Hillary Clinton in Mideast : Back to Square One

- by Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ONE: Israel First policy of USA

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Israel for her first visit to Mideast as the right-winger Likud leader & former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who tasted the Palestinian blood for years and also who opposes some key US policies like Israeli illegal settlements, has been asked to form Israel’s next government. Both USA and Israel , the anti-Islamic strategic partners, have shed old regimes and are ready with similar one replacing the both Bushdom and Olmertism. Neither USA nor Israel has stated about positive policies to deal with Palestine sovereignty issue.

The US policy so far has not changed even a millimeter. Like her predecessors, Clinton also refused to meet the real Palestinians representative known now as Hamas whom the people elected last year. However, as a footnote reference, Clinton has repeatedly said the new US administration is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state as the best way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By using the derogatory “terrorist” term to describe the Palestinians whose lands US let the Jews confiscate illegally. While in Egypt, Clinton announced the US and other international donors pledged almost $4.5bn (£3.2bn) for rebuilding Gaza , but in Israel she proudly calls the fascist Israel the natural ally of USA , the global terrorist state.. Speaking at the donor conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Mrs. Clinton underlined that the new US administration is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Like her predecessors, Hillary Clinton also made Israel as the premier destination in Mideast sounding the continuity of US-Israel policies. Mrs. Clinton, who arrived in Israel from Egypt, has restated "unshakeable" support for Israel, whatever type of government emerges from current coalition talks.  As it is known, G.W. Bush was talking only about the security of Israel along with Americans, but did not think the Palestinians also require same security from a fascist, rather a rogue Israel . Using Bush style she used the term “our” in relation to Jewish terror state, Clinton said it was important to underscore the "unshakeable, durable and fundamental" US support for the state of Israel … our "unrelenting commitment to Israel 's security". "We will work with the government of Israel that represents the democratic will of the people of Israel ”

US Secretary of State has held talks in Jerusalem with the mainly ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, before going on for a meeting with outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. She also met Netanyahu and the caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. On March 04, last but not the least, Hillary also entered the West Bank for some more formality talks with Palestinian Authority chief and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas, who was present at Egyptian-hosted aid conference in Sharm el-Sheikh on March 02.

Golan Heights

On March 04, Clinton also announced two senior US officials would head for Syria, Israel’s long-time foe, for talks as there are a number of issues that we have between Syria and the US, as well as the larger regional concerns that Syria obviously poses. Syria had engaged in indirect negotiations with the outgoing Israeli government on the fate of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The US has kept Damascus at arms length for several years, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups and destabilizing its Arab neighbors. However, recent diplomatic moves could be a prelude to restoring a US ambassador in Damascus.

 In 2006, the UN General Assembly called upon Israel to end its occupation of the Golan Heights, and declared all the legislative and administrative measures taken by Israel in that area null and void. That decision was ignored by Israel. In 2008, leaders of communities in the Golan Heights reaffirmed Israel's ownership of the area and stated, "all construction and development projects in the Golan are going ahead as planned, propelled by the certainty that any attempt to harm Israeli sovereignty in the Golan will cause severe damage to state security and thus is doomed to fail."

 
The Golan Heights, which was Syrian territory before Israel captured the region during the 1967 Six-Day War, holds considerable strategic importance. Keeping control over this territory, however, isn't a prerequisite for Israel’s self-defence from attack. In 2004, Israel 's then Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen Moshe Ya'alon stated, that if the government decided to reach a peace agreement with Syria , the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) could defend Israel without the Golan Heights. In addition to its military importance, the Golan Heights controls a large portion of water in the Jordan River watershed, which provides about 15 per cent of Israel’s water supply. Thus while of significant historical importance to Syria , the Heights also has practical importance for Israel .

Although both Syria and Israel now contest the ownership of the area, they have not used overt military force since 1974. In 1981, the area was annexed by Israel, a move that was condemned internationally and called "inadmissible" by the UN Security Council. In 1999-2000, during the US-brokered peace talks, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to withdraw from most of the Golan Heights as part of a comprehensive peace and security agreement. Recent events in Israel and Gaza make any rapprochement between Israel and the Palestinians beyond a ceasefire rather improbable at the moment. Peace talks with Syria could energize the process and lead to an all-encompassing peace agreement in the region.

