America Uses
Israel's Words to Justify Occupation
by
Robert Fisk
Dissident Voice
February 28, 2003
Ah,
to be a "viable" state! The word "viable" has now become
the be-all and end-all of American policy towards Palestine. "For its
part," George Bush told us, "the new government of Israel, as the
terror threat is removed and security improves, will be expected to support the
creation of a viable Palestinian state."
Well, since Ariel Sharon,
the Israeli Prime Minister, says that the Palestinians may only get 50 per cent
of the West Bank and his new chums in his coalition government are all for more
settlements in that area, why should Muslims take this talk seriously? They
don't. It's just another word trick to kick-arse the Arabs into support – or at
least acquiescence – in the American invasion of Iraq.
Not once did President Bush
mention the word "oil" – save for a brief reference to the disastrous
oil-for-food "programme" – though there was just one mention of the
occupied territories (or "so-called occupied" as Donald Rumsfeld
infamously called them). But once America occupies Iraq, what argument can the
Arabs deploy against Israel? If the West Bank is occupied, well so is Iraq. If
the United States occupied Iraq to spare the world from "terror", why
shouldn't Israel occupy the West Bank to spare itself from "terror"?
Few have yet worked through this dangerous equation.
Much of the Bush speech to
the American Enterprise Institute was written in the language of Israel.
"If war is forced upon us by Iraq's refusal to disarm, we'll meet an enemy
who hides his military forces behind civilians, who has terrible weapons, who's
capable of any crime." This is precisely the language of Ariel Sharon. The
equation that other Arab states are expected to understand is contained in that
ominous suggestion by Mr Bush that after the "passing" of Saddam
Hussein's regime, "other regimes will be given a clear warning that
support for terror will not be tolerated". Primarily, this is a message
for Syria, then for Iran and then for anyone else who has not knelt before the
Americans.
To support this, we are
asked to believe – even the Arabs who live in the Middle East are asked to
believe – that "in Iraq, a dictator is building and hiding weapons that
could [sic] enable him to dominate the Middle East and intimidate the civilised
world". The same man "has close ties to terrorist organisations and
could [sic] supply them with the terrible means to strike this country".
Or not, as the case may be.
And if it's North Korea
we're talking about, you can forget all this nonsense about "regime
change".
Arabs were, obviously,
interested in the "coalition of more than 90 countries", until they
realised that this "coalition" was merely arresting al-Qa'ida
suspects, not planning to invade Iraq. And when Mr Bush said that America had
"arrested or otherwise dealt with many key commanders of al-Qa'ida",
a smile or two on the faces of America's friendly Arab dictators might have
been forgiven. The phrase "or otherwise dealt with" will be as familiar
to them as it is shameful to the US.
So on we go to a "free
and peaceful Iraq". But what was it President Bush told us? "Iraqi
lives and freedom matter greatly to us," he said.
Since when? When Iraqi men
and women were being raped in President Saddam's torture chambers in 1983,
Donald Rumsfeld was in Baghdad asking the Iraqi leader if he could reopen the
US embassy. Rebuilding Iraq will require "a sustained commitment from many
nations" but "we will remain in Iraq as long as necessary and not a
day more". How extraordinary. For these are precisely the same words used
by Israel when it invaded Lebanon in 1982. It took Israel 22 years and hundreds
of Israeli lives – and thousands of Arab lives – before that occupation ended.
Ah, what it is to fight for
"the liberty of an oppressed people" – this is Mr Bush on Iraq –
provided, of course, they are not Palestinian.
Robert Fisk is an award
winning foreign correspondent for The
Independent (UK), where this article first
appeared. He is the author of Pity Thy Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon
(The Nation Books, 2002 edition)