Obama & Mideast peace 

 Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

Colonialists know how to plan strategies to protect their illegal occupation with assistance from co-conspirators and shield their crimes. Terror Israel is joyous that president Obama had invited him to the talks in USA and thinks that is the victory for Zionism. Israel’s Hawkish Netanyahu’s office issued a statement welcoming the invitation to talks but insists saying they would be held "without preconditions". He perhaps hopes to escape any commitment for Zionist regime on Palestine, but it seems Israel’s free terror days are ending faster than expected a couple of months ago.

On its own Israel would never surrender the territories it annexed from Arab world, especially when it has enormous wealth and weapons arsenals. The unduly support it enjoys from the Western powers and other arms dealers in the Third world does not allow Israel to commit to justice. USA has clearly harmed the genuine interests of Palestinians though it talks plenty of empty democracy. Obama’s arrival; seems to have poured hot water on the Jewish dreams of continued illegal occupation of Arab lands. Undeterred by the crude fact that his efforts to restart the peace process have so far been blocked by disagreements over Israeli settlements and the usual Israeli dirty tricks, President Barack Obama tries to relaunch peace talks and will hold separate talks on 22 Sept with Israeli hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian (Fatah) President Mahmoud Abbas, before a joint meeting. The meetings are seen as "clear sign of the President's personal commitment to this issue." it was critical to put the discussions "in context". Many skeptics doubt the outcome of these endless talks with bottomless suspicions but the three leaders are going to sit down in the same room and continue to narrow the gaps.

Israel is well grounded in the terror methods of killing innocent Palestinians and the art of playing with Western sponsors of crime against Palestine. The new Israeli hawkish premier is clear about possibility of prolonging the issue without any positive e outcomes as Washington would not force the Zionist criminals to help establish the much delayed Palestine state. All presidents before Obama have systematically failed in delivering much delayed justice to Palestinians mainly because they in practice stood by the Israeli fascists. Slowly, the Israeli strategists, liars, mischief mongers, terrorists and lobbyists are losing out to the truth chosen by the new US president and if the trend continues, Palestine state would become realty sooner than later. For sure! Israel cannot stop it and justice shall be the Palestinians’.  Because - the US president is believed to be standing for certain principles, while fighting against Neocons’ evil designs all around!   

Assigned by Obama, US envoy George Mitchell's latest round of shuttle diplomacy ended without agreement due mainly to obstructionist tactics of the Zionist regime. Mitchell said Obama's desire to personally engage at this juncture showed his "deep commitment to comprehensive peace". The US envoy held a series of meetings with Netanyahu last week in a fresh attempt at getting a deal on Jewish settlement activity. As a formal rituality he also went to the West Bank to talk to Abbas. Mitchell was hoping for a consensus before all sides attend the UN General Assembly, but he returned to the US without reaching any agreement. Obama, and his tireless Middle East special envoy George Mitchell, were, perhaps are still struggling to achieve some sort of breakthrough before 23 September when the president was to address the new session of the UN General Assembly. However, Israel saw to it the Obama efforts truncated. US envoy George Mitchell's latest round of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East has ended without agreement.

An adamant and arrogant Israeli rogue state is still seen defiant. Both terror Israeli and Palestine sides were reported as blaming each other for the lack of any agreement to resume the peace process following Mitchell's visit. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman bluffed that the Palestinian Authority was "preventing the resumption of the peace process by making conditions that it has not made in the past”. Israel employs the old trick of projecting Iran as a threat to Israel. Abbas said Israel was to blame for not agreeing to a total freeze in settlement building. "The road is now blocked," he told journalists in Cairo. The focus has to be on the Israeli side." But the fascist Israeli leaders are trying their tricks to evade punishment for their crimes against innocent Palestinians, including children, women and old people, and destructions in Palestine.

Israel rides on the established connection between Jewish and Christian strategists in Washington. The proposed meetings by President Obama with Israeli and Palestinian leaders took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The new US administration, Hamas and Abbas and have been demanding a complete freeze on Israeli construction activity. Netanyahu had previously offered a temporary freeze for several months, but not in East Jerusalem or in cases where homes have already been approved. He noted this week that there had been a slowdown in settlement construction, but that work would continue on 2,400 units currently being built.

