-Caveat Lector-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4372383,00.html
Dear Mr Cheney...
Afif Emile Safieh
Tuesday March 12, 2002
The Guardian
As the US vice-president passes through London to meet Mr Blair, on the way to
several Middle Eastern capitals, could I address Mr Cheney through your pages?
Dear Vice-president, I wish to draw your attention to the fact that for Arab officials
and public opinion, the unfinished business of international diplomacy is the Arab-
Israeli peace process. Ignoring this fact will mean that you are, Mr Vice-president,
heading towards multiple double monologues that will deepen the misunderstanding
and the mistrust.
The Arab world has no ideological dispute with the US. At the worst moments of
perceived American alignment on the Israeli policies and preferences, we kept our
great expectations. We believe there are two Americas, two political cultures, two
historical memories.
There is the America of the early settlers who, on discovering the New World,
clashed with the indigenous population and almost exterminated them. The America
that established slavery and had an elastic conception of its frontiers, expanding
shamelessly at the expense of Mexico. This is the America that Ariel Sharon always
seeks an alliance with. When "shared values" are invoked, it is in this national
experience that the common traditions are rooted.
But there is another America. The America of the War of Independence against the
colonial power. The America which took the painful decision to undergo a civil war to
abolish slavery. The America of Woodrow Wilson, who came to the Versailles
conference upholding the principle of self-determination. The America of the civil
rights movement and Martin Luther King's dream. It is this America that we
Palestinians appeal to, and seek an alliance with.
Mr Vice-president, these two Americas do not coincide with Democratic America and
Republican America. The two historical memories cross this political divide. George
Bush ran for the presidency as a compassionate conservative. In our unipolar
international system, if compassion were to be the guiding compass for American
foreign policy, the world would be a better place to live in.
During your visit to the area, I sincerely hope you will listen to the Palestinian cry
for
freedom from captivity and bondage. Today the situation can be described as
follows: Israel cannot terminate the intifada and the intifada cannot end the
occupation. Hence, to bypass the deadly impasse, we need a credible and decisive
diplomatic initiative. The Saudi initiative offers a window of opportunity. US
diplomacy
should not allow it to stagnate and whither in talks about talks, in negotiations on
pre-
negotiations.
Mr Vice-president, if the political willingness were there, a territory that was
occupied
in 1967 in less than six days, can also be evacuated in less than six days, so that the
Israelis can rest on the seventh and we could start our fascinating journey in nation-
building and economic reconstruction.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
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expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
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The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
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"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
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It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
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"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
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