Same ilk seeds madness, sustains conflict: U.S./Indyk in Middle East

Palestinians distrust
United States

Changing guard changes nothing in Middle East, particularly Palestine

Excerpt, editing, re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett

Martin Indyk was the first United States ambassador to be stripped of a security clearance. He was under investigation for improperly handling sensitive material. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in October 2000 restored Indyk’s security clearance.

John Kerry
Martin Indyk

Born into a Jewish family in London, England, and raised in Australia, Martin Indyk in later years moved to the United States and in 1993 took U.S. citizenship. In the United States he has held positions as vice president and director for foreign policy at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution; and, in the William Jefferson Clinton Administration, Ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs. In the Obama government, he has been handed the position of Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, a post that Philip Giraldi and others find problematic.  

  

Giraldi  is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist, now executive director of the Council for the National Interest. In a recent article he expresses possibly feigned “surprise” that the Obama administration placed Martin Indyk in the latest planned negotiations ─ except if they're not serious ─ to help Israelis and Palestinians resolve their conflict in the Middle East. This is some of what Giraldi had to say about the Martin Indyk ilk and the corrupt and discredited state U.S. foreign policy: his article “Throw the Bums Out.”

Incestuous nepotistic inbreeds

“Martin Indyk is a symptom of the cancer that rots the [U.S.] political system,” Philip Giraldi writes, “and makes many Americans despair of our ever emerging from the darkness of the past twelve years.”

K

ey players in United States policy “tend to move around a lot: alternating between government posts and think tanks or universities with brief forays into the private sector where they make money exploiting the relationships they developed while in office.”

The appearance of Indyk (alongside the “new” man at State though an entrenched figure) is “an unpleasant reminder that even if everything changes in Washington ─ nothing changes when it comes to the Middle East.”

Though Indyk has again “been given great power to do still more damage in a part of the world where the United States has legitimate strategic concerns” ─ this man’s “willingness to do what is right for the United States and its people has to be considered questionable” … as “Indyk is a passionate Zionist completely Israel-focused.” Serious talks to aid resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “would be unimaginable,” he said, “with an interlocutor who has spent his entire life working on behalf of Israel.”

Giraldi concludes that, “in Indyk’s world view,” now re-ensconced in White House policy making, “there is nothing about the U.S. interest except as it coincides with that of Israel.”

 

P

ress TV has also reported on attentive observers’ view of Indyk as a problematic U.S. “mediator” because of his “very strong connections with the Zionist lobby inside and outside of the United States.” His involvement throws U.S. credibility into question.  

Political analyst Jim W. Dean also questions U.S. participation in helping (or pretending to help) resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or aid a “peace” process. The United States, he said, “should not have anything to do with the talks” scheduled this week because of the U.S. culpability in “actually emboldening Israel.”

‘…We need to launch a really big campaign publicizing the duplicity of Israel in all of the past negotiations and how ineffective America has been … as a mediator.’”

The protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Dean says, is a “‘horrendous situation’” from which the United States should absent itself and instead support a clearly “‘independent mediator.’”

 Discredited: Palestinians distrust United States

Results of a May 21-June 4 Gallup Poll released on July 26, 2013, found

66 percent no confidence in U.S. President Barack Obama’s helping “the process of Israel-Palestine talks” 

A great majority of Palestinians have no confidence in the role played by the United States in the Israel-Palestine talks.

Findings from face-to-face interviews with 1000 Palestinian and Israeli adults revealed:

74 percent of participants disagreed with the acceptability of solutions proposed by President Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry.

R

enowned Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi is quoted this week saying Israel, against the international efforts, “‘is not stopping its consecutive strikes.’” And those “‘strikes’” [not unlike the continually expanding illegal settlements, which the U.S. has given only tepid comments, compared with its comments against governments of Syria, Iran, Libya, Korea and others] “‘are aiming at blocking the negotiations..’”