Essentially, old premier Netanyahu as the new premier is again trying to fool the world only by rhetoric that means nothing on the ground.  Even the settlers and their supporters are unimpressed. However, a commentator called the announcement "a sedative given to the settler lobby before proceeding with the painful operation of freezing settlements". Construction of settlements began in 1967, shortly after the Middle East War; Some 280,000 Israelis now live in the 121 officially-recognized settlements in the West Bank. A further 190,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem; The largest West Bank settlement is Modiin Illit, where 38,000 people live; There are a further 102 unauthorized outposts in the West Bank which are not officially recognized by Israel; The population of West Bank settlements has been doing enough and growing at a rate of 5-6% since 2001.

It is too early to give up the hopes about positive outcomes from Obama’s efforts to educate the Zionist regime because his predecessors, if at all they tried, all failed too. As president of USA, Obama’s concerns are primarily of the USA. On the Middle East, as on other issues, Barack Obama entered the White House full of good intentions. The Bush administration had neglected the Mideast peace process throughout. Obama would revive it. When Bush had shunned Iran and Syria, Obama would talk to them, even if he might not solve all problems at hand. Had Israel agreed for peace that would have set the seal on the re-launch of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks long ago, but it only plays tricks with international community. PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas says that without a meaningful freeze he won't resume talks. The Arab states would be reluctant to take even modest steps towards normalizing relations with Israel, as the Americans are urging them to.

In trying to court the western support against Palestine, the nuclear Zionist regime harps on a non-issue of Iran’s legitimate nuclear program at par with other nuclear powers, including Israel. Israel has repeatedly threatened Iran that all options, including military action, are on the table for confronting Iran over its nuclear drive. The Jewish state considers the Islamic republic its arch-enemy after repeated statements by Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust was a "myth" created by the Zionist regime for western sympathy and military support and that Israel is doomed to be "wiped off the map." Israel is lobbying Western powers to impose harsher sanctions on arch-foe Iran after Tehran disclosed the existence of a second uranium enrichment plant. While keeping silent on punishment for Israeli holocaust in Palestine, Netanyahu has called for more sanctions in a series of phone calls with US congressmen and senators after Iran's announcement. "Action must be taken in all areas to increase pressure on Iran and impose crippling sanctions on it." Tehran's atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi later said the site will operate under IAEA supervision in a move welcomed by Washington.

Without unity among the nonsensical factions among the Palestinians a Palestine state is only a mirage. The initiative calls on the two factions to form a joint committee to co-ordinate between Hamas-ruled Gaza and the West Bank run by the Abbas and his Fatah party. It sets out the deployment of a 3,000-strong security force in the Gaza Strip, and plans for general presidential and legislative elections in June 2010. Fatah has accepted the initiative in principle, but other factions have since expressed reservations. One of the main stumbling blocks is the issue of prisoners in Israel, West Bank and Gaza Strip. Now each would be required under the agreement to supply a list of prisoners it is currently holding with a view to most of them being released when a pact is signed.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli master of terror gimmicks, as usual, is trying to have it both ways. He wants to appease the settler lobby by allowing new construction, and to appease the Americans by finalizing an agreement on a temporary freeze. There is a slowdown in settlement construction, but not a freeze and Israel continues to bluff to the international community. The double-talking Netanyahu government in Israel has approved the building of 455 new homes for settlers in the West Bank - in defiance of Obama's call for a complete settlement freeze. One former US diplomat with extensive experience of the Middle East calls it "a huge slap in the face" for the Obama administration.

Perhaps, President Obama is yet to come to terms with Mideast reality where Hamas as the elected power remains the major political force in Palestine though PLO chief controls West Bank areas under Fatah party. Perhaps, he is just waiting for the opportune time to involve the Hamas group in the making of Palestine state One does not know how President Obama could justify the absence of Hamas, the ruling faction of Palestine. If US chief thinks only a united PLO is the need of the hour and factions have to come together since that is no good for a future Palestine, hats off to him!

Iran issue must be delinked from Zionist crimes and Palestine state. Looking from Tel-Aviv, one can understand, one of US President Barack Obama's most important foreign policy initiatives is in jeopardy now. While a first victory would, however, boost the image of US president considerably, a failure in making Israel see reason in the Middle East would certainly damage Obama's credibility. The question now is how soon Palestine state would come into existence to serve the legitimate interests of remaining defenseless Palestinians. And, of course, how forceful Obama’s diplomacy would be in the region to achieve the desired outcomes is the deciding factor.  Meanwhile, the Palestinians should remove their respective party affiliations that have harmed their genuine freedom interests so long and get together as a cohesive PLO.  Hopefully, President Obama has comprehended the historical role he is playing in Mideast.

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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

Specialist on State Terrorism