Ehud Olmert regime made some efforts to make peace with its neighbors, perhaps unwillingly. Turkey mediated to secure peace with Syria. The Golan Heights, an area of roughly 690 square miles bordering Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan could hold the key to peace in the Middle East. Israel's Prime Minister designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, has not openly committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 TWO:  Challenge of Israeli settlements

Israel First policy of USA has badly affected all peace talks on Mideast peace by various quarters. There substance in what world says about the Jews that they are extremely shroud and over-cautious and they escape punishment while engaging themselves in subversive and terrorist activities across the globe. Thousands of innocent Palestinians have been butchered in a few days in Dec-Jan including women, children and old people and the Zionist regime is busing seeking favors of world powers to escape any punishment for their crimes. Even while the innocent Palestinians are regularly killed by fascist Israel the Palestinians have not officially asked the UN and UNSC to try the killers in special tribunals and punish them I severest terms. But, on March 02, the Israeli government lodged an official complaint with the United Nations about the continued rocket fire form Gaza .

For various reasons, especially military and political, the US is Israel ’s closest ally in Asia and worldwide, not just in Mideast . Like her predecessors did, Hillary Clinton as the United States ' top diplomat, therefore, has also begun her first visit region by first visiting Israel and then proceed to the West Bank to meet Mahmoud Abbas, thereby displaying “continuity of US policy” by Obama. Mrs. Clinton's two days of talks started in Jerusalem.

Obama’s rhetoric indicates the relationship between the US and Israel may become a little less warm. He also predicts that American diplomacy will sound a new tone with stronger condemnation of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, as well as greater pragmatism in dealing with the reality of Hamas's control of the Gaza Strip.

 Already, the number of Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land Palestinians say is theirs and must be part of their future state - is close to half a million. Many Jewish settlements are getting bigger. Nine thousand people live in Efrat now. The community plans, if it can, to expand to 30,000. The Israeli human rights group Peace Now says Israel's government has construction plans to double settler numbers in the West BankSo what is a Jewish settlement? It might suggest something temporary, ad hoc maybe. But they are being built to remain, at least for the foreseeable future. Take Efrat, close to the Palestinian town of Bethlehem. Also typically it's built on a hilltop.  Settlers say that's important for security reasons. Settlements tend to be surrounded by a buffer zone - land Palestinians therefore can't farm. Settlements are also usually serviced by roads Palestinians aren't allowed to use.

Clearly, Israeli settlements are not the only stumbling block to peace between Israelis and Palestinians but even the United States, Israel's greatest ally, has been critical of settlements for a long time. In the absence of a peace deal, international agreements require Israel to freeze settlement construction.. Yet, during the Bush administration the settler population grew considerably.

THREE: None Seems to Sincere!

The anti-Islamic nations and their western media are keen there should no peace in Islamic world and all peace talks between Israel and Palestine as well as India and Pakistan should fail. The reporting and analyses are aimed at this destructive objective. Visit to West Bank by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on March 04 was not iven the due importance it has. Hillary met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and discussed the situation in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.. She renewed her commitment to an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement, saying it was a "commitment I carry in my heart, not just my portfolio". Playing a human rights activist, she said Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem are of "deep concern". Clinton said the "unhelpful" planned demolition of homes in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem would be "taken up" with Israel 's government.

Abbas said he believed "the time is ripe to put final-status issues" - issues including the status of East Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, borders, and Israelis settlements - and he added, Palestinian prisoners held by Israel . He said he respected Israelis' choice at the ballot box, but added that the Israeli government should commit itself to the peace "roadmap" and the two-state solution. A year of peace talks between Abbas’ administration and the Israelis have yielded few results.

Clinton said the US aimed to foster conditions in which a Palestinian state could be fully realized, adding that "time is of the essence". On the plight of residents of Gaza, recently hit by a 22-day Israeli bombardment, she pledged a commitment to reconstruction, saying a "child growing up in Gaza... has the same right to go to school, see a doctor, and live with a roof over her head as a child in any country". However she did not mention Israel in stead of “any country”.

Mrs. Clinton did not have any plan to meet leaders of the rival Palestinian group Hamas, which has dismissed her visit. In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Clinton expressed "unshakeable" support for Israel , but restated the Obama administration's commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Clinton said she was "proud" to stand by President Abbas, and to "deliver a message from our country: the United States supports the Palestinian Authority as the only legitimate government of the Palestinian people". The US has refused to speak to Hamas, which leads the Gaza Strip, saying it is a terrorist organization. Earlier, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum dismissed Mrs Clinton's visit, saying her statements so far had been "totally biased in favour of the Zionist occupation and do not reflect any change in American foreign policy".

FOUR: Who Sabotages Palestinian Unity?

