A Palestinian boy holds
a key symbolizing the loss of Palestinian homes
after the 1948
creation of the Israeli state, in the West Bank village of Beit
Iksa. Palestinians
around the world are commemorating the "Nakba," or
catastrophe, the
Arabic word for the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians with
creation of the state of Israel, which is celebrating its 60th
anniversary this
week.
The Jordan Times,
Jordan
Bush's Role in the
Middle East: 'What a Shame'
"Bush hailed Israel as an
example to the region. One wonders which example Bush was referring to. How to
get rid of a pesky native population? Or could it have been how it has occupied
a neighboring territory and people and blame the victims for their
oppression?"
EDITORIAL
May 15, 2008
Jordan - The Jordan
Times - Home Page (English)
U.S. President George W. Bush
yesterday arrived in Israel to cheer that country's independence and celebrate
Israeli democracy. He's also there to push forward stalled Palestinian-Israeli
peace talks.
Bush hailed Israel as an
example to the region. One wonders which example Bush was referring to. How to
get rid of a pesky native population? How to create a democracy for 80 percent
of its people, based on their ethno-religious backgrounds, and present itself
as a haven for progressive values? Or could it have been how it has occupied a
neighboring territory and people and blame the victims for their oppression?
Clearly oblivious to his own
administration's policies, he then said democratic reform was the way forward
for this region and that Israel was showing the way.
Hamas showed the way as well,
but it seems that democracy means voting for "people like us" not
"people like them."
And so, blundering along,
Bush hopes to push forward peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. He
comes not as one demanding anything of either side but, as he put it in a
recent interview, but as "one who encourages."
That's a shame, because if he wanted to "demand,"
he would be on pretty solid ground. He could demand, for instance, that Israel
adhere to international law, stop its illegal construction of settlement in
occupied territory, signal its intention to end its illegal occupation of
foreign territory and assist in the creation of a Palestinian state.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
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Egyptian demonstrators
in downtown Cairo wave Palestinian flags during a protest agaisnt the
60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. The sign says,
'Liberation of Palestine is a Sacred Duty.'
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He could demand that justice
be rendered to Palestinian refugees who, like all refugees, have a right to
dignity, property, and return if they so wish - and to "freedom" …
that fine word that Bush uses so often.
President Bush could demand
all of this and he could get his way. Israel, after all, can't stand on its own
two feet, even after 60 years. It needs American aid to survive, which is the
most given by any country to another, anywhere, ever.
Indeed, if Bush were so
demanding, he might go down in history as a "a guy who had principles and
stuck by them," rather than as the president who presided over the
beginning of the next 60 years of conflict in the Middle East, even though the
clear and present warning signs were there.
Lucky, then, that on Saturday
Bush will meet Arab leaders in Egypt, who will undoubtedly set him straight
about what's what.
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US May 15, 10:32am]