Disqualified as peace broker

A member of the executive committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Ashrawi was careful in her words when she said ─

Hon. Hanan Ashrawi 

‘Israel is trying to empty the process of the U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations before it is really launched’

“‘I don’t believe,’” she said, “‘that the Palestinians are in need of meaningless negotiations with Israel.’”

Early this year veteran Arab journalist Nicola Nasser quoted Hanan Ashrawi lamenting Palestinians’ experience of Washington’s empty words and actual practice. “Our experience has been really tragic with this American administration,” she said, an administration that “started with such high hopes and tremendous promises [but] they backed down so quickly it was incredible.”

Ashrawi stated the obvious conclusion: “The U.S. has disqualified itself as a peace broker.”

Sources and notes

“Throw the Bums Out” written by Philip Giraldi, August 8, 2013, Martin Sean Indyk (born July 1, 1951), http://www.councilforthenationalinterest.org/news/opinion-a-analysis/item/3099-throw-the-bums-out

Philip Giraldi is the executive director of the Council for the National Interest and a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer with several years work overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. His opinions on terrorism, intelligence, and security issues appear regularly in various U.S. news sources and at antiwar.com Giraldi is multi-lingual and holds academic credentials from degrees London and Chicago universities.

“Kerry names ex-ambassador as U.S. envoy to Israel-Palestinian talks─ US Secretary of State John Kerry has named Washington’s former ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, as the lead negotiator for Israeli-Palestinian talks,” July 29, 2013, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/29/316224/exenvoy-named-us-envoy-in-me-talks/

“The Palestinian delegation is led by chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat; Tzipi Livni will represent the Israeli side. Major topics on the agenda include the future of Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank, the status of al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

The previous Palestinian-Israeli talks were halted in September 2010 after Tel Aviv refused to freeze its settlement activities in the West Bank. Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip; and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian territories occupied in the Six-Day War of 1967.  Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.

“U.S., Israel agenda behind talks with Palestinians must be exposed: Analyst,” August 13, 2013, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/13/318520/us-israel-agenda-must-be-exposed/

Jim W. Dean is managing editor and columnist for Veterans Today, a military and foreign affairs journal. Dean’s current writing focuses on national security, intelligence, black and ‘psy ops’, and military/Intel history including personal video archives and the current wars.

“Palestinians distrust U.S. in Palestine–Israel talks: Gallup poll,” August 7, 2013,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/07/317613/most-palestinians-distrust-us-poll/

“Palestinian officials slam Israel's decision to build 1,200 settlement units” (English.news.cn), August 12, 2013, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-08/12/c_125150594.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Indyk

“Palestinians Disqualify U.S. as Peace Broker  ─ The ‘unbreakable alliance,’ which will be confirmed by the upcoming visit of President Barack Obama to Israel, will disqualify the United States as an honest broker of peace in the Arab – Israeli conflict in Palestine, says a Palestinian veteran peace negotiator” by Nicola Nasser, Global Research, February 22, 2013, http://globalresearch.ca/palestinians-disqualify-u-s-as-peace-broker/5323873

Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir Zeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

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Old Soldiers, old wounds, endless-war dead

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

PERSISTENT FOREIGN PRESENCE IN
AFGHANISTAN
Anti-war activists in a congressional hearing hall wave signs saying ‘No More War,’ ‘New General, Old Graveyard.’

U.S. and NATO casualties are soaring and undercutting U.S. and Europe’s public support for eight years of an overt war against Afghanistan. U.S. allies Canada, the Netherlands and Poland have announced plans to withdraw combat forces.

Entrenched General David Petraeus takes over U.S. forces in Afghanistan and in congressional hearings [echoing U.S.-led Iraq invasion-occupation-speak] engages in doublespeak. “Any drawdown would be based on security conditions on the ground, gradual and limited to the 30,000 ‘surge’ troops… It is going to be a number of years before Afghan forces can truly handle the security tasks in Afghanistan on their own.” By the way, the U.S. House of Representatives is headed toward a vote “within 72 hours on [another] $33 billion emergency war funding” bill.

