MER FLASHBACK to April of last year:
MER EDITORIAL:
A WEEK OF BEHIND-THE-SCENES MANUEVERING
ARAFAT, CIA, MOSSAD WORKING CLOSELY
TOGETHER
[Washington, 4/12/97 - MID-EAST REALITIES
Editorial]
Joint US-Israeli efforts to quash the
latest "violence" and "rioting" and still further divide the Palestinians
and the Arabs from each other are frantically proceeding -- mostly behind
the scenes of course.
What is going on in public is once
again primarily for public relations purposes -- just like during all those
years of State Department negotiations which Oslo turned on their head.
Behind the scenes the Palestinian Authority's
screws are being turned ever further, even while all sides in the region
continue to arm and prepare for future confrontation. With his monies dependent
on U.S. and Israeli giving, and with his rule dependent on the monies and
the "support" it can buy, Arafat is essentially cornered and is likely
to be pulled apart as the future unfolds.
Such, of course, may well have been
the Israeli intention all along -- end the Intifada, discredit Arafat and
destroy the PLO, imprison and demoralize the Palestinian population, manipulate
world public opinion, push the U.N. out of matters realting to Israel as
much as possible, control the policies of the USA as much as possible,
penetrate the Arab world with economic, intelligence, and even military
ties. In short: control and dominate the region with American help and
with increasing interaction with the ever-more-fearful Arab "client-regimes"
of the area -- especially the Hashemites of Jordan, the al-Saud's in Saudi
Arabia, and the quasi-military government of Egypt.
The main result of Netanyahu's recent
lightning visit to the U.S., coupled with that of the long-collaborating
Hashemite King of Jordan, was to come up with ways to further twist Arafat
into complying with the role he accepted in the Oslo and Cairo agreements
of recent years.
Arafat, and the "Palestinian Authority"
he has established with American and Israeli assistance -- including the
recently discovered secret $150 million bank account in Tel Aviv for flight
into exile should that prove necessary -- are continually being forced
to comply with the unenviable role of policing Palestinian areas (call
them"autonomous" rather than "ghettos") and repressing all Palestinian
opposition (call it "terrorism" rather than "fighting occupation"). No
matter what Arafat says in public, the underlying realities of the nearly
impossible position he has allowed his people to be cornered into continually
causes crisis in the misnomered "peace process".
Among other specific things, Arafat
has been forced in the past week to promise once again that he would take
still further steps to actively work with Israel against "terrorism". Helping
the Israelis round up some of the Hamas cells in 1997 is reminiscent of
the help provided a long year and a half ago to assassinate "the Engineer"
in Gaza, even though Arafat then turned right around and felt compelled
to attend the massive funeral.
"Security Coordination between Israel
and the Palestinians has been Renewed - following a secret meeting between
the head of the Shabak and Yasser Arafat" was the front-page headline in
Israel's largest circulation paper, Yediot Acharonot, a few days ago.
In addition, it has also leaked out
that the head of the CIA in Tel Aviv recently summoned three of the PA's
top "security" chiefs to a meeting which included the head of Israeli intelligence
earlier in the week. With these things already known, imagine what must
be going on that isn't yet known!
Additionally it is believed that Netanyahu
made it quite clear to Bill Clinton during their private meeting in Washington
that the Israelis will not be deterred from implimenting their interpretation
of Oslo -- which in fairness to the Israelis is far closer to the actual
text of the agreements as signed than is the PA interpretation. The surrender
nature of the Oslo and Cairo texts was in fact the major reason persons
such as Edward Said immediately began harshly criticizing what Arafat had
done, even to the extent of publicly labeling him a "collaborator". Now
the veracity of the critics is becoming more undeniable, hence the attempt
by Arafat to pretend that the agreements say something other than what
they do.
Furthermore, among the behind-the-scenes
realities are that the Israelis have enough blackmail capabilities against
the Clinton Administration -- the most Israeli-infiltrated and Israeli-oriented
government in American history -- to assure themselves that no serious
U.S. pressure will ever be applied come what may.
All the talk in the press about "saving
the Peace Process," coupled with the spate of newspaper statesments from
various Jewish and Arab groups funded by their respective sides, are aimed
in the end to once again pressure and trick the Palestinians into once
again buying into the American-sponsored "peace process".
Yet right from the start -- back in
the tension period of the post-Gulf War -- the so-called "peace process"
was always in reality a "domination process". It was always designed, and
continues to have as its primary purpose, to end the Intifada by exhausting
and demoralizing the Palestinians, while at the same time consolidating
the hold of the American-sponsored Arab "client-regimes" in the region.
And it continues to have as its primary purpose portraying the Americans
as "even-handed" and bent on "peace", when in fact it is precisely the
Americans who make possible Israeli expansion, Palestinian subjugation,
and regional chaos.
Expect more crisis and violence ahead
as what is essentially a multi-tentacled plot to destroy the Palestinian
quest for independence, entrench the Arab "client-regimes", and assure
U.S. and Israeli regional domination marches foreward.
MAB
