MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 8/03: The very idea that the Americans and the Brits, after their long history of treachery and deception in the Middle East, are now going to do something other than continue on in that tradition is rather ludicrous. All the current talk at the moment -- especially from the Europeans and the usually gullible "peace" and "human rights" NGOs -- about helping the Palestinians by sending them "observers" is indeed a fitting CIA response to the predicament the American government finds itself in at the moment.

On the one hand the U.S. clearly facilitates and sponsors Israeli policies, closely coordinating everything with them. Washington is dominated by the Israeli/Jewish lobby and its operatives, and Congress is essentially "Israeli Occupied Territory". On the other hand the Americans have to try to present themselves as at least somewhat "even-handed" in order to protect the American-sponsored Arab "client regimes" from the wrath of their own people, not to mention protecting the plentiful and cheap oil supplies that prop up the American way of life thanks to these regimes. Additionally the Americans are committed, partially on behalf of the Israelis, to keeping the Iraqis prostrate, Iran contained, and American military forces in control of the crucial Gulf area.

Now there's not really much "secret" to the "observers" approach anymore anyway, contrary to what one would think by a casual reading of today's article in The Guardian. First of all there already are official "international observers" in Hebron, unofficial ones elsewhere, and we all know how much good they have done the Palestinians! It was just a few years ago that the Americans presented the disastrous Hebron Agreement as a great breakthrough as well -- see http://www.MiddleEast.org/archives/hebron.htm for background information what happened then. Second of all if "observing" were all the "observers" were going to do there's already plenty of international media around and in this age of the Internet and instant video not much that actually happens where it can be "observed" is all that secret for long.

The actual secret plot masked by all this talk of "observers" probably goes something like this:

* Give the Israelis a little more time to knock off key Hamas leaders, push those involved in the Intifada and not under Arafat's full control far deeper underground both literally and figuratively, and eliminate or severely repress all those who might get in the way of new "arrangements" to be agreed to by Arafat or Abu Mazen or Rajoub (with Sha'ath continuing in his role as quasi-American and Arab-regime agent) in the guise of "implementing the Mitchell Report". Anyone who doesn't realize at this point that the Israelis are doing what they are doing with the clandestine help of both the CIA and Arafat's own key intelligence operatives just doesn't understand what this "peace process" has been all about from the start.

* Use the ruse of "international observers" as a figleaf for the impotence of the Arab League and key Arab client regimes, the co-optation of the United Nations, and the continuance of American dominance over what is done and not done in the region regardless of what other countries might say or think. .. * Infiltrate the Palestinian areas with more still more CIA personnel and technology all designed to get the Palestinians under better control and put those who oppose in even greater danger and fear.

* Destroy or co-opt the organizations and individuals who represent the most significant threats to putting the "peace process" back together again twisted to Sharon's acceptability.

* Try to push the Arafat Regime into some new agreements -- both overt and covert -- that require them to bring about an end to the Intifada, all the while making it very clear to Arafat that if he doesn't comply he could find his own regime totally destroyed.

* Simultaneously let the Israelis push forward with their plan to "unilaterally separate" themselves from the Palestinians with barriers of all kinds, physical and otherwise -- including more "by-pass" roads and restrictive arrangements. The Palestinians will essentially be relagate to ghetto existence in their "autonomous population areas" with little land or resources and limited freedom of movement.

* Hold out to Arafat and company the carrot of an in-name-only "Palestinian State", with the very substantial monetary and political rewards that would flow to him and his top lieutenants if they will help legitimize such a quisling bantustan-like puppet "State". All the while continue twisting Arafat all the more so he realizes his options are very limited and that it may be better for him to play along with the Americans, of course fronting for the Israelis, rather than to find his regime destroyed and himself back in exile at such a late date in his own life and fortunes.

The bottom line is that what's going on at the moment is more appropriately thought of as a secret plot to more fully demoralize and repress the Palestinians -- one being pursued each in their own way and for their own reasons by the Israelis, the Americans, as well as the key Arab regimes in Amman, Cairo and Riyadh.

Lacking any good options because of all the terrible mistakes and blunders he has made in the past -- not to mention all the accumulated secrets the Israelis and Americans have about him and his regime -- Yasser Arafat is going along with both "Mitchell" and "Observers" desperately hoping to keep his own rather despicable regime alive, in control, and of course in the money.