Just as Americans are recovering from the harrowing television re-runs of the 11 September attacks, their President is going to launch the biggest reshaping of the Middle East since the British and French parcelled out the Arab lands after the 1914-18 war. When he addresses the United Nations on Thursday, George Bush will be threatening not only Iraq - which had absolutely nothing to do with the crimes against humanity in New York and Washington - but Syria, Iran and, by extension, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The Syrian Accountability Act, which accuses Damascus of supporting "terrorism", will come into force as President Bush is speaking and will follow only days after the State Department branded the Lebanese Hizbollah as the "A-team of terrorism", more dangerous even than Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida. Like Iraq, the Hizbollah had nothing to do with the 11 September attacks - indeed, they were among the first to condemn them - but the White House now seems set on painting allies and enemies alike in the Middle East as a focus of evil.
Only The Nation among all of America's newspapers and magazines has dared to
point out that a large number of former Israeli lobbyists are now working
within the American administration and the Bush plans for the Middle East -
which could cause a massive political upheaval in the Arab world - fit
perfectly into Israel's own dreams for the region. The magazine listed
Vice-President Dick Cheney - the arch-hawk in the US administration - and
John Bolton, now under-secretary of state for Arms Control, with Douglas
Feith, the third most senior executive at the Pentagon, as members of the
advisory board of the pro-Israeli Jewish Institute for National Security
Affairs (Jinsa) before joining the Bush government. Richard Perle, chairman
of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, is still an adviser on the
institute, as is the former CIA director James Woolsey.
Michael Ledeen, described by The Nation as "one of the most influential
'Jinsans' in Washington" has been calling for "total war" against "terror" -
with "regime change" for Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian
Authority. Mr Perle advises the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld - who
refers to the West Bank and Gaza as "the so-called occupied territories" -
and arranged the anti-Saudi "kernel of evil" briefing by Laurent Murawiec
that so outraged the Saudi royal family last month. The Saudi regime may
itself be in great danger as the princes of the House of Saud attempt to
seize more power for themselves in advance of the depart-ure of the dying
King Fahd.
Jinsa's website says it exists to "inform the American defence and foreign
affairs community about the important role Israel can and does play in
bolstering democratic interests in the Mediterranean and the Middle East".
Next month, Michael Rubin of the right-wing and pro-Israeli American
Enterprise Institute - who referred to the outgoing UN human rights
commissioner Mary Robinson as an abettor of "terrorism" - joins the US
Defence Department as an Iran-Iraq "expert".
According to The Nation, Irving Moskovitz, the California bingo magnate who
has funded settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories, is a donor as
well as a director of Jinsa.
President Bush, of course, will not be talking about the influence of these
pro-Israeli lobbyists when he presents his vision of the Middle East at the
United Nations on Thursday.
Nor will he give the slightest indication that the region is, in the words
of its own kings and dictators, a powder keg of resentment and anger. The
tectonic plates of the Arab world are now grinding with increasing violence.
Into this political earthquake zone, Mr Bush now seems intent on leading his
country, with his loyal British ally.
Most of today's Arab nations were fashioned out of the ruins of the Ottoman
Empire by Britain and France in the aftermath of the First World War - and
Palestinians still blame Britain today for supporting the formation of a
Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Both European nations stationed tens of thousands of troops across the
region, suppressing Arab revolts in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon - itself
created by the French at the request of its Christian Maronite community.
The whole colonial framework led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives
before both the British and French retreated from the Middle East.
Now President Bush seems set on following the colonial powers into the
region for another military and political adventure - ostensibly to spread
"democracy" among those nations it most despises (Iraq, Palestine and Iran)
but in fact more likely to increase American control of an increasingly
anti-Western Arab world.
The Arabs themselves warn that this will lead to massive instability and
widespread violence. The Israelis - and their allies in the US
administration - are hell bent on the whole shebang.
Start Date: 2002-09-13 01:00:00-04
End Date: 2002-10-13 01:00:00-04
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