June 30 update Afghanistan
A suicide bomber detonated an explosive in a vehicle at the gate of a NATO base occupying Afghanistan. Other fighters armed with AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades stormed the airport.

The Taliban said the attack was a message to the head of U.S. Central Command, David Petraeus, put forward by the U.S. president to takeover leadership of NATO and U.S. operations in Afghanistan that they can strike at will. The Taliban attack was in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

“Violence in Afghanistan is reported to be “at an all time high,” this month being “the deadliest month for international forces ... since the war began nine years ago.” [“Taliban attacks NATO base,” June 30, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/06/201063053238108506.html]

JULY 1 UPDATE AFPAK
Eighteen people (est.) died today and more than 70 suffered wounds when suicide bombs exploded in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. Doctors said Lahore’s main hospital has declared a state of emergency and they expect the death toll to rise. Lahore has experienced a string of attacks against minority communities in recent months. In May of this year, more than 80 people died when twin attacks hit mosques of the Ahmadi minority sect.

IRAQ
Twelve people died and 18 suffered wounds Tuesday when bombs went off in the town of Baiji in northern Iraq and in the capital city, Baghdad. Recent attacks have targeted Iraq’s economic institutions.

SAUDI ON
PALESTINE
Saudi Arabia’s 86-year-old King Abdullah is scheduled to meet today with the U.S. president at the White House. The discussion is expected to cover Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, the nuclear standoff with Iran, the U.S. policy in Afghanistan, mutual national security efforts, and economic co-operation. Next week President Obama is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.… “The Saudis have linked achieving a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal to alleviating other regional tensions, including the perceived threat from Iran.”

IRAN, TURKEY, ISRAEL
Despite concerns and objections of UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, “Israeli municipal authorities moved ahead with plans to demolish 20 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem” and establish more Israeli settlements in the area. The secretary general said again that the planned moves were “contrary to international law and against the wishes of Palestinian residents.”

“Israeli commandos shot at activists on the Mavi Marmara [part of the six-ship ‘Freedom Flotilla’] from their helicopters.” The Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER) stated during a press conference on Monday referencing autopsy reports.

Stepping back into international negotiations despite the new wave of sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear work, Iran said today it will soon resume nuclear talks with Turkey and Brazil but under certain conditions and not before the end of August.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has postponed talks between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany over his country’s nuclear program. The Iranian president has called for new negotiating partners, saying that more countries should be involved.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a television interview on Monday, “Israel has atomic bombs and it refuses to comply [with] the NPT [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty] but no one is imposing sanctions on it. How do you explain that? [A fair world would] scrutinize Israel as much as one does North Korea.”

Israel [estimated to retain an arsenal of 100-200 nuclear warheads, often threatening attack on the Islamic republic] recently has refused U.S. and international calls to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to open its facilities for IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] perusal. Iran has vowed to meet certain conditions of the nuclear swap deal crafted by Turkey and Brazil, Erdogan said, and in signing the Tehran agreement Iran promised “to enrich uranium only for peaceful purposes … If Tehran fails to comply with the ten articles of the agreement, we will impose sanctions ourselves.” As it stands, Erdogan concluded, “Iran was being punished over a mere possibility that it could make nuclear weapons in the future.”

