ENDURING ISRAELI "PEACE" CHARADES

"The Middle East peace process may well be the
most spectacular deception in modern diplomatic
history." So writes Henry Siegman in a valuable,
well documented essay in the London Review of
Books (8/16/07), entitled: "The Great Middle
East Peace Process Scam." He shows how it has
always been a shell game for the Israelis, and how
they have benefited (with our backing) from stalling.
The more time that passes without a final and
definitive agreement, the harder it becomes to
get one. "Since the failed Camp David summit of
2000, and actually well before it," writes Siegman,
"Israel's interest in a peace process -- other than
for the purpose of obtaining Palestinian and
international acceptance of the status quo -- has
been a fiction that has served primarily to provide
cover for its systematic confiscation of Palestinian
land and an occupation whose goal, according to
the former IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon, is 'to
sear deep into the consciousness of Palestinians
that they are a defeated people'. . . Anyone familiar
with Israel's relentless confiscations of Palestinian
territory -- based on a plan devised, overseen and
implemented by Ariel Sharon -- knows that the
objective of its settlement enterprise in the West
Bank has been largely achieved. Gaza, the
evacuation of whose settlements was so naively
hailed by the international community as the
heroic achievement of a man newly committed
to an honorable peace with the Palestinians, was
intended to serve as the first in a series of
Palestinian Bantustans. Gaza's situation shows
us what these Bantustans will look like if their
residents do not behave as Israel wants." (It's
an open-air prison, entirely fenced, with armed
guards at the few gates.)

"Israel's disingenuous commitment to a peace
process and a two-state solution is precisely what
has made possible its open-ended occupation
and dismemberment of Palestinian territory.
And the Quartet -- with the EU, the UN and
Russia obediently following Washington's lead --
has collaborated with and provided cover for this
deception by accepting Israel's claim that it has
been unable to find a deserving Palestinian
peace partner."

I'll plan to return to this long story of deception
at a later date. But I urge you to look up the
whole article for yourself. It covers a lot of
ground with extremely important facts.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net