MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 6/7/2001: What is happening to the Palestinians today has deep historical roots. Even the recent roots going back a decade to the Gulf War, to Madrid, to the Washington talks, to Oslo and all that has transpired since, have to be remembered and understood in order to appreciate the magnitude of the tragedy now befalling the Palestinian people. The Palestinians are suffering so badly not only because of the Israelis and the Americans, but also because of their own terrible leadership and that of the Arab "client regimes" which have supported the Arafat "Authority" and the "peace process" -- most of all the Hashemite, Saudi, and Egyptian regimes. The following MER FlashBack from four years ago this month provided pieces of the complex puzzle then and should be remembered now.

MER - Washington - www.MiddleEast.Org - 6/1/97: A few weeks ago, in what has become an ongoing series of usually secret talks, the top leaders of Israel and Jordan met in Aqaba, Jordan. It has been learned that Minister of National Infrastructures, Ariel Sharon, told the Israeli Cabinet, "They were nice, long talks." Sharon went on to assure the Cabinet: "I emphasize that there were no concessions by Israel." Supposedly these talks are primarily about water-related and trade-related issues; including the building of a Jordanian-Israeli rail link which the Jordanians are eagerly pursuing even though the Arab League has called for a suspension of dealings with Israel. In reality the Zionist and Hashemite leaderships continue to plot how to control and repress the Palestinians in ever more crafty and ever more duplicitous ways. King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan are personally involved in these discussions and were present in Aqaba, as was Prime Minister Netanyahu and top level military commanders from both countries. What is really going on is nothing less than a continuation of the long-time conspiracy involving the Hashemites and the Zionists to sandwich the Palestinian between them, depriving the Palestinians of real self-determination even while Arafat's "Palestinian Authority" continues to be allowed to pretend it is on the way to an independent Palestinian State.

Symbolically worst of all, the Hashemites show no sensitivity at all to the fact that among their main Israeli interlocutors is none other than Ariel Sharon, the most notorious of the Israeli Generals accused of war crimes and quite literally a buther of Palestinians during his long military career. In addition, Sharon is the man who has planted the Israeli flag right in the middle of the Muslim quarter in Jerusalem's old city. There he has forced on the Arabs his surreptitiously "purchased" apartment -- one which must be constantly constantly guarded by Uzi- armed Israeli combat troops -- and from whch he constantly displays a huge Israeli Menorah alongside the giant Star of David flag.

Mid-East Realities

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Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/6/233.htm