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MER - MiddleEast.org - Washington - 5 January 2006:
Ariel Sharon was the mastermind General-Politician who more than
any other Israeli leader since David Ben-Gurion influenced the course
of the Middle East and brought the world to today's 'Clash of
Civilizations', ongoing warfare, and impending collision with Iran and
Syria. He more than any other brought Revionist Zionism --
'the Iron Wall' philosophy of Vladamir Jabotinsky in juxatoposition to
the more compromising and internationalist orientation of Theodore
Herzl -- to power in Israel. He made a nearly unbelievable
political rebirth after an official Israeli Investigating Commission
found him 'indirectly responsible' for the Lebanese massacres in 1982
and publicly urged, and warned, that he should never again be allowed
to serve in the Israeli government. He has passed from the
political scene, and he may soon passn from life, but his legacy will
quite likely endure far into the future: No real Palestinian
State west of the River Jordan is any longer possible thanks to Ariel
Sharon and the militant, feared, and in many places hated Israel he
leaves behind is determined, one way or another, to remain the dominant
geopolitical player in the region in alliance with the United States,
world Jewry, Evangelical Christians, and the peculiar sect known as the
Jewish Neocons.
Mark Bruzonsky
This FlashBack to Sharon as he wanted to project himself through an interview with William Safire of the NYTimes. Notice
that he already assumed Iraq would be taken over by the Americans and
was already focusing on taking on Iran and Syria which is what he was
planning for this year at the time he was brought down by the massive
stroke he suffered yesterda.
October 21, 2002
A Chat With Sharon
"Israel and America are consulting now as never before in the past" - Ariel Sharon
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
WASHINGTON - After his visit with President Bush and Congressional
leaders, Israel's Ariel Sharon returned to his farm, surveyed his
cattle and sheep, and as the Sabbath sun set, took my call.
If war starts, did you promise Bush that Israel would not be provoked
by Saddam into responding to his missile attack, thereby troubling
whatever Arabs may want to cooperate in his overthrow?
"Israel is not interested in being involved in a campaign against
Iraq," the prime minister replies, having been assured that U.S. forces
would first seek to neutralize Iraq's capability to attack Israel.
"We'll support America's decision and will show sensitivity to U.S.
needs by exercising maximum restraint. At the same time, if our
citizens are attacked seriously — by a weapon of mass destruction,
chemical, biological or by some mega-terror act — and suffer
casualties, then Israel will respond."
Has he promised to consult Bush before doing anything drastic?
"Consult? We have a regular dialogue. Israel and America are consulting now as never before in the past."
Sharon notes an unremarked danger: "The Syrians, together with the
Iranians, are playing a double game, escalating tension on our northern
border. Assad's son is completely under the influence of Hezbollah,
helping them more than his father ever thought about, integrating the
terrorists into Syria's front-line forces. And the Iranians have
supplied those terrorists with 9,000 to 10,000 rockets, maybe including
a new one with a 200-mile range. If war comes, we see what
Syria-Iran-Hezbollah are preparing: they'll be surrogates for Saddam,
opening a second front to help him."
In that regard, Sharon persuaded Russia's Vladimir Putin not to sell
Syria shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles. Putin wants our old
Jackson-Vanik amendment dropped, and Sharon says "we support that it
should be bent already."
Syrian-occupied Lebanon has begun diverting precious water from one of
the sources of the Jordan River: "That blatant violation of law does
damage to a strategic resource, and is a matter of life and death to
us.
"The Six-Day War in 1967 really started in 1964 when Arabs started to
divert the sources of the Jordan. We accepted the U.S. proposal to
negotiate, but if the diplomatic process does not produce results,
Israel will be forced to act."
Turning to Intifada II, I asked if he had reacted to Bush's draft of a
"Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution" handed him in Washington.
