Bush: Zionism’s bosom buddy

Bush at the Knesset revealed what most Arabs
andPalestinians already knew: he is not an impartial
broker, reports Khaled Amayreh from Ramallah

In his speech before the Israeli Knesset last week,
President George W Bush proved once again that he is a
Zionist par excellence. Indeed, the depth of his embrace of
Zionism and the totality of his support for Israel
surprised even his Israeli hosts. One Knesset member from a
far right-wing party lamented that if only Israeli leaders
showed similar commitment to Zionism, Israel would be in
much better shape.

It is not certain if Bush, a person of conspicuously
shallow intellect and of manifestly inadequate moral
rectitude, knew what he was saying or if he was merely
parroting whatever his speech writers had prepared for him.
At any rate, no educated observer having seen the speech
would bet that this man would be willing to pressure Israel
to end its 40-year-old occupation of the West Bank, East
Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, or come to terms with the
legality and morality of the right of return for millions
of Palestinian refugees uprooted from their ancestral
homeland when Israel came into existence 60 years ago.

Bush’s lavish praise of Israel and his deliberate, and
contemptuous disregard for the Palestinian Nakba, which was
being simultaneously commemorated, portrayed a man who is
as fanatical about Zionism and Israel as he is ignorant of
and mendacious about the objective facts surrounding the
Arab- Israeli conflict.

Bush doted upon history, speaking of how the “Jewish people
endured the agony of the pogroms, the tragedy of the Great
War, and the horror of the Holocaust”. He quoted Eli
Wiesel, the oft-sanctimonious American Zionist leader who
said on several occasions that he identified with Israeli
crimes and that he couldn’t possibly bring himself to
criticise Israel. Bush also spoke of Israel’s “thriving
democracy”, but ignored the fact that murdering innocent
Palestinian civilians, demolishing Palestinian homes,
stealing Palestinian land and detaining thousands of
innocent Palestinian activists and intellectuals without
charge or trial because of their opposition to military
occupation and apartheid were starkly incompatible with
true democracy.

Bush hailed Israel for welcoming “immigrants from the four
corners of Earth” but forgot or ignored the fact that for
each and every immigrant welcomed into Israel, a native
Palestinian was either murdered, dispossessed of his
property or banished to the same four corners of the Earth.

Further, Bush denied that America’s unconditional embrace
of Israeli territorial expansionism and bellicosity had
anything to do with instability and tension in the Middle
East. “Some people suggest that if the United States would
just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle
East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into
the propaganda of our enemies, and America rejects it
utterly. Israel’s population may be just over seven
millions. But when you confront terror and evil, you are
307 million strong, because America stands with you.”

The American president lashed out at the UN, saying that,
“we consider it a source of shame that the UN routinely
passes more human rights resolutions against the freest
democracy in the Middle East than any other nation in the
world.” No mention was made of Israeli settlement expansion
policies and routine and grave violations of Palestinian
human and civil rights — the unlawful acts that prompt the
UN to censure Israel.

At one point Bush seemed to be speaking of some other
country when he spoke of Israel “forging a free and modern
society based on a love of liberty, a passion for justice,
and a respect for human dignity”. Anyone who has seen the
Israeli occupation first hand would also be astonished when
Bush praised successive Israeli governments for “working
tirelessly for peace, while having to fight valiantly for
freedom”.

Palestinians at home and in the Diaspora who were
commemorating the Nakba — the Palestinian holocaust —
were not surprised by Bush’s remarks to the Knesset, itself
built on land seized illegally from its Palestinian
proprietor.

“What do you expect from the president of a country that
exterminated millions of Native Americans and then called
the genocide manifest destiny?” asked one Palestinian
intellectual from Hebron. “What do you expect from a
president who invaded, occupied and destroyed two sovereign
countries and killed or caused the death of more than a
million people… because God told him to do so?”

Hamas, meanwhile, used Bush’s speech as reason to castigate
the Palestinian Authority (PA) for “blindly trusting the
Zionist American administration despite its brazen alliance
with Israel”. The phrase “He is more Zionist than the
Zionists” was on the tip of everyone’s tongue throughout
the occupied territories.

Even the usually circumspect Mahmoud Abbas, president of
the US-backed PA, whom the Americans classify as
“moderate”, couldn’t hide his anger and desperation. “To be
frank, his speech angered us and we have many reservations
and observations about it,” Abbas said.

“And I told Mr Bush that he should display a modicum of
balance, honesty and even- handedness. I said it [Bush’s
speech] was disappointing and a missed opportunity, because
you [Bush] could have said that the Palestinian people
should have their freedom and independence in order to
achieve peace in the entire area.”

To be sure, Bush sought to patch it up with Abbas when the
two met at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh
over the weekend. Bush told Abbas that his administration
was still committed to the resolution of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the creation of a
Palestinian state. Furthermore, Bush said he was
“absolutely committed” to getting an Israeli-Palestinian
accord by the end of the year.

“It breaks my heart to see the vast potential of the
Palestinian people really wasted,” said Bush, while
lambasting Hamas, Iran and Hizbullah for all the ills of
the Middle East, from the absence of democracy to the
absence of peace.

Abbas who has found himself in the often awkward position
of having to remain faithful to Palestinian national
constants in order to maintain popularity at home and at
the same time appease the Americans, whose political and
financial backing is crucial for the survival of his
regime, had to package his frustration in diplomatic
niceties.

“We know very well that you, personally, as well as your
administration are committed to reach peace before the end
of 2008,” said Abbas. He added that, “we are working very
seriously and very intently with the hope that we will be
able to achieve this objective.”

On 18 May, following a meeting with former Meretz leader
Yossi Beilen, Abbas reportedly warned that he would “quit”
if a peace deal were not reached in six months. His
spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, later denied that he was
seriously contemplating resignation. According to former
cabinet minister Ghassan Khatib, however, Abbas “has very
few remaining choices, anyway.”

“His term as president of the PA will expire by the end of
this year, and it is doubtful that he would run for a new
term in the absence of a genuine and acceptable peace
agreement with Israel,” Khatib said.

Khatib added the organisation of new elections would
require two main prerequisites: inter-Palestinian
reconciliation and a peace agreement with Israel. Needless
to say, neither is immanent, a fact that leaves little if
any cause for optimism.

(end)