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CounterPunch
February
19, 2003
In Israel the Celebrations
Have Already Begun
Likud's
Cry: "Arafat and Saddam are One"
by ALUF BENN
Last spring, Secretary of State Colin Powell made
his last shuttle swing through the region. When he reached the
Prime Minister's Office there were three demonstrators from the
Likud and two from Kach. One shouted through a loudspeaker, in
heavily accented English: "Arafat and Saddam are the same."
Powell didn't listen. It's doubtful the voice penetrated his
security perimeter. But since then, that lone demonstrator's
voice has become the official voice of Israel.
The "National Explainer," Maj.
Gen. Amos Gilad, explained this week that Saddam and Arafat "believe
in the same path, the path of terror meant to break Israel"
and he expressed hope that the elimination of the Baghdad dictator
will be a precedent for dealing with "similar dictators
who live not far from here, like the one living in Ramallah."
Gilad said if there is a positive change in the wake of the war
in Iraq, "Arafat won't be here by the end of the year and
that's something we should welcome and know how to exploit well."
Gilad represents a broad consensus in
the top echelons of the political and security establishment,
which is showing enthusiastic anticipation for the American assault
on Iraq. Israeli officials are convinced Israel is on the right
side, with the strong Americans, who will settle their accounts
after the war with the Europeans, the Arabs and everyone else
who tried to get in the way. They see the Bush administration's
lack of interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and believe
that after the war, the Americans will leave Ariel Sharon alone,
and not demand he compensate the defeated Arabs with Israeli
concessions.
In conversations with Sharon's representatives,
the Americans don't even put on a show of pressure. The settlements
aren't mentioned. The Israeli-Arab portfolio in the White House
has been handed over to Elliott Abrams, a right-wing Jew close
to the Pentagon hawks. His deputy, Flint Evert, who had been
promoting the "road map," was thrown out after failing
in a report on the preparations for the January conference in
London, to which the British sent invitations through Yasser
Arafat. State department officials who backed pressure on Israel
were worn down on bureaucratic struggles.
In the eyes of the prime minister, the
war in Iraq is an opportunity to change the balance of power
in the area. Sharon proposes a division of labor: Israel will
take care of Arafat. America will smash the sources of Arab power:
terrorism, missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Sharon reminds
U.S. visitors that a victory in Iraq won't solve all the problems
in the region and that Syria, Libya and Iran have to be dealt
with. This week, Undersecretary of State John Bolton visited
Jerusalem. He's an administration hawk. There was no sign of
any difference of views in the conversations he had with his
Jerusalem hosts.
But the Israeli optimism is not only
about the future. It's also about the present. There are already
cheers of victory over the Palestinians ("the worst is behind
us"). The signs are encouraging: Mubarak is courting Sharon,
Arafat announces he'll appoint a prime minister, European and
UN diplomats are ready to "waste" Arafat, their former
protege, and admit privately that Sharon has beaten his veteran
rival.
Sharon, a political marathoner, keeps
surprising his eulogists. He reoccupied the territories and defeated
Arafat in the arena of international legitimacy, which in the
past tilted toward the Palestinians; terror is at a tolerable
level; Sharon won a landslide election, and is now trying to
worm the Labor Party into the government.
This was all achieved without giving
up a millimeter or tree of the territories, but at a heavy price
to the economy and society in Israel. Over and over, Sharon avoids
the difficult decisions with the help of his friend in the White
House, and it appears he will succeed in dissolving the "road
map," which is inconvenient for him.
But the victory cheers appear to be premature.
Arafat is still here, and it's not clear how long it will take
to remove him. The war in Iraq has yet to begin, and anything
that goes wrong there, any problem that pops up, could ruin the
rosy scenarios devised by the prime minister and his aides.
Aluf Benn
writes for Ha'aretz.
Yesterday's
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The
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Lenni Brenner
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and the WWP:
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Anthony Gancarski
The Return of Gary Hart:
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Gloria Bergen
Storm Warning!
Imperialist Gangs Stalk Planet Earth
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Alexander Cockburn
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Website of the Day
Protest
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February 15
/ 16, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Colin
Powell and the Great "Intelligence Fraud"
Rep. Dennis
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The Whole World is Watching
Edward Said
A Monumental Hypocrisy
Wouter Hijink
Report from Amsterdam
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Linda Heard
At Last! Proud to be British
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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Lev Grinberg
Lessons from Israel
A War Without Legitimacy
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Cold Fronts:
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Norman Madarasz
French Kisses from the Citizens of France
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Scott Ritter in Tokyo
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Bring Us the Head of Osama bin Laden
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The Revolt in Bolivia
Col. Dan Smith
Irrelevance and Credibility:
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Wayne Madsen
The Lies of Tom Lantos
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The Invisible Modernities of the Islamic World
Emily Zitter-Smith
Who's Safe Now?
An American in Cairo
Rich Procter
Anybody Remember the Powell Doctrine?
Poets Basement:
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Website of the Weekend
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Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
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by Alexander
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and Jeffrey St. Clair
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