"It's six pages in small letters and I haven't read it yet," he says,
shifting the emphasis with "We accept the plan outlined in Bush's
speech." Then he struck a note of optimism:
"About the Palestinian reforms, one feels that there are changes going
on there. There are those who realize Israel won't be able to move
forward until the end of the terror attacks and a different leadership
emerges. We have seen positive signs that Palestinian society is moving
toward reforms, especially economic reforms, though slowly — first,
Arafat must remove his hands from the cash flow."
Progress was made in Washington on the release of tax money to the
Palestinian Authority, which Israel feared would be used for arms. "We
agreed to a mechanism to monitor those revenues," Sharon reports,
"which is the most important thing right away. The Palestinians chose a
man with good intentions. For accountability and transparency, we want
a team led by U.S. experts, along with Europeans and Russians and
especially Japanese, so that the money we release gradually, under
inspections, will not be used to purchase illegal weapons.
"We will continue our secret contacts with high-ranking Palestinian
officials, and we have told them that the appointment of a prime
minister is a first, necessary step in Palestinian reform." (That
would, I presume, leave Arafat as figurehead president. As for those
"secret contacts," they're hardly secret anymore.)
"The U.S. knows who are the leaders who support reform," Sharon stresses, "and they should be strengthened."
He's an unabashed admirer of this President Bush. "Thank God, at this
historic moment, the U.S. is leading the free world toward liberation
from fear of terror."
And his unwavering confidence under sustained pressure makes me an
unabashed Arik Sharon admirer. "We go back many years," he says. "Call
me more often." I may just do that.
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January 2006
Talking To The Enemy Indeed
(January 31, 2006)
In Iraq the U.S. is secretly talking with the 'insurgent' enemy... There will have to be actual significant policy changes by the American Empire or else -- especially when it comes to reversing Israeli apartheid and realigning American policies and interests in truly new ways, not just more rhetorical trickery and obfuscation.
Abbas, Shaath, Safieh, Fateh Officials Should Resign or Be Sacked
(January 30, 2006)
The danger of fractricidal conflict and civil war in Palestine -- an under-the-table goal pursued by the Israelis for some time no matter how much they deny it -- is now greater than ever. The major figures representing the exposed and corrupt remnants of Fateh are attempting to manipulate their way one way or another to retain money, guns, and power. Rather than resigning as he should Fateh's top man, Mahmoud Abbas, is using his considerable backing from the U.S., Israel, Europe, and the Arab 'client regimes' to attempt to keep himself and his cronies in power one way or another. It is an unprecedented dangerous political poker game of bluff, counter-bluff, and chicken being played out not just in occupied Palestine but on the regional and world stages as well and with quite unpredictable results at this point. Meanwhile the Iranians are racing ahead to prepare themselves for attack, the comatose 'peace process' is all but finally declared dead, international energy supply concerns and escalating prices could trigger more conflict and economic hard-times, and the Neocon/Evangelical regime in Washington (under unprecedented assault as the second article below suggests) is desperately seeking new ways for possible salvation and resurrection before the November 2006 mid-term election even as the still hesitant impeachment movement might yet gain traction.
LAWLESS WORLD Erupting Thursday in London
(January 30, 2006)
"...likely to cause a fierce new controversy on both sides of the Atlantic" the new edition of this damning book LAWLESS WORLD will not be published until Thursday in London, just hours after President Bush's State of the Union 2006 address to Congress at 9pm tomorrow. Major pressures are now building in both Washington and London to actually attempt to remove from power those who brought about the Iraq war through such chicanery and duplicity. But if the pressures really get too strong expect the tension with Iran to escalate further and maybe explode into military exchanges and/or another major 'terrorist attack' either from the pertrators most expect or from the underground manipulators connected to those in power whom many now suspect with considerable damning circumstantial evidence
Assassination Backlash - Hamas Landslide
(January 26, 2006)
When the Israelis released the founder of Hamas from prison some years ago they did so because they had attempted to assassinate in Amman the man who today heads Hamas from Damascus and they needed to provide King Hussein an excuse to give them back their caught and endangered Mossad henchmen. Then, a few years later, they assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, a blind paraplegic who founded Hamas in the late 1980s, as he emerged from a Gaza Mosque one morning -- this on top of an ongoing anti-Hamas assassination campaign designed to dismember and weaken 'The Islamic Resistance Movement'. The actual result however is what happened yesterday in a sea of Hamas green.
