Theater
Of Deception Bush, Sharon and Abbas
By Sam Hamod
20 June, 2003
George W. Bush, it appears
is an adept thespian. Look at the way he kept telling the world that
he was "doing all I can not to go to war with Iraq"--when
in fact, he'd made the decision months earlier to definitely go to war
against Iraq.
We now have the famous theatre
of the Aqaba Summit. Here was GW, Ariel and Mahmoud Abbas--all smiling,
shaking hands, making promises--even promises Mahmoud should never have
made just to please GW and Sharon. But it now appears that Ariel and
GW had their own plan that Mahmoud was not privy to--that Aqaba was
pure theatre of the absurd for GW had told Ariel, go ahead, kill all
the Hamas group and let's get rid of them once and for all. GW made
a light protest when Sharon made his bold announcement, but within 24
hours, GW made clear that Sharon was right to go after all those "terrorists"
who were trying to fight for their homes, land and families--in the
same way GW is sure that those Iraqis who are resisting his "liberation"
(aka occupation) are "Saddam loyalists" (not Iraqis), and
anyone else who doesn't believe in and follow GW is nothing but a trouble
maker who should be "punished" (as he told France, Germany
and Turkey).
So now the theatricality
is over with, GW's mask is off, he is on the stage of the world embracing
Ariel Sharon's dastardly actions. Any hope for this phony "roadmap"
is gone, and the executioner seen is Sharon, but the one behind Sharon,
the one who could stop him, but who instead supports him, is the real
mover--GW Bush, or own little Georgie boy. When Sharon made his famous
speech to the Knesset last week, he stated, "We must rid ourselves
of Hamas if there is to be peace. We shall hunt them down until all
these terrorists are killed." At first, GW made a comment, "This
is not helpful." But within 24 hours, he reversed himself and said
he agreed with his hero, Sharon, and wished him Godspeed in is mission
to kill the members of Hamas. It defies logic to think then of Bush
as an honest broker, but it allows me and several other friends, some
of whom are people who have abandoned Israel is a fraudulent dream,
to believe that it was all staged so that Bush could keep his promsie
of a "roadmap" to Blair, Straw, the EU and the Arab and Muslims
"friendly nations" as he had promised; after the staging,
Sharon was once again, as he has been for the past two years, let on
the loose to go on another rampage of killing in Palestine in the name
of "security." It gets to be a tired song, a repetitious lie
that even children can see through, though not the U.S. media!??
One must never forget that
soon after taking office, GW met with Sharon, dubbed him a "real
peacemaker" and shortly after Sharon returned to Israel, GW bought
a silver grey coat of the type that Sharon wore. It appeared that careful
real father, GUSH senior, was replaced by a bloodthirsty, power-hungry,
surrogate father, Ariel Sharon. From that time on, with the aid of the
opportunity of 9/11, GW has followed Sharon's lead on every matter in
the Middle East, has imported Mossad agents to help the FBI and CIA,
has allowed the Mossad to interrogate prisoners at Guantanamo and to
teach our American boys how it's done, and has even allowed American
troops to learn from the Israeli military of "how to treat those
Arabs"--with unending brutality, be they children, women, elderly
or anything else.
Remember the days of the
Clinton presidency? When Bill lied to the public about how little the
Israelis were really giving up, and about the bantustans the Palestinians
were getting for all their years of the "peace process." Clinton
loved the process aspect of it; in that way, little had to be done exept
keep the two sides talking while Israel did what it wanted in terms
of destruction of Palestininan homes, lives and rights. All the while,
Clinton hoped to come off as a great peacemaker, while having done nothing
but aiding Israel to keep up their process while their actions spoke
louder to those who knew the truth on the ground. Clinton knew that
Barak was putting in hundreds of settlements while the Middle East "peace
process " dragged on--but kept stressing that the Palestinians
would get a small amount of Jerusalem and some of their own land back.
