Democratic Palestine : 40 (ص 16)
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- Democratic Palestine : 40 (ص 16)
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and Israeli officials. This objective is
closely tied to the first, namely to
abort the intifada politically after the
Israeli failure to quell it by military
means. Thus, the PLO would be mar-
ginalized and the Palestinian people’s
unity and national identity dissipated.
Concerning the US insistence that
the PLO adopt a _= «pragmatic»
approach in order to be acceptable to
Israel as a negotiating partner, this is
actually a call for the PLO to commit
political suicide. It is part of the
blackmail designed to pressure the
PLO into making more and more con-
cessions, notably to stop its military
struggle from across the borders
against the Zionist occupation. Such
legitimate Palestinian resistance is con-
sidered «terrorism» by the US. Mean-
while, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have
been killed by the Israeli occupation
forces during the intifada, and many
thousands more injured, but the US
administration has not seriously tried
to pressure Israel to cease its constant,
systematic violence and violation of
Palestinian human rights.
In the end, the US administration
suspended the dialogue on the pretext
that the PLO continues to engage in
«terrorism,» but the real question is
the US’s double standard when it
comes to the legitimate rights of a
people to resist occupation. In fact,
what the US opposes is not terrorism,
but progressive nationalist movements
whose aims are genuine independence
and utilizing the resources of their
country to the benefit of their own
people, rather than to the benefit of
private American capital. This maxim
is also one of the bases of US-Israeli
strategic cooperation.
The US-Israeli relationship
Upon the formation of the «Grea-
ter Israel» government, the US did
express its displeasure at some of this
government’s policy. This occurred
after the failure of the Baker plan,
which was adamantly rejected by the
new government even though it aimed
to bolster Shamir’s own plan and coin-
cided with basic US-Israeli policy.
However, US displeasure lasted
only a few days, after which the Bush
Administration rewarded Israel for its
aggression and repression of the Pales-
tinian people with suspension of the
dialogue. Instead of taking a balanced
position, the US has blatantly con-
firmed just how biased and unjust its
policy in the Middle East is. Once
again, it elected to punish the oppres-
sed and reward the oppressor who con-
tinues to block peace with impunity.
Though US officials often claim to be
impartial and desirous of a just peace,
16
the fact is that the US has seven times
vetoed resolutions in the Security
Council condemning Israeli brutality in
the occupied territories. In reality, it is
the special US-Israeli relationship
which determines these policies,
expressing the organic relationship bet-
ween US imperialism and Zionist col-
onialism.
The US needs Israel for protecting
its interests in the area, primarily its
oil interest, as most recently exhibited
by the identity of the two states’ pos-
itions on the current Gulf crisis and
their coordination aimed against Iraq.
It is this function of Israel that has
earned it the status of strategic asset
for US imperialism. Israel, for its part,
needs US political, financial and milit-
ary support to maintain its occupation
and pursue its aggressive, expansionist
policy.
Regarding the suspension of the
US-PLO dialogue, Israel stood virtu-
ally alone among the states of the
world in welcoming the US decision,
and urged the US to terminate these
talks permanently. Israeli Defense
Minister Moshe Arens_ expressed
Israel’s elation when he said: «We seé
that actually the values and the princi-
ples that guide our policy are identical
with the values and principles guiding
the American policy: you don’t
negotiate with terrorists» (Associated
Press, June 22nd).
The pro-Israeli line of the US gov-
ernment is further bolstered by the
Zionist lobby’s persistent efforts to
shape a positive attitude towards Israel
in the US. This lobby, most notably
the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), exerts crucial
$a pai =
The US refused to discuss the demands of the masses of tl
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