The idea is to form an interim unity government that would prepare for new presidential and legislative elections and co-ordinate the rebuilding of Gaza. Efforts to secure reconciliation have gained strength since Israel’s three-week military offensive in Gaza which ended on 18 January. The Fatah and Hamas sides have fundamental differences over how to deal with Israel . While Fatah has renounced violence, Hamas refuses to recognize Israel . Hamas is prepared to accept a short-term truce but it reserves the right to fight Israel .

'The Palestinians' own deep internal divisions are also an obstacle to an effective settlement. Gaza is in the hands of the elected Hamas party, while the West Bank administration is led by the more “secular” pro-Israel-USA Fatah group - though Israeli forces occupy large swathes of the West Bank and both territories are subject to external Israeli controls.

Hamas and Fatah groups are trying patch up. Solving Fatah-Hamas differences is seen also as an essential step if an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is to happen - although with Israel also at a political crossroads analysts say that could be a long way off. After talks in Cairo on 26 February 2009, Palestinians pledge era of unity Leaders of the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have said they are entering a new era of reconciliation, have agreed to set up committees to look at forming a unity government and holding elections. About a dozen Palestinian groups are taking part in the national dialogue. In another confidence-building measure, they pledged to stop attacking each other in the media to foster goodwill between the two sides. Committees will also look at reforming the security services and merging Hamas into the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Liberation Organization. The Palestinian negotiating committees will next meet on 8 March to continue their work.

A previous unity agreement fell apart after Israel and its international backers refused to deal with Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel . Inter-factional fighting in Gaza came to a head in the summer of 2007 when Hamas fighters ousted the pro-Fatah security forces and overthrew PA control. As well as continued tension, both sides have been accused of conducting politically motivated arrests and the torture of rival faction members. Egypt revived the call for Palestinian reconciliation talks in November. However, Hamas withdrew from the talks, complaining that Fatah continued to arrest Hamas members in the West Bank.

Israel controls East Jerusalem and large parts of the West Bank. There's a wall dividing East Jerusalem from the West Bank, preventing most Palestinians from accessing the best schools, the best hospitals or going to pray in mosques or churches there. Israeli settlers occupy 60% of the land there and they are scattered all over the places. This further fragments the territory and very much undermines the economy and prospects for improvement in the Palestinian situation."

Not only they expand the buildings in Palestine they know international law deems illegal, but with US-EU support Israel can afford to ignore IL.  Israel and USA cunningly use the toy missiles, especially during poll campaign, fired by Palestinians possibly at the request of Israel as “it's about destroying us." This strategy is too ugly.

Today none is optimistic about a Palestine state in the near future. The US, Britain and EU have made clear that they would rather see non-partisan technocrats in control of the Palestinian territories than a coalition which includes Hamas. That is sheer arrogance and hypocrisy on the part of the "democracies".  Washington donated $900m to the Palestinian Authority for Gaza but it does not want any of the money to end up in the hands of the elected Hamas.  USA, UK and EU play double roles in favour of Israel. Washington donated $900m to the Palestinian Authority for Gaza but it does not want any of the money to end up in the hands of the elected Hamas.     

 Today, every Palestinian town here is surrounded by the illegal Israeli settlements and the USA, UN and EU and Quartet play double roles to isolate the Palestinians and support Zionist regime in Tel Aviv, the capital of Israel. Israeli Mossad has infiltrated into both Fatah and Hamas groups creating troubles for themselves and supplying “toy rockets” to Hamas to be fired aimlessly. When it founded Tel-Aviv as its capital on Palestinians lands, why can’t they let Palestinians have Jerusalem as their capital? Threat perceptions are dubious and terrorist in orientation, both for USA and Israel and of course for India.

FIVE

The US and Israel conveniently regard Hamas as a terrorist organization and refuses to deal with the group. Barack Obama says he wants to pursue peace here "aggressively". But his secretary of state will have to tackle the settler issue with actions, not just words, to really make a difference. Do they accept the international community's land-for-peace proposal? Would they give up their homes for peace with the Palestinians? The proposed two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict envisages a country called Palestine existing alongside Israel - but many think the existence of Jewish settlements and their infrastructure make a viable Palestinian state impossible. Regarding settlements, checkpoints, the West Bank barrier, it insists what goes up, can come down. But Palestinians focus on what they call facts on the ground.

Israeli settlement-building has continued, with nearly half a million settlers now occupying land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in contravention to international law, though Israel disputes this. The construction and demolition orders have been vociferously condemned by Palestinian leaders, but Israel does not care for the protests. .

