MER FLASHBACK:
WHAT A
DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES
MER - Washington - 9/20:
It was just a year ago that Madeleine Albright was swinging through
the Middle East on her first Secretary of State visit. And what a difference a year makes.
This MER article was first published in September of last year.
MADELEINE'S
TOUR FOR ISRAEL
VERBAL GENUFLECTION FROM THE SAUDIS
"We feel she was fair and evenhanded in her discussions with
the Palestinians and Israelis."
"Prominent
Saudi diplomat, insisting on anonymity"
according to Associated Press 9/13/97
Wherever she went Madeleine Albright acted more like the Foreign
Minister of Israel than the Secretary of State of the U.S.In Egypt she pleaded for the
release of Azam Azam, recently convicted Israeli spy. In Saudi Arabia she pleaded for the
Arabs to attend the third annual regional economic summit including Israeli participation
-- this one scheduled for Qatar in November with none other than Ariel Sharon among
Israel's attendees! Throughout her trip she pleaded with all the American "client
regimes" to prevent those who are contributing to to the Palestinians (other than to
Arafat) -- in other words those who are contributing to the orphanages, hospitals and
welfare programs that are the most independent and doing the most good -- even while the
U.N. itself cuts back such services and the "Authority" of Arafat continues its
corrupt and miserable ways.
This is the woman who just last year repeatedly badgered and quite
literally screamed at U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Ghali, demanding that he prevent
publication of the damning report about Israel's deliberately savage attack that massacred
more than a hundred civilians at the U.N. base in Qana Lebanon. And then, even when
Boutros-Ghali largely complied by tremendously watering-down the report, this is the woman
who demanded that Ghali's tenure as Secretary-General be ended.
Yet in the Middle East all Madeleine Albright could muster -- amidst
her mantra-like vilifications about "terrorism" -- were a few toothless words
about a "time-out" for Israeli settlements. Actually every American President
and Secretary of State going back to the Nixon Administration has rhetorically criticized
Israeli settlements -- and yet it is American money these past 30 years that has paid for
them! Nothing new here Madeleine! Just more American hypocrisy and rhetorical gibberish!
Furthermore, it was the height of patronage and symbolic duplicity
when Madeleine one day appeared with Arafat drapped with a shawl of Palestinian
embroidery, yet the next day in Egypt refused to stay or hold meetings at the luxurious
"Palestine Hotel" where she was initially scheduled to be!
Meanwhile, among the Arabs themselves, in Nablus Palestinian
protesters handed out flyers of the Statue of Liberty topped with Madeleine's head and
carrying a sword plunged into the body of a bleeding man representing the Palestinian
people. Quite apt actually.
Yet in Saudi Arabia -- clearly the region's most corrupted and
despotic regime -- Albright was greeted not simply with politeness but with ever-growing
symbols of Saudi control by and dependence on the U.S. The Saudis put on one of their
lavish shows not even understanding that it has all become symbolic bowing down, no matter
how royal and golden they think themselves to be.
It was probably Prince Bandar bin Sultan, long-time Saudi Ambassador
to the U.S. and one of the key Arabs who works most closely in Washington with the
Israeli/Jewish lobby and the CIA, who probably uttered the verbal genuflection that:
"We feel she was fair and evenhanded in her discussions with the Palestinians and
Israelis."
What a disastrous visit. Not only by the American Secretary of
State; but by the Arab client-regimes that hosted her, Arafat's among them of course.
