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Background The Arab-Israeli conflict
remains a festering problem that threatens U.S. national security; American foreign policy
interests in the Middle East; and the reputation of the US founding principles. The Quartet's "road map," like the Oslo
peace process before it, has been derailed by continued Israeli land grabs and
machinations in the US political system. But
the Bush administration has concluded correctly that Israeli occupation is part of the
problem, not part of the solution. As long as
Israel exerts control over Palestinian lands, it, and the United States, will be targets
of retaliatory terrorist attacks by "stakeholders" sympathetic to the plight of
Palestinians. The Quartet's call for the
Israelis to withdrawal from ill-gotten territories and allow the Palestinian leadership to
flourish is a great improvement over the AIPAC dictates of violence and ethnic cleansing
via "separation fence."
Recommendations
- The United States should
remain steadfast to the principles outlined by our founding father, George Washington. ""....so likewise, a passionate
attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the
favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where
no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays
the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate
inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of
privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the
concessions, by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by
exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom
equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluged citizens
(who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the
interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding
with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public
opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition,
corruption, or infatuation..."
- The United States should
balance the Israeli lobby and interest groups running amok in the US Congress through a
partnership with Quartet members. By realizing
it is no longer perceived to be an "honest broker" in the process, the US should
get alongside nations that can be more objective about the problem.
- The chief motivation of
suicide terrorism is the effort by a population to free themselves of occupation.
Washington must cut off "charitable" funding laundered from the US to illegal
West Bank settlers who enforce boundaries with bullets and fuel the flames of terror
retaliation that can reach the American homeland as well as Tel Aviv.
Talking Points
- The Palestinians have
suffered Israeli state terrorism, and violence at the hand of Israeli-American terrorists
such as Baruch Goldstein. Blaming the victim
is no longer credible in a conflict taking four times as many Palestinian lives as
Israeli.
- Palestinian government
will not take further risks for peace unless the Israelis comply with their commitments to
halt colonization, land grabs, and ethnic cleansing. Ariel Sharon, who made a career of
ethnic cleansing as the advocate of the Settler Movement, has repeatedly demonstrated that
he and his Likud Party cannot be trusted.
- The unilateral border that
Israel is building with an East Berlin style metal and concrete wall to seize aquifers and
retain settlements the world recognizes as illegal, is a symbol of the attitude that
recognizes no UN resolution, International Court of Law judgement, or appeal for common
decency from afflicted populations. It must be dismantled as a step toward taking
responsibility and showing respect for rule of law.
- IAEA head and Noble Peace
Prize winner Mohammed el Baradei stressed the importance of developing a WMD free Middle
East at the UN in December of 2003. ''I
am not happy with the status quo because I see a lot of frustration in the Middle East due
to Israel sitting on nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons capability, while others in the
Middle East are committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).'' Israeli nuclear weapons drive the desire for other
regional powers to counterbalance them with their own 2nd strike capability.
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