Israel never agrees for peace plans of Arabs and USA or Quartet and makes every truce collapse prematurely, because it doesn’t to want stop illegal constructions in Palestine. More and more East Jerusalem land is being set aside for Jewish settlers. Then, within the West Bank there are more than 600 physical obstacles placed by Israel blocking Palestinian movement. There are too many Israeli checkpoints controlling Palestinian movement even within the West Bank, but Clinton enters without difficulties the Palestinians face at the hands of Israeli terror forces. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as a future capital. PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas said he will ask U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to push Israel to freeze West Bank settlements and open Gaza's borders. The Palestinians are watching closely for signs of change in U.S. policy toward their conflict with Israel. Even Palestinian moderates were disappointed with the previous administration's failure to take Israel to task for accelerated construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The US secretary of state said plans to talk about how to move to a final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. But with Israel still in the process of forming a new government, few are predicting significant progress. Netanyahu has not endorsed this view, and he campaigned on pledges to concentrate on economic development of the Palestinian territories, which were occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, rather than political deals.

Nuclear Israel with the largest arsenals of weapons of all sorts and ranges is deadly threat to Middle East and the whole world at large. President Obama must take steps to disarm it before it becomes too late when the fascist Israel uses its nukes against the Palestinians and Arabs. Already official claims of having missiles to destroy all European and US capitals should be a warning for USA to initiate measures, including punitive ones against the Jewish state.

US state secretary Clinton has failed to address one cruel fact during her visit to Israel, that is Israeli holocaust and the punishment for the criminals UN and UNSC must establish tribunals to try the Jewish fascist criminals for the holocaust in Palestine for decades killing thousand so of defenseless Palestinians and provoke them to fire toy missiles supplied by Jews living around the Palestinians. No efforts on the part of Israel or USA or EU or UN to divert the world attention from the Israeli holocaust in Palestine, after all USA is talking about democracy, regime change and decency and what not for the Islamic world

Israeli holocaust n Palestine is the most shameful act of challenging the UN authority. Israel did so only on the support of the USA and EU. 20,000 nuclear weapons – that’s how many of the world’s most dangerous weapons still exist today, long after the end of the Cold War. President Obama knows nuclear weapons pose a grave risk to the entire world. He has pledged to work with Russia to reduce both our countries’ bloated stockpiles as a first step towards a nuclear weapons free world.

Israel or USA cannot decide who should Palestine and that issue has to be left to the Palestinians who have already chosen Hamas as their real representatives. However, West and Israel could help the Palestinians achieve economic prosperity without invasions and holocaust.

The US is officially critical of Israel’s continued building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but solidly stands behind whatever it does in its neighborhoods. Fearing the punitive measures against its holocaust in Palestine, Israel has now officially reported to UN about “rockets” from Gaza. This pre-emptive move will not succeed now and the criminals must be punished without fail, even if Hamas does not demand it because that would damage its false prestige of being "the winners".

Possibly, American diplomacy might sound a new tone with stronger condemnation of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, as well as greater pragmatism in dealing with the reality of Hamas's control of the Gaza Strip, against US-EU dictates. The relationship between the US and Israel may become a little less warm than it was under the Bush administration.

Observers are watching for signs that Washington is determined to make advances on the - until now intractable - problem of securing a peace settlement in the Middle East. The big question is whether the new US administration of Barack Obama is prepared to twist Netanyahu’s arm on the two-state solution. He says there are signs of a growing feeling in Washington that allowing Israel total freedom to decide its own policy on the Palestinians may not, in fact, be a productive way to address Israel's security problems. But he says the main Israeli objection to a Palestinian state is that if it was controlled by an enemy entity such as Hamas, which could in fact be disastrous for Israeli security.

However, President Obama could generate goodwill and sympathy for the Palestinians without calling them as “terrorists”, as the anti-Islamic world has been making out and he has to put an end to mere talks and sightseeing tours by big leaders and initiate actions that would put in place a Palestine state as early as possible so that the remaining Palestinians could be saved and their security is ensured.

As it stands, USA, UK, EU and the rest of the Western powers that are close to Israel cannot be expected to bring the Jewish fascist state to justice and make it agree for a just Palestine state and ensure peace in the region. Hillary Clinton has reiterated her personal commitment to a peaceful settlement but hinted that it will require patience. One does not know if Clinton would take further steps to reach the final settlement in Mideast or would stop where her predecessors closed the chapter without any credible progress, leaving the defenseless Palestinians at the mercy of the Israeli fascists.

********************

-----------------------

Yours Sincerely,

DR. ABDUL RUFF Colachal

Columnist & Independent Researcher in World Affairs, The only Indian to have gone through entire India

South Asia.