto:iacenter@action-mail.org
En Espanol: iac-cai@action-mail.org
Web: http://www.iacenter.org
Support Mumia Abu-Jamal: http://www.millions4mumia.org/
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889
Make a donation to the IAC and its projects
The International Action Center
Home ActionAlerts Press
Share this page with a friend