HOW MANY (estimated) two-theater U.S.-led WAR DEAD?
Casualty sites reporting

June 29, 2010 (accurate totals unknown)

• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 181]

Wounded 31,865-100,000;

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000;

Suicides 18 a day

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

• Iraq Body Count figures:

96,813 – 105,563,

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,408 U.S., 4,726 Coalition;

AFGHANISTAN: 1,144 U.S., 1,889 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Sources
“Top U.S. general plays down Afghan expectations,” June 30, 2010,
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100630/twl-oukwd-uk-afghanistan-usa-d4a870c.html
“Twelve die in Iraq unrest, suicide bombing ,” June 30, 2010, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100629/twl-iraq-unrest-575b600.html
“Saudis urge U.S. on Middle East peace,” June 29, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/06/201062951518293452.html
“UN blasts razing of Jerusalem homes,” June 24, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/201062411715429597.html
“Turkish autopsy: Israeli soldiers shot activists from choppers,” World Bulletin June 29, 2010, http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=60670
“Iran postpones nuclear talks,” June 28, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/2010628124311454616.html
“Turkey slams ‘blindness’ on Israel atomic bombs (charges international concerted action with ‘blindness’ on Israel’s nuclear arsenal over Iran’s nuclear program),” World Bulletin June 29, 2010, http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=60654
“Iran to resume nuclear talks with Turkey, Brazil before powers,” World Bulletin June 29, 2010, http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=60669

History meets current conditions ─ conflict comments

A Second 2nd Intifada? From Professor Mark LeVine
Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Her “gift”

To the Israeli government and its supporters her words were “an unexpected but welcome gift,” Mark LeVine writes in an opinion piece posted at Al Jazeera-English. For a while, media obsessed on her comments, downplayed or ignored reports of “30-plus shots fired into the bodies of activists on the high seas, and bent over backwards to demonstrate their commitment to Israel’s narrative [‘the world is against Jews’].” Instead of demanding better access to Gaza, media [had] “to refute the liberal anti-Israel bias of the media.”

Her “warning”…

“Her words were also an admonishment,” LeVine wrote. For as long as the American establishment and crucial political and economic constituencies perceive Israel as a strategic and political asset, Israel will continue its occupation, continue defying world opinion. “Israeli leaders are betting that their best chance of continuing the status quo indefinitely is for the United States to remain embroiled in so many conflicts abroad that no administration has the energy or political capital seriously to challenge Israel’s actions even when the actions contradict the assessment of generals and policy-makers about the best interests of the United States.”

… Of a breaking point

“With double-dip recession, weak job numbers, increasing casualties in distant battlefields, more oil and coal mining disasters, another this time successful attack by ‘terrorists’ … Americans are going to start looking for people to blame....”

However intemperate or prejudiced her words may have seemed, they warned also of letting Israel continue “the business of destroying itself while [Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran] look on, waiting to pounce ─ just as Israel did to Palestinian society during the worst years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, when the pressure led to widespread chaos and infighting among Palestinians.

“The question is: will Israel play according to their script. Continue to defy world public opinion, slowly alienating the population of its only (until now) unequivocal benefactor? Or will Israel’s leaders and so-called friends change course before it is too late?”

Sources and notes
Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC-Irvine, senior visiting researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (Lund University, Sweden) and author of Heavy Metal Islam and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989. His opinion: “The cautionary tale of Helen Thomas,” June 9, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/06/201068132838677696.html

Al-Aqsa Intifada

A Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Al-Aqsa Intifada, or the Second Intifada, began after Ariel Sharon, a leader of Israel’s right-wing Likud Party, visited al-Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in Jerusalem on September 28, 2000. AlHaram, which contains al-Aqsa Mosque, is the third holiest shrine of Islam. The visit itself was provocative, especially because 1,000 riot police accompanied Sharon.

But what triggered the Intifada the following day was the Israeli police’s use of live ammunition and rubber bullets that killed 6 and injured 220 rock-throwing (but otherwise unarmed) Palestinian demonstrators.

