US MediationIsrael and Palestine
The US would like to believe it is fair and balanced and a fair broker for the conflict. Most of the rest of the world, and especially the Arab street, see things otherwise. Why? What do do we say and do to promote that view? Do we even recognise that we do it?
Monday, December 20, 2004
Arab Exports to the US Should Pass Through Israel, Say NeoCons By Ghulam Muhammed
Arab Exports to the US Should Pass Through Israel, Say NeoCons By Ghulam Muhammed: "Al-Jazeerah, December 17, 2004
One of the most humiliating and degrading example of American neo-con lobby’s plan to bolster Israel’s hegemony over its immediate Arabs neighbours who are forced to sign peace treaty with Israel, is to make all US-Arab economic and trade deals go through compulsory ‘Israeli brokerage house’, so that Israel should be the overall control authority, on all US-Arab dealings, thus institutionally positioned to control Arab countries with its monopoly on all inter-US/Arab economic dealings.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick, who is in Cairo for the signing ceremony, is putting final stamp of a deal that grants Egyptian exporters exemption from US customs and trade quotas, only and if all such exporters use ‘Israeli investments and materials’. This is a clear case of total subservience of Egyptian exports to US, to the overall economic stranglehold of Israel.
Zoellick, one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, Project for the New American Century (PNAC) letter to President William Jefferson Clinton, has naturally called the accord, milked after torturous 18-month negotiations, as ‘ the most important agreement Egypt and Israel in two decades’.
The neo-cons in US administration is already treating whole of Arab and Muslim world as a defeated nation who should be saddled with onerous and exploitative terms of reparation for standing up to Israel and its protégé, the US.
US administration is seriously handicapped without any independent policy initiative to deal with Islamic world, without involving Israel or its backers. The price of such shortsighted mortgaging of its policy initiatives to Israel can never achieve a lasting peace between the US and the Islamic world.
Arab Exports to the US Should Pass Through Israel, Say NeoCons By Ghulam Muhammed: "Al-Jazeerah, December 17, 2004
One of the most humiliating and degrading example of American neo-con lobby’s plan to bolster Israel’s hegemony over its immediate Arabs neighbours who are forced to sign peace treaty with Israel, is to make all US-Arab economic and trade deals go through compulsory ‘Israeli brokerage house’, so that Israel should be the overall control authority, on all US-Arab dealings, thus institutionally positioned to control Arab countries with its monopoly on all inter-US/Arab economic dealings.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick, who is in Cairo for the signing ceremony, is putting final stamp of a deal that grants Egyptian exporters exemption from US customs and trade quotas, only and if all such exporters use ‘Israeli investments and materials’. This is a clear case of total subservience of Egyptian exports to US, to the overall economic stranglehold of Israel.
Zoellick, one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, Project for the New American Century (PNAC) letter to President William Jefferson Clinton, has naturally called the accord, milked after torturous 18-month negotiations, as ‘ the most important agreement Egypt and Israel in two decades’.
The neo-cons in US administration is already treating whole of Arab and Muslim world as a defeated nation who should be saddled with onerous and exploitative terms of reparation for standing up to Israel and its protégé, the US.
US administration is seriously handicapped without any independent policy initiative to deal with Islamic world, without involving Israel or its backers. The price of such shortsighted mortgaging of its policy initiatives to Israel can never achieve a lasting peace between the US and the Islamic world.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
CIA, DIA and State Dept warn Bush that U.S. isn't defeating Iraq insurgents
The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Agencies warn Bush that U.S. isn't defeating Iraq Insurgents: "Saturday, December 18, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M. | By Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON � The CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department have warned President Bush that the United States and its Iraqi allies aren't winning the battle against Iraqi insurgents who are trying to derail the country's Jan. 30 elections, according to administration officials.
The officials, who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because intelligence estimates are classified, said, however, that the battle in Iraq wasn't lost and that successful elections might yet be held next month.
But they said the warnings � including one delivered this week to Bush by CIA Director Porter Goss � indicated that U.S. forces hadn't been able to stop the insurgents' intimidation of Iraqi voters, candidates and others who want to participate in the elections.
'We don't have an answer to the intimidation,' one senior official said.
Nor have the United States and interim Iraqi government been able to find any divisions they can exploit to divide and conquer the Sunni Muslim insurgency, the intelligence reports say. "
The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Agencies warn Bush that U.S. isn't defeating Iraq Insurgents: "Saturday, December 18, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M. | By Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON � The CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department have warned President Bush that the United States and its Iraqi allies aren't winning the battle against Iraqi insurgents who are trying to derail the country's Jan. 30 elections, according to administration officials.
