Just a side note...ad hominem! Eric Margolis was one of a zillion Western journalists that trekke to Afghanistan in the 80's to do some Reaganite agit-prop for the anti-Soviet mujahdeen. Wrote a book reprinted after 9-11. If I had time to do a search on Margolis and Hekmatyar, the leader who loved to throw acid in woman's faces, I betcha I'd find some tributes. Forwarding stuff by right-wingers (like another Canadian columnist, whose name escapes me now who was anti-NATO during the anti-Milosevic bombing campaign and had in earlier years done lotsa agit-prop for Jonas Savimbi) is well... Michael Pugliese
>--- Original Message --- >From: "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: 4/15/02 3:32:05 PM > >I think it's a mistake to put so much emphasis on the Israeli lobby's >impact. As Seumas Milne argued in the GUARDIAN awhile back, the reason why >the U.S. elite favors Isreal is because the latter is the most loyal >strategic ally that the U.S. has in a very strategic (read: oil) area. The >Israeli lobby exploits that. > >Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine > > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Ken Hanly [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >> Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 3:57 PM >> To: pen-l >> Cc: Cy Gonick; Sid Shniad >> Subject: [PEN-L:24957] Fw: Margolis on the tail wagging the dog >> >> >> >> Sorry about the blank message! Cheers, Ken Hanly >> >> Why Bush dances to Sharon's tune >> Israel's right-wing Likud party dominates U.S. Mideast policy >> through a >> powerful lobby in the American Congress >> By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor >> Who really is running America's Mideast policy? Last week, >> the astounded >> world saw the grotesque spectacle of President George W. Bush >> pleading in >> vain with Ariel Sharon, leader of a nation of only 6.3 >> million people which >> receives almost $5 billion in annual U.S. aid, to cease >> laying waste the >> Occupied West Bank. >> >> Ignoring worldwide condemnation and demands from the UN >> Security Council, >> Sharon ordered his armour, much of it American-supplied, to accelerate >> shooting up and bulldozing Palestinian towns, refugee camps >> and all symbols >> of Palestinian identity or statehood. Twenty years ago, Sharon invaded >> Lebanon, "to crush Palestinian terrorism." His big guns and warplanes >> blasted Beirut for three weeks, killing 17,000 civilians. >> Today, he remains >> determined to hold Arab lands Israel conquered in 1967 and to >> destroy any >> hopes or vestiges of a viable Palestinian state. >> >> President Bush and senior aides Condoleezza Rice and Colin >> Powell were left >> looking weak, indecisive, and inept. Bush clearly is a >> political soulmate of >> ultra-hawk Sharon; they share a mutual detestation for Yasser >> Arafat and, it >> would seem, for Arabs in general. >> >> Bush has been encouraging Sharon's attacks on Palestine for >> months. But >> Israel's invasion of the West Bank - reminiscent of Soviet >> tanks crushing >> Hungary in 1956 - gravely threatened America's Mideast client >> regimes, so >> Bush had to demand Sharon relent. >> >> SHEER FARCE >> >> In an act of sheer farce, Powell was sent on a slow boat to >> Israel, via >> Madrid and Morocco. Before Powell even arrived, former >> Israeli PM Benjamin >> Netanyahu summoned fawning U.S. senators and arrogantly informed them >> Powell's mission would fail. >> >> While the rest of the world condemned Israel's invasion and >> destruction of >> the Palestinian ghettos, not a peep was heard from the White >> House, Congress >> or America's media about Israel's violation of U.S. law in using >> U.S.-supplied armour and warplanes against civilians. Nor >> about Israel's >> violation of the Geneva Conventions and other international >> laws. There were >> no protests when Israel's Shimon Peres described massacres of >> Palestinian >> civilians by Israeli soldiers. >> >> Nor even a tut-tut when Sharon named to his cabinet a >> fanatical right-wing >> general who advocates ethnic cleansing of Palestinians - the >> same crime for >> which the U.S. pursued Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic. >> >> To be sure, there is deep and justified sympathy in the U.S. for the >> frightful suffering Israel has endured at the hands of >> suicide bombers, and >> its need for self-defence. >> >> Still, why was America alone in defending Israel's ruthless >> punishment of >> the Palestinians? >> >> How could Bush, only a few weeks ago, still bathing in the >> bogus glory of a >> military "triumph" against a few thousand medieval tribesman >> in Afghanistan, >> be so suddenly made to look foolish and impotent by events in >> the Mideast? >> >> Simply put, Sharon's right-wing Likud party has come to dominate U.S. >> Mideast policy through its powerful American lobby, which >> "guides" Congress. >> >> Under pressure from the Israel lobby, 89 out of 100 senators >> and at least >> 280 congressmen recently demanded Bush give Sharon carte >> blanche to crush >> Palestine. As the Israeli writer Uri Avnery wryly noted, if >> the Israel lobby >> gave orders to repeal the Ten Commandments, Congress would >> vote in favour. >> >> America's media is strongly pro-Israel and averse to >> dissenting views. A >> coterie of hawkish, Israel-first neo-conservatives dominates media >> opinion-making and the Pentagon, leading the charge for a war >> against Iraq, >> Iran, and Syria. One even helped to write Bush's foolish >> "axis of evil" >> speech. >> >> Tight U.S. mid-term elections are approaching. >> >> Bush does not want to anger American Jewish voters who >> believe Israel is in >> mortal danger. >> >> GEORGE SR. ROASTED >> >> Bush obviously recalls that when his father sought to >> pressure Israel to >> halt building illegal settlements, Bush Sr. was unfairly >> roasted by the >> media as an anti-Semite and forced to back down. No wonder >> Sharon can thumb >> his nose at the White House. >> >> Bush likes to talk tough, but this crisis has shown him to be >> the exact >> opposite. In Texas, they'd say, "big hat, no land." Bush has >> so far failed >> to take any real action to halt America's Mideast interests >> being undermined >> by the bloodbath in Palestine and Israel. >> >> The best way to protect Israelis from terror attacks is to >> withdraw their >> 200,000 illegal settlers and end their colonial rule over the >> West Bank, >> Gaza and Golan; divide East Jerusalem into Jewish, Muslim, >> and Christian >> sectors, have NATO troops police peace accords and either normalize >> relations with the Arabs, as the Saudis propose, or build a >> wall to isolate >> Israel from its neighbours. This cannot be done so long as settlements >> remain. >> >> Sharon is dead set against this sensible idea. He needs to be >> pushed the way >> Dwight Eisenhower ordered Israel, in 1956, to get out of the >> Sinai, which it >> had invaded and occupied - or else. Had Bush Eisenhower's integrity or >> genuine patriotism, he would compel Sharon to accept the wise >> Saudi peace >> plan and forget dreams of recreating biblical Greater Israel. >> This would be >> a boon to Jews and Arabs alike. >> >> But Bush junior is no Eisenhower. His dithering over the >> Mideast has made >> the United States appear both helpless and a tacit supporter >> of Israel's >> West Bank repression - and made America the potential target of more >> terrorist attacks from the enraged Arab world. >> >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------- >> -------------- >> ---- >> Eric can be reached by e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Letters to the editor should be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or >> visit his home >> page. >> >> >> > >> > >> > >
