It seems that President Barack Obama will visit Israel to make up for his visit to Egypt, where he addressed Muslims. Successive American governments have not only equated five million Israelis with 1.2 billion Muslims, but also supported Israel in every dispute with the Arabs, protecting it from the rest of the world with a veto in the UN Security Council. Two examples from the 13th of this month help explain things. American and Israeli officials announced that Britain had terminated five licenses to export arms to Israel, after reviewing how Israeli forces had used British weapons in the war on Gaza. The Washington Post published a detailed item about the topic on the following day, which readers can find on the Post's website. On the same day, Maariv reported that the White House was going to increase military assistance to Israel to $2.775 billion in 2010, as a part of military assistance totaling $30 billion over ten years. Thus, the American economy is bankrupt or nearly bankrupt, but is going to raise its military assistance to Israel from $2.55 billion this year, by more than $200 million next year. The weakness of the domestic political front in Israel, along with confusion, dissent and fear of a crisis that will bring down the government coalition, as I outlined yesterday, does not eliminate the fact that both houses of the US Congress are “Israeli-occupied territory,” as Pat Buchanan once said. In the clearest terms possible: No peace is possible with this Israeli government, and here are the details: --Their saying that Mahmoud Abbas is weak translates into their wanting a Palestinian civil war, while they change the name of Palestinian cities into Hebrew. --Netanyahu himself said that he would not stop settlements or remove settlers, and he also said openly that Israel would not withdraw from the Golan Heights. --The Israeli newspapers highlighted Netanyahu's saying to President Abbas “let's meet,” although the complete sentence was: “I am calling on the leaders of the Palestinians and Arab states: Let's meet, let's cooperate. We have the ability to bring many investors.” He still believes that he can bribe the Palestinians with economic benefits so that they forget a state, as he measures people according to his own low personal standards. --Nonetheless, Netanyahu wants confidence-building measures, or a down payment, and the Americans are asking – to encourage him – permission for El Al planes in Arab skies, and opening economic representation offices with Israel in Arab states, and giving Israelis visas on their Israeli passports to enter Arab countries. What else is there? Should we give them our daughters in marriage? --US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, formed a team to set down a peace plan between Israel and Syria, headed by Fred Hof, who had authored a study proposing steps toward a solution. There are two stages. In the first, Israel and Syria share public parks and nature reserves built by Israelis in the Golan; in the second, Israel withdraws to agreed-upon borders, and the details show that the Golan Heights will be open to Israelis, who go and come as they please. And all of this is despite Netanyahu's official statement that Israel will not withdraw from the Golan. If the above is insufficient to destroy any peace process before it begins, the Israeli government is insisting on linking the halting of settlements to solving the problem of Iran's nuclear program. Of course, Israel will only halt settlements for a few months, or perhaps weeks, and will not withdraw from the West Bank. In fact, the Netanyahu government announced last week the delay in removing settler outposts, as it had promised, until after the summer, when the process will be delayed again. Abbas will not accept the Israeli solutions being proposed; he is refusing to meet with Netanyahu before settlements are halted. Syrian President Bashar al-Asad will not accept anything less than a full Israeli withdrawal from the entire Golan, to the 4 June 1967 borders. While I am certain that peace is impossible with the fascist Israeli government, and that Syria and the Palestinians will reject what is offered, my immediate fear is that Israel will gain Arab concessions through subterfuge and US pressure, in exchange for nothing in the end. My long-term fear is that nuclear weapons will enter the equation in the end, and all of us will pay the price.