The fundamental cause of the Intifada (‘shaking off’) was the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David in July 2000 that were supposed to end the occupation had broken down. Palestinians had expected that the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) recognition of Israel would lead to an end of the thirty-three-year Israeli occupation and to the establishment of a Palestine state. However, in the 1990s the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza had doubled to 200,000, for which Israel confiscated more Palestinian land for the settlements and their access roads. Israel extended its policy of closures, which restricted movements, and its network of checkpoints, where Palestinians were often humiliated. Israel also continued to demolish homes and to uproot and burn olive and fruit trees for security reasons and as a form of collective punishment for acts of terrorism. In short, Israeli repression and Palestinians’ unmet expectations of freedom and independence had contributed to years of pent-up Palestinian frustration, despair, and rage.

As in the first Intifada (1987 - 1991), in October 2000 Palestinians began by using nonviolent methods. But after 144 Palestinians had been killed, Islamist groups such as HAMAS and Islamic Jihad began a campaign of suicide bombings against mostly civilians in occupied territories and Israel. Groups associated with al-Fatah such as al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade focused on resisting Israeli army incursions and attacking settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. Starting in January 2002, al-Aqsa Brigade also began conducting suicide bombings against mostly Israeli civilians, a practice condemned by the international community. Although Yasir Arafat (head of al-Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization and president of the Palestinian Authority since 1996), did not initiate the Intifada, he reportedly gave tacit approval to armed resistance and terrorism despite his promise made in the Oslo Accord in 1993 to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to renounce ‘the use of terrorism and other acts of violence.’

Palestinian violence contributed to the downfall of Israel’s Labor Prime Minister Ehud Barak and to the rising popularity of Ariel Sharon, who became prime minister on February 6, 2001.

Sharon ─ a proponent of Greater Israel, an architect of the settlements, and an opponent of the Oslo process ─ proceeded with broad public support to use harsh measures against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. In response to Palestinian violence, he initiated a policy of assassinations ─ euphemistically called ‘targeted killings’ ─ of suspected terrorist leaders, that sometimes included activists and innocent bystanders. He reoccupied major Palestinian cities, using helicopter gunships, warplanes, and tanks. Some of Sharon’s methods were considered to be war crimes by human rights groups, and were condemned by the United States.

The Intifada was costly to the Palestinians, to Israel, and to the United States.

Some Palestinian analysts considered the militarization of the Intifada to be a blunder. The Oslo process was destroyed, Arafat sidelined, the Palestinian economy damaged, and PA (Palestinian Authority) areas occupied, as Israeli settlement construction and a separation barrier (called wall by Palestinians, fence by Israelis) continued apace.

By early 2004, Sharon’s harsh measures had led to the deaths of about 3,000 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians, including about 500 children.

In addition, the Palestinians lost much popular, moral, and diplomatic support around the world.

The Intifada also cost the lives of about 900 Israelis, most of them civilians, and brought insecurity to the everyday lives of Israelis, who lost faith in the Palestinians as peace partners. It also contributed to Israel’s worst economic recession, for which the government sought a large loan from the United States.

President George W. Bush’s neglect of the peace process and support for the hard-line policies of Sharon resulted in anger at the United States in much of the Muslim and Arab world, which has helped anti-American Muslim extremist groups to recruit members.

The Intifada also had unintended positive consequences. Pressure from Sharon and Bush prompted reform of the Palestinian Authority, which most Palestinians had sought for years because they viewed the PA as corrupt, inept, and autocratic. A new office of prime minister was created to assume many of the duties and much of the authority of the PA president. One diplomatic by-product of the Intifada was the Arab League’s approval in March 2002 of a Saudi plan calling for Arab recognition and normalization of relations with Israel ─ provided that United Nations Resolution 242 is implemented and an independent state of Palestine is created.

Another was the U. S. initiation of another peace effort, the Road Map, in 2003. The Intifada also increased support within Israel for the dismantling of most of the settlements and withdrawal from Gaza. Despite the violence, destruction, and insecurity, and despite the failed leadership of Arafat, Sharon, and Bush, most Israelis and Palestinians continued to support the concept of a two-state solution as the only viable solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

http://www.answers.com/topic/al-aqsa-intifada