It’s hard to remember the last time we had a Secretary of State as incompetent and ineffective as Condoleezza Rice. I’m sure there are several candidates who would give her a run for her money, but even they might be aghast at her latest ridiculous assertion that a peace settlement can still be achieved between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of this year:
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has said today she still believes a Middle East peace settlement and the creation of a Palestinian state to be possible by the end of the year, despite the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, warning yesterday that more fighting in Gaza was imminent.
Rice made her comments in Cairo on a stopover before heading to Israel this afternoon. Peace talks are in disarray after an Israeli military offensive killed more than 100 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Maybe it’s simply more Bushspeak. You know, like Newspeak, but more insane. Israeli forces kill Palestinians in Gaza, which then leads to rocket attacks by Hamas, which then leads to killing more Palestinians, ad infinitum. That doesn’t exactly sound like the ideal situation in which to be pitching an American peace plan which relies on – well what exactly it relies upon is not clear. Olmert agreeing to stop his military assaults on Gaza? Hamas deciding to end its retaliation for the “collective punishment” meted out by the Israelis? I don’t think so:
(cont)
More conflict appears inevitable. “We are in the midst of a combat action,” Olmert was quoted as telling a parliamentary committee. “What happened in recent days was not a one-time event … The objective is reducing the rocket fire and weakening Hamas.”
Hamas is just as defiant. The group won Palestinian elections two years ago and went on to seize full control of Gaza last summer after a near civil war with the rival Fatah faction, led by Abbas, which now controls the West Bank. “Invading one inch of the Gaza Strip means the battle and confrontation will continue and will expand even further than it has reached,” said Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior Hamas figure in Gaza. Palestinian rockets have killed 13 people in Israel since mid-2004, the most recent a civilian in Sderot last Wednesday.
Then again, perhaps Rice’s optimism can be explained by this story reported in Al Jazeera, the details upon which Secretary Rice and the State department have refused all but the most oblique comments:
Documents that appear to show that the US attempted to overthrow the Hamas-dominated Palestinian government have surfaced.
One of the documents from March 2007 details a plan to oust Hamas by force and install rival Fatah in power, by supporting fighters from the group with weapons and money.
. . . [Rice] justified the arming of Fatah, saying the situation called for it.
“It is very clear that Hamas is being armed. And it is very clear that they are being armed in part by the Iranians.
“So if the answer is that if Hamas gets armed by the Iranians and nobody helps to improve the security capabilities of the legitimate Palestinian Authority security forces, that’s not a very good situation,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
The problem here is that Hamas won the last election among the Palestinians, the one Bush was so quick to push for when he thought the faction he favored, the corrupt Fatah Movement led by Mahmoud Abbas would win, and so quick to disavow once Hamas was declared the victor. So its difficult to see how one can call Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority forces, the legitimate party. But since Hamas is presumably more radical than Fatah, Bush and Rice and Cheney (egged on I imagine by that little evil neocon troll, Elliot Abrams) likely devised a scheme to arm Fatah in the hopes of destroying Hamas’ authority and power. When that didn’t work they apparently gave Israel’s government carte blanche to do whatever it took to weaken and eradicate Hamas as a force among the Palestinians, even if that meant a blockade of Gaza which limited vital food, energy and medical supplies to Gazan residents. In effect Israel’s blockade, and the resulting violence, is a “collective punishment” of the Palestinian people for having voted Hamas into power, rather than the supposedly more compliant Fatah, whom the Bush administration in its infinite inanity believed would accept a settlement that gives Israel everything and the Palestinians nothing.
So maybe Rice’s faith in a negotiated settlement is dependent upon the elimination of Hamas and the re-installation of Fatah as an America and Israeli puppet government. Fatah is well known for its corruption, so I imagine Bush and Rice believe its leaders can be bought off and turned into the equivalent of Vichy France, a puppet regime who collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France in WWII. Based on the evidence uncovered by Vanity Fair and cited in Al Jazeera’s report, it certainly seems that way:
It appears that the US sought to bolster Mohammed Dahlan, the head of Fatah’s security forces.
Yet, this too failed as inter-faction fighting broke out in the Gaza Strip and Hamas took control.
Evidence suggests that Hamas was forced to act in order to pre-empt the US plot.
Fatah security forces were trained in Jordan and Egypt, from where they are sent to work in the Gaza Strip.
Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Ramallah, said that many Palestinians would be upset that Fatah appeared to have played into the hands of an American foreign policy that wanted to make an example out of Hamas, whom the US labels a “terrorist” organisation.
No doubt, Rice, Abrams, Cheney and Bush consider this a brilliant strategic move. Diplomacy by assassination, state sponsored murder and ethnic cleansing. Certainly there can be a “peace settlement” if Hamas is eradicated as a viable political and military force, and a grateful Fatah accepts American bribes to give Israel all that it wants in terms of increased Israeli encroachment upon Palestinian territory. It could happen. It wouldn’t bring peace for anyone, however.
Well, except for the peace of the grave granted all those who have died or will die as a result of the Bush administration’s heinous and deceitful policy of war against Hamas by proxies. I suppose in those terms Rice could be right.
