http://www.commondreams.org/views/101900-102.htm
U.S. Dictates Uneven Terms Of Peace In The Mideast
By Alexander Cockburn, October 19, 2000, the San Jose Mercury News
BILL Clinton has always been one for the phony reconciliation, the
win-win solution, the photo-op deal. The defining moment of his
diplomacy was the ``handshake'' between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser
Arafat, offered to the world as the insignia of a decent settlement
brokered by America. It was nothing of the sort. As Israel's
guardian, the United States shoved down Arafat's throat a deal that
was bound to blow up in the end. What else could one expect of
arrangements that saw Israeli settlements relentlessly expand, no
right of return for hundreds of thousands of evicted Palestinians,
Israeli-Arabs as second-class citizens, Palestinian colonies under
Israeli army supervision, and no capital in Jerusalem? In the end,
after years of groveling, even Arafat had to say ``No.''
Americans were largely secluded from these unpalatable truths,
courtesy of a pervasive information blackout, amid which this nation's
politicians and opinion-formers expended lung-power and ink extolling
the sacrifices being made by Israel. The pattern is unvarying. Year
after year the golden haze of proclamations about America's role as
``honest broker'' and Israel's generous courage are suddenly, lethally
interrupted by grim reality, whether in the form of provocation by
Ariel Sharon and the settlers or by the violent mutiny of Palestinians
against the betrayal of all their hopes for justice.
The self-serving mystifications pervading almost all debate in the
U.S. has long been a source of amazed derision overseas. Here's how
the London Observer put it in an editorial (``True Palestinian State
is Essential'') Oct. 15, calling on Europe to break with U.S.
patronage of Israel:
``If Palestinians were black, Israel would now be a pariah state
subject to economic sanctions led by the United States. Its
development and settlement of the West Bank would be seen as a system
of apartheid, in which the indigenous population was allowed to live
in a tiny fraction of its own country, in self-administered
`bantustans,' with `whites' monopolizing the supply of water and
electricity. And just as the black population was allowed into South
Africa's white areas in disgracefully under-resourced townships, so
Israel's treatment of Israeli Arabs -- flagrantly discriminating
against them in housing and education spending -- would be recognized
as scandalous, too . . . ''
Strong words, but entirely accurate. The Oslo accords froze in place a
huge Israeli advantage on the West Bank. They also assigned Arafat the
role of salesman of a surrender to his own people, shuttling between
the imperious demands of the United States, acting as Israel's
negotiator, and his own indignant people. Meanwhile, the Israelis
continued, day after day, year after year, rushing up new settlements
on the West Bank and encroaching steadily into east Jerusalem. There
can never be anything approaching a just settlement so long as this
process, condoned by the United States, continues.
The tragic farce of U.S. even-handedness is concisely resumed in the
arc of Hillary Rodham Clinton's posture on Israel and Palestine. It's
not so long since she made a surprisingly forthright expression of
support for a Palestinian state. She met with Sula Arafat. But then
she became embroiled in her race in New York. Now she's battling
charges of being a terror-symp (from an opponent, Rick Lazio, who
himself once had a cordial meeting with Arafat) and is making all the
usual amends by parroting every demand of the Israeli lobby, starting
with the U.S., to recognize Israel's capital as Jerusalem and release
of the spy Jonathan Pollard.
After the recent carnage, there'll probably be another phony patch-up,
amid calls for even-handedness and concessions ``on both sides,'' amid
much bellowing about Arafat's nefarious role. The actual balance in
concessions is reflected rather more accurately in the death rate
after Sharon's provocation -- nearly a hundred dead, the vast majority
of them Palestinians.
Alexander Cockburn is a syndicated columnist.
(c) 2000 The Mercury News
