AMERICA'S DOUBLE DEALING WITH THE
PALESTINIANS AND THE MIDDLE EAST
MER -
MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 2 June: American
chicanery in the Middle East is hardly new -- just ask the Iranians,
Lebanese, Syrians, Algerians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudis, and the
list goes on. But when it comes to the Palestinians American and
British double-dealing has been going on for so long now that in a
sense many have gotten use to it or simply resigned to their fate.
But of course others have chosen different more challenging
responses as over the years this American chicanery has unleashed
poisons and hatreds that provide the backdrop to and many of the causes
for today's 'Clash of Civilizations.'
What the U.S. has done in the past in the Middle East, nearly
always in tandem with the Israelis of course for quite some time, is
considerably responsible for the current explosive situation in the
region. What the U.S., Israel, and the UK are doing now may well in
the end result in the "mega-crisis" predicted in the important recent
article by David Hirst which MER featured earlier this week.
US seeks parallel Palestinian government, says former MI6 officer
London, June 1, IRNA
The US is effectively seeking to undermine the Palestinian
government by trying to return Fatah to power to negotiate final status
issues on a partial state, according to former British MI6 intelligence
officer Alastair Crooke.
"The US aims to create a shadow government centred around the
president and his Fatah party as a counterpoint to a financially
starved Hamas-led government which will, US officials hope, prove
ineffective and wither," Crooke said.
To this end, he said, the US is seeking to build a militia of
3,500 men around the office of Mahmoud Abbas, to enlarge his staff and
to channel as much of the expenditure and work of the government as
possible through the presidency.
"They would like to see Fatah return to power, albeit led by
someone like the westernised Salaam Fayad, a former Palestinian finance
minister and World Bank official," the former adviser to the EU said in
an article for Prospect magazine.
Crooke specialized in conflict zones while working 30 years
for MI6 before he was exposed by the Israelis after negotiating
previous ceasefires with the Palestinians.
His latest warning comes amid US attempts with the Zionist
regime to topple the new Hamas-led government by using financial
pressure to effectively starve the Palestinians into submission.
But "almost no one believes that putting Palestinians on a
'diet' will make them more moderate or help to restart a political
process with Israel," the former British agent said.
He said it also seems that "Israelis are not convinced that Abbas, whom they regard as weak, can deliver on any agreement."
"The pressure is designed to give the new government no option but
to accede to three US and EU demands: recognition of Israel,
renunciation of violence, and acceptance of all earlier agreements
dating back to the Oslo accords," Crooke said.
But he added that some very senior US officials are "not
interested so much in Hamas's transformation to non-violence as in the
failure and collapse of the Hamas-led government."
With regard to the EU support for the boycott of funds, Crooke
said that most official "doubt the policy will work," but that they
feel "trapped" into adopting such a position by the "paralysis caused
by European divisions over Iraq."
He suggested that the EU should instead heed the words of former
Mossad chief, Efraim Halevy, who recently criticized the Zionist regime
for insisting that Hamas first recognize Israel as a precondition for
any discussions.
"Halevy argued rather that Israel should recognise Hamas first.
He predicted that in doing so, 'we will be seeing things we
have not seen before' - an apparent allusion to talks between Israel
and Hamas," Crooke said.