Clinton rarely told the truth,
but always covered his ass with lies, and never took off his mask of
bias until he left the presidency--at which time he began raising money
for Israel in NYC and in other parts of America and the world (and does
to this day.) Clinton even went so far, in a recent speech, to say that
if the Palestinians ever really attacked that he "would be in the
trenches fighting for Israel." But GW has now taken off the American
mask, and as the poet Robert Bly says, we now "see the teeth mother,
at last."
But Bush hadn't even kept
up this pretense until just before the invasion of Iraq when he wanted
Arab, Muslim and Turkish help--and received it. The Arab and Muslim
nations, as did the British and some in the EU believed he would actually
put forth a "roadmap for peace" and help implement it. Ah,
but they were fooled by this two-faced thespian.
What is terrible about all
this is that the Palestinians, Arab and Muslim leaders ever believed
anything that Bush said after his lies and his attack upon Iraq. They
struggled to put a new person in charge, to lessen Arafat's authority,
to try to silence Hamas and to calm matters down so as to get along
with Israel. And what did they get for it? Only more treachery, more
lies and more betrayal, as is evidenced by these recent threats from
Sharon and support of these threats by Bush and his national security
council. Even the allegedly even-handed Colin Powell, who just recently
addressed many Arab and Muslim leaders and their ambassdors, joined
the chorus of "we must be rid of those terrorists in Palestine
if peace is to come."
Unfortunately, the truth
was once again destroyed because many Palestinians, as with Iraqis in
Iraq, are not Hamas or Saddam members or loyalists, they are simply
people who want to defend their families, their homes and their lands.
They are not terrorists, they are simply human beings trying to protect
and preserve what is theirs. But to Sharon, Bush and Powell, they are
"terrorists" and must be wiped out--the same thing that happened
to the Native Americans on this continent--so I guess little has changed
in 300 years (or 3000 years for that matter) in terms of name-calling,
sterotyping and killing in the name of security (Pharaoh did it to the
Jews, now the Israelis are doing it to the Philistines (aka Palestinians
today).
This is happening not only
in the Middle East. Recently, the Arab American Anti Discrimination
Committee held their annual convention, inviting several Zionists to
speak and also the reknowned Colin Powell. They felt it was a real coup
to get Powell to be a featured speaker. Colin, I can call him by his
first name because I've known him since 1989--came and just glossed
over matters, was asked some polite questions that he gave the same
pat answers, and the Arabs were thrilled that he had graced their conference,
and he could go away saying, "Well, I've talked with the Arabs
now, so now no one can say I'm pro Zionist (even though I am)".
Even the Arab Americans must soon realize that there is no reasoning;
Colin Powell and Bush understand the Palestinian and Arab and Muslim
positons, but they simply don't want to hear them because they don't
have the votes or the political clout through financial PACs in DC to
matter.
Until they do, nothing will
change; money talks, and peaceful people get the raw end of the stick.
So, at every level, the Arabs
have lost, the Israelis have won, and the American mask is off once
and for all. It is now up to the Arab states, the Muslim states as well,
to realize that there may be some kind of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic
war going on--at least from Israel and Bush. I am aware that most Muslims
and Arabs in the world do not want ot make war on the West or on America--but
they may have no choice if this type of Bush, Sharon and imperialistic
anti-Arab and anti-Muslim behavior continues. Most Arab and Muslims
regimes have tried to continue believing in America, but many must consider
by now that they have been duped--that America has no ally in the world
except Israel--not matter how much any Arab or Muslim country does for
America, it will never be enough because they are not the "chosen
people" (who must be either born a Jew or be an Evangelical or
born again Christian).
The attempts at theatre continue
from Washington, but only a fool would follow this play and not see
it for what it is--false to the core, deception built on deception,
built on a script full of lies, but a cast, headed by GW Bush, Colin
Powell and others in the Bush administration who take their cue from
Sharon, their director and leading man.
Sam Hamod is an expert in
world affairs, especially the Arab and Muslim worlds. He is also the
former Director of The National Islamic Center in Washington, DC and
editor of Third World News. He publishes often in CounterPunch and todaysalternativenews.com
; he may be reached at [email protected]
© Copyright 2003