Hamas Wins Big
(January 26, 2006)
There's a long history to why Hamas has been so victorious in occupied Palestine. And whatever the Israeli p.r. spin about what has happened they and the U.S. are really the midwives.
Iran Crisis
(January 25, 2006)
This day was destined to come sooner or later. With the Israelis having a considerable arsenal of nuclear weapons and the ability to delivery them
tactically to the battlefield as well as strategically by submarine and airplane a gross imbalance has been there in the region for some time already. Furthermore there should be no doubt that Israel's apartheid and bloodletting policies toward the Palestinians have been a major force enflaming Arab and Muslim sentiments throughout the region; while militant neo-imperialist U.S. policies on top of the
American-Israeli alliance and the rise of Christian Fundamentalism have fueled the raging passions and led to today's imbroglio.
Hamastan Indeed
(January 24, 2006)
Hamas is not taking power tomorrow in occupied Palestine; it is instead asserting power in what can be seen as a kind of historic political blowback for so many awful years of miserable corruption, gross ineptitude and dastardly co-optation by those whom the U.S., Israel, and the Arab 'client regimes' pushed so hard to date to lord over the millions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Call it as well a kind of democratic payback for the Israeli/U.S. assassinations of the senior generation of Palestinian leaders including in recent years the founder of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and the long-time Chairman of the PLO, Yasser Arafat.
Questions About 9/11 That Don't Go Away
(January 23, 2006)
So much of what is happening now in our world can be traced back to the year 2001 when Bush/Cheney and the Neocons came to power in Washington, Ariel Sharon came to power in Israel, and what we all now simply call 9/11 happened. But just what did really happen? Nagging questions not only are not going away, they are surfacing from credible people and need to be very seriously and independently investigated.
U.S. Caught In The Act In Occupied Palestine
(January 22, 2006)
American credibility has rarely been lower; American duplicity has rarely been higher; and the exposure of American lies and hypocrisy has rarely been more evident than in the lead story in today's Washington Post.
Torturing Palestinians
(January 21, 2006)
From MER in January 1997: Torture of Palestinians is not only routine and systematic, in it actually sanctioned by the Israeli legal system that has been twisted to serve Israeli policies. Going back to the Shinbet scandal of the early 1980's, even more sadistic forms of torture have given way to the kinds of 'legalized' torture methods outlined in this important article from one of the few independent and courageous media sources in Israel, The Alternative Information Center (AIC). Among the reasons the Israelis get away with such systematic torture of Palestinians is that hardly anyone is willing to protest. The so-called "Palestinian Authority" practices similar and even worse torture techniques, as do nearly all of the Arab governments in the region -- so they are hardly in a position to protest. And the "liberal" American Jewish community has been morally bankrupt about such issues for so long now that to speak up at this point would be to condemn themselves for permitting, and even encouraging in many cases, such Nazi-like behavior by the Israelis for decades.
"WAR on TERRORISM" - Noam Chomsky Lecture on 18 Jan
(January 20, 2006)
This important lengthy lecture was delivered a few days ago in Dublin. Plus information about how to get a unique and now rare video documentary about the start of the "New World Order" -- available now exclusively from MER. At the start of Gulf War I in 1991 -- the beginnings of the Bush-era "New World Order", Noam Chomsky came to Washington and spoke to a huge overflow audience at George Washington University. This video documentary captures the entirety of his speech as well as the extensive question and answer period that followed. This documentary is essential to a serious understanding of U.S. foreign policy worldwide today. Chomsky uniquely provides the background and understanding needed to appreciate what the War in Iraq is really all about as well as the many misrepresentations and lies Washington propogates so often about the Israeli-Palestinian "Peace Process". From the back of the video by Mark Bruzonsky: "There's no one like Chomsky if you want to truly understand the realities of both U.S. policies and the overall situation in the Middle East...
Any Questions or Comments - CHAT at 12pm today
(January 20, 2006)
If you hvae any Questions or Comments about this program or MER use CHAT at 12pm today (Washington, DC time)
Palestinian 'Election' Approaches...Still Maybe
(January 19, 2006)
In the end it may be that the failing remnants of the disgraced 'Palestinian Authority' -- after so many years of miserable corruption and co-optation -- are now too weak and fractured to even manage to 'postpone' the long-promised Legislative election... Now the past is coming back to haunt the PA -- and their godfathers as well.
PARADISE NOW or is it PARADISE LOST?
(January 18, 2006)
Though they run a far more effective propaganda network the Jewish and Zionist establishments don't always get their way and have in fact lost quite a bit of credibility and following. This article from earlier this week in The Christian Science Monitor. And we certainly hope that those in Iraq who are legitimately and so courageously standing up against the US/UK/Israeli invasion/occupation will decide to release the CSM correspondent they are holding hostage, showing that they are sophisticated enough to distinguish between hostile and friendly Christians and thereby giving hope amidst so much despair and bloodletting.
ISLAM, SEX and the INTERNET
(January 17, 2006)
The cultural and emotional differences between Islam and Christianity and Judaism are considerable -- never more so than in the areas relating to women and sexuality. This interesting but not really adequate article is from today's Guardian in the UK: SEMINAL QUESTIONS - As scholars question the place of nudity in marriage, Islamic clerics are hotly debating exactly what sexual practices are acceptable, writes Brian Whitaker
The Faster March To International War
(January 16, 2006)
Joining the rising chorus is a growing group of sometimes neo-con, sometimes evangelical, sometimes hustling and/or sponsored academics. They are now contributing to the growing 'New World Order' hysteria that now dominates American political life through the pages of associated magazines and newspapers. While Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson for instance is right indeed to be warning about the great dangers now immediately ahead, his analogies and heroes are so misguided and off the mark one has to wonder just who is really orchestrating and behind this kind of thing. This Ferguson article appeared over the weekend in The Telegraph published in the U.K.
Historic Anti-U.S./Israel Crucible of Hatred and Revenge
(January 15, 2006)
One day Pakistan will no longer be lead by a military General empowered by the U.S and manipulated by the CIA. Remember now that today's feared Zawahiri left his Cairo medical practice to oppose the U.S. when he felt Egypt was deceived and co-opted by the U.S. Bin Laden himself, after working with the Americans to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan and working intimately with the American-sponsored Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, turned against the U.S. when American troops on top of the CIA directly occupied his country. And of course Iraq is today a country erupting as a result of U.S. occupation and destruction while Iran is a country today still rebelling after so many years of tortuous rule by the Shah and so much CIA-plotting to control that country.
INFORMATION For Persons Using This Program MiddleEast.Org
(January 12, 2006)
Useful INFORMATION For Persons Using This Program always available at MiddleEast.Org/MER
What Sharon Has Wrought; and What He Has Left
(January 12, 2006)
Understanding what has happened between Israel and Palestinians over the years requires not only expert analysis but considerable memory, ideological as well as political understanding, and an ability to put the historical pieces all together. Meron Benviniste's article today in Ha'aretz is of considerable help in summarizing the situation past, present, and maybe future.
Ariel Sharon - by Robert Fisk
(January 6, 2006)
There are few journalists who have the knowledge and perspective of Robert Fisk. This from his recent book, footnoted at the end and highly recommended.
Chaos and Geostrategic Changes of Historic Consequences Looming
(January 6, 2006)
The Year 2006 is now more ominous than ever.
Sharon's Huge Legacy
(January 5, 2006)
Sharon's legacy is overwhelming, and not for the positive
MER Mark Bruzonsky on Channel 5 Evening News Tonight in Washington, DC area
(January 4, 2006)
MER Mark Bruzonsky on Channel 5 Evening News Tonight in Washington, DC area
Sharon - 'significant stroke' reported tonight in Israel
(January 4, 2006)
Sharon - 'significant stroke' reported tonight in Israel
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