Opinion Page
Bias in the media? How about this drivel from an Arab-sounding name in the Atlanta leftist free weekly rag:
Don't Panic!
Your war questions answered
BY ANDISHEH NOURAEEWhy hasn't President Bush's "road map" to Middle East peace worked so far?
The so-called "road map" to Middle East peace has failed.
The "road map" calls for a comprehensive Israeli-Arab peace treaty and an independent Palestine by the end of 2005. Considering the progress so far, in 2005 your odds of seeing the headline "ISRAEL, ARABS SIGN COMPREHENSIVE PEACE TREATY" are about as good as your odds of seeing "PRESIDENT SHARPTON ADDRESSES CONGRESS."
Road maps, real and metaphorical, can't work if you won't use them. Israeli, Palestinian and American leaders have for all in tents and porpoises, ignored the map.
The Israeli government of Ariel Sharon refused, as the "road map" called on it to do, to dismantle Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank or Gaza Strip erected since March 2001.
"Uhhh-huh-huh. He said erected."
The road map also required that Israeli forces pull out of the territories it has occupied since September 2000. Now, go ahead and guess if Israel pulled out. Are you done guessing yet? The answer is no, they didn't pull out. Sharon won't stop pandering to Israeli religious fanatics who think that all of the West Bank is theirs.
The "road map" didn't actually say anything about Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders. It shouldn't have needed to; after all, it's a clear violation of international law. Even if law, international or otherwise, didn't exist, Israel still had a clear motive to stop assassinations. Refraining from doing so was the only way the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) could get Muslim radical groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to quit bombing Israeli civilians for a while.
So do you think Sharon quit ordering assassinations? Done guessing yet? The answer is no. Israel whacked some Palestinian militants, killed and wounded Palestinians in the process, and next thing you know the cease-fire is over and Palestinians are blowing up Israeli buses again.
Israelis say that Palestinian leaders haven't taken sufficient measures to clamp down on terrorists. They're right. Palestinians are politically divided. The leader who we like, Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, doesn't have the support of enough Palestinians to crack a walnut, much less crack down on terrorism. A Palestinian Authority crackdown on Hamas and others militants would likely provoke a civil war, or even worse, an uncivil one. Abbas is seen, even by Palestinian moderates, as nothing more than an Israeli and American stooge. A recent poll, and no this isn't a joke or a typo, showed that just 1.8 percent of Palestinians support Abbas. One point eight! For fuck's sake, Klansmen get more black and Jewish support in this country than Abbas has among Palestinians.
In reality, Palestinians don't have the means to crack down on their militants completely. Even if they did their best, which they didn't, some religious nut is gonna try to derail peace plans by provoking Israel with a suicide bomb. If force could completely stop Palestinian terrorists, Sharon and the well-equipped and well-trained Israeli military would have done so by now.
The most surprising contribution to the failure of the "road map" is President Bush's. He made a big whoop-dee-freakin' doo about it when he announced it. Since then though, he's ignored it. He never pressured Sharon into truly accepting the "road map." Sharon feigned acceptance, but in fact, the list of 14 "reservations" that he added as conditions to acceptance defeated the map's very purpose. The U.S. just approved another bunch o' billions in loan guarantees to Israel without making any effort to use the loans as leverage to get Israel pay heed to the map.
Critics of American follow-through with the "road map" have noted that the American team sent to Israel to monitor compliance on both sides has never once issued a public statement about the progress of "road map" implementation. After all, why would a team of Bush-appointed hacks issue public statements that would only serve to emphasize how little the White House is doing to push the "road map"?
So, let's look at the "facts" that this knucklehead is sharing with his readers:
He talks about the Israelis failing to dismantle settlements within the West Bank and Gaza. Yes, they haven't dismantled all of the settlements. They have started to, though. What points have the Palestinians even started to honor? The answer is simple - nothing. They haven't stopped terrorist attacks on innocent children and women. They have continued to target civilians, children, pregnant women, and teenagers. They have pledged more terrorist attacks.