The officials, who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because intelligence estimates are classified, said, however, that the battle in Iraq wasn't lost and that successful elections might yet be held next month.
But they said the warnings � including one delivered this week to Bush by CIA Director Porter Goss � indicated that U.S. forces hadn't been able to stop the insurgents' intimidation of Iraqi voters, candidates and others who want to participate in the elections.
'We don't have an answer to the intimidation,' one senior official said.
Nor have the United States and interim Iraqi government been able to find any divisions they can exploit to divide and conquer the Sunni Muslim insurgency, the intelligence reports say. "
Powell 'Pushed Out' By Bush For Seeking To Rein In Israel
Powell 'Pushed Out' By Bush For Seeking To Rein In Israel: "By Charles Laurence in New York and Philip Sherwell | The Telegraph - UK | 12-19-4
Colin Powell, the outgoing US secretary of state, was given his marching orders after telling President George W Bush that he wanted greater power to confront Israel over the stalled Middle East peace process.
Although Mr Powell's departure was announced on November 15, his letter of resignation was dated November 11, the day he had a meeting with Mr Bush.
According to White House officials, at the meeting Mr Powell was not asked to stay on and gave no hints that he would do so. Briefing reporters later, he referred to 'fulsome discussions' - diplomatic code for disagreements.
"The clincher came over the Mid-East peace process," said a recently-retired state department official.
"Powell thought he could use the credit he had banked as the president's 'good cop' in foreign policy to rein in Ariel Sharon [Israel's prime minister] and get the peace process going. He was wrong."
Powell 'Pushed Out' By Bush For Seeking To Rein In Israel: "By Charles Laurence in New York and Philip Sherwell | The Telegraph - UK | 12-19-4
Colin Powell, the outgoing US secretary of state, was given his marching orders after telling President George W Bush that he wanted greater power to confront Israel over the stalled Middle East peace process.
Although Mr Powell's departure was announced on November 15, his letter of resignation was dated November 11, the day he had a meeting with Mr Bush.
According to White House officials, at the meeting Mr Powell was not asked to stay on and gave no hints that he would do so. Briefing reporters later, he referred to 'fulsome discussions' - diplomatic code for disagreements.
"The clincher came over the Mid-East peace process," said a recently-retired state department official.
"Powell thought he could use the credit he had banked as the president's 'good cop' in foreign policy to rein in Ariel Sharon [Israel's prime minister] and get the peace process going. He was wrong."
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Pentagon official (neo-con lead Doglas Feith] wants Yaron fired: concerns over undesirable arms sales to China
Haaretz - Israel News - Pentagon official wants Yaron fired: "December 16, 2004 Tevet 4, 5765"
A crisis of confidence has broken out between the Pentagon and the Israeli Defense Ministry in the wake of U.S. complaints about Israeli deviations from weapons purchasing and sales rules and an Israeli report to the U.S. about a weapons sale to China.
...
For more than a decade, the U.S. has been raising grave concerns about Israeli weapons exports to China. First, they accused Israel of transferring U.S. technologies without permission. In the summer of 2000, they forced the cancelation of the sale to China of a Phalcon, an airborne radar system equipped with advanced Israeli-made aeronautics on board a Russian-made plane.
The new crisis is over the sale of a weapons system from Israel to China. According to Israeli sources, information about the weapons system sold to China was provided to the U.S. by working-level Israeli officials, but when Yaron and Mor explained the deals, the senior American officials were completely surprised, raising worries that the Israelis had been hiding information from them.
Haaretz - Israel News - Pentagon official wants Yaron fired: "December 16, 2004 Tevet 4, 5765"
A crisis of confidence has broken out between the Pentagon and the Israeli Defense Ministry in the wake of U.S. complaints about Israeli deviations from weapons purchasing and sales rules and an Israeli report to the U.S. about a weapons sale to China.
...
For more than a decade, the U.S. has been raising grave concerns about Israeli weapons exports to China. First, they accused Israel of transferring U.S. technologies without permission. In the summer of 2000, they forced the cancelation of the sale to China of a Phalcon, an airborne radar system equipped with advanced Israeli-made aeronautics on board a Russian-made plane.
The new crisis is over the sale of a weapons system from Israel to China. According to Israeli sources, information about the weapons system sold to China was provided to the U.S. by working-level Israeli officials, but when Yaron and Mor explained the deals, the senior American officials were completely surprised, raising worries that the Israelis had been hiding information from them.