He talks about Israel failing to leave the areas that they've "occupied" since 2000. I'll give you a hint - it's THEIRS. They own it. How did they get it? The previous owners decided to wage a war, and they lost that territory in the battles. It's not occupied by the Israelis, it's OWNED by them. He refers to "fanatical" religious Israelis believing that it is theirs, since that makes it sound more heinous. But the simple fact remains - the land IS theirs, so believing it doesn't make them fanatical, it makes them realists. It's a shame the author of this attempt of an article calls them names, instead of recognizing their right to exist in their own country.
He also claims Israelis are "assassinating" Palestinian political leaders, which is a violation of "international law". I wonder which law that is? I notice he's never once mentioned that Hussein tried to kill OUR President. However, I don't think there's a documented case of any Israeli killing an elected official in the duty of his government. The targetted killing of known terrorists belonging to known (and recognized) terrorist organizations is something that many countries throughout the world do routinely to make the world a better place. If the Israelis wanted to kill Arafat (a known terrorist) or Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen, the financier of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of the Israeli athletes), I think they'd have done it by now.
While this misguided article does admit that the Palestinians haven't stopped terrorists within their own groups, he's completely missed the point. Arafat (their "leader") as kept Abbas from control of the policing necessary to stop the terrorists from their mission. Arafat has NEVER said in Arabic that terrorism must end. The reason is simple. He doesn't want it to end. He funds the Fatah party (with U.N. funds). The Fatah party funds the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades. Hamas is also getting funding from them, now that their previous benefactor, Hussein, is in hiding.
I love the way he uses scare quotes around the term "road map." The simple fact is that the Israelis have made MANY concessions, and the Palestinians have made none. Not one. The reason we give money to help support Israel is that it is the ONLY democratic republic in the Middle East, and they are our only allies in the area. We give money to Egypt too, and Egypt foments anti-American hatred, and digs tunnels into Gaza to smuggle guns and bomb-making material to terrorists. Israel is joining our "Coalition of the Willing" and doing something about terrorism. We should give them MORE support to help rid the world of terrorists. The Palestinians were in the streets celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Centers, let's not forget. They are NOT the friends of the American people. The Israelis mourned with us. Let us not forget or abandon our friends in the world community. Israel has done more for us than France and Germany combined.
I guess Mr. Nouraee has taken a side, and sided with the terrorists.
Also, why is Mr. Nouraee allowed to make a joke out of Al Sharpton running for President without fear of reprisal? Because he's a leftist, and they only attack conservatives and Libertarians for their views. That's what I mean when I talk about bias.
Now, for every reader of this blog, I ask you to consider this: an interview with a senior Al Qaeda member (now in U.S. custody) revealed something about the 9/11 attacks. When asked why they went with the attack, our people were stunned to find out that our own failure to respond and take out Al Qaeda after the previous attacks caused them to scale up their attack. They were amazed that Clinton did nothing to root them out after the first WTC bombing, 2 embassy attacks, the Cole bombing, and several other operations. That Clinton failed to act against them didn't surprise us, but it amazed them. They realized that they could do anything to us without fear of reprisal. Thanks Mr. Clinton, for making us appear weak. You invited the attack by your inaction. Now that we have a strong President, there have been no more attacks on our soil. Al Qaeda doesn't have the network it once had. And it never will again, provided we don't let another person into the highest office who would sell out his country for currency to line his pockets and political coffers. Now that Clinton is out, we've dodged a few bullets. If his wife gets her way, once again the attacks will return. It's a simple formula. If you elect Clinton (she WILL run for President, mark my words), Dean, Kerry, Gephardt, or Lieberman (no one else has a shot at this point), there WILL be more terrorist activity in this country. So, decide what's more important to you. Your life, or some empty